John Wheeler (audio/video technologist)
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John Henry Wheeler, born Bristol, Tennessee 1957 is an Emmy-Award-winning audio/video technologist and developer of the Penteo surround-sound extraction process. He is currently an engineer for NBC News in San Francisco.
In the 1990s, he was the lead technologist for Entertainment Digital Network (EDnet) based at Skywalker Ranch and installed their original real-time multichannel digital audio network linking record company headquarters, motion-picture production facilities, and performers' home studios. He engineered the telecommunications links for Phil Ramone for the Frank Sinatra "Duets" series.
In the 1980s, he was an audio engineer for Turner Production (TBS/CNN) and pioneered many techniques for live multi-location television remotes that are commonly used today. He was the audio flow designer and mix engineer for "The Jason Project" and the original 1986 "Goodwill Games" from Moscow.
John is the great-grandson of "Singing Bob Leonard", traveling music teacher in Southwest Virginia whose students included the Carter Family, which has been acknowledged as a major contributor to the beginnings of country music in Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee in the 1800s. His mother, Margie, committed suicide in 1962, and John was raised by "Singing Bob"'s son Thomas, who first taught him many aspects of music theory as a child.
Outside of his professional life, John was good friends with Richard Bulger at the core of the beginnings of the Bear Community in the early 1990s.
He currently resides in Berkeley, California.
