Story from
"ralph conradt" <info
at nuvideo.com>
I hope this gives some relief
to those of you who have suffered for weeks through this ordeal.
BTW, I met Larry in 1973 near
Stuttgardt Germany after he hired this bearded hippie off a piece of video.
I watched him experiment with HP mini computers to control RS232 machines
which led
to the develpment of the first
software driven computer controlled editing
system. He usually one our arguments
cause while I had an advanced degree and felt like I knew it all, Larry
had the experince and the ability to think outside the nine dots.
He had a hard time convincing
me that it was better to shoot all the set-ups at once time, working your
way down the tape
rather than working down the
tape and re-setting every time. He was patient. and
just grinned as I moved cameras
and lights every frame. Yes I was once that dumb. and of course
there was the time that
I had failed to shoot the extra
frame of the VOV edit and I was convinced I could
re-et evrything to match.
He got a good laugh out of that one. I suffered my rudest awakening
when I got my first
performance review.
Imagine my shock when it turned
out he was judging my work. I thought we were just a team and there
was no hierarchy. We laughed over that one many times over
the years. As a result when I became a mangager I made it clear
on the first day where a sub sat in the org chart. We had a great
time travelling around Europe together, often getting ourselves in to situations
that can't be posted here.
Our fun times continued over
the years at least once a year at NAB.
I was proud to have been affilated
with him through all his product launches and am glad that he forgot it
was me that put him in touch with Will Houde who tanked his last great
product that was distributed to Julian Systems, Pinacle and one other
that I can't recall .
As recently as a three years ago he helped me on productions and with my
gear. He may have had trouble
learning new things after his
stroke, but there was no one on the planet that
understood RS 232 interfaces
and the Z80 chip better than larry.
To tell you the truth I still
can't believe he is gone. I keep expecting a joke email.
He is not erased from my
computers directory and probably
never will be.
I will miss you Larry, but I
am sure one day we'll be working on the next big production in the sky.
And perhaps you will have developed a decent putting stroke. And
thanks to your stroke I
was finally able to win at racquetball
and ping pong.
Lastly if there was one phrase
that I would say about my long time friend "he loved a laugh!".
Ralph Conradt
541 312 8398
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