Stan Honey Football fans will know Stan Honey for his invention of the technology that superimposes a yellow first-down line on the field seen via football game telecasts, giving viewers an instant grasp of their team's progress-or lack thereof This visualization of the lines of skirmish was introduced in 1998 on ESPN. Honey left his company, Sportvision, in 2004 to pursue professional sailing full-time. He is now the director of technology for America's Cup. Honey is recognized as one of the most successful professional navigators in the field; he received the US Sailing Yachtsman of the Year award in 2010. Honey brough t his technological expertise together with his love of sailing to make sail racing similarly accessible to television viewers at h ome. The system he has developed can track racing vessels to within two centimeters and superimposes graphic elements on the race helicopter footage to make it easier to recognize and interpret the relative positions of the competitors. The America's Cup organizers will be using Mr. Honey's technology in order to widen the audience for the competition , making the action easier for newcomers to the sport to follow along and understand. It is for this significant contribution to the sport of yachting, developing and implementing a means to open up the sport to a wider audience and maki ng it more accessible, that Mr. Honey will be recognized with the NMHS Distinguished Service Award. Stan Honey's Liveline technology will make television coverage ofthe America's Cup race easier to follow, particularly for newcomers to the sport, by identifying the competitors and their speeds and other race information, such as race course boundaries.
SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013
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