Bill Etra is a live video pioneer and the co-inventor (with Steve Rutt

Steve Rutt

Steven Alexander Rutt was a American engineer who in 1972, along with Bill Etra co-created an early video animation synthesizer, the Rutt/Etra synthesizer...

) of the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer

Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer

The Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer is an analog raster manipulation device for image processing and real-time animation. The Rutt/Etra was co-invented by Steve Rutt and Bill Etra.-External links:*...

. Bill is a founding member of The Kitchen

The Kitchen

The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary art and performance space located at at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...

. He is currently developing (with Anton Marini) a video synthesizer plug-in that emulates the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer

Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer

The Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer is an analog raster manipulation device for image processing and real-time animation. The Rutt/Etra was co-invented by Steve Rutt and Bill Etra.-External links:*...

.

Mr. Etra holds several patents, including developments for 3D television

3D television

A 3D television is a television set that employs techniques of 3D presentation, such as stereoscopic capture, multi-view capture, or 2D-plus-depth, and a 3D display – a special viewing device to project a television program into a realistic three-dimensional field.- History :In the late-1890's,...

 and text-based (versus time-code based) editing of video.

His video art work is in the permanent collections of the Museums of Modern Art in Mexico City

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo or MAC is a modern art museum in Valdivia run by Universidad Austral de Chile. It was founded in 1994 by the then rector of Universidad Austral Manfred Max-Neef and the artist Hernán Miranda. Artists that have had exhibitions at MAC include: Nicanor Parra and Juan...

, Tokyo and Cologne

Museum Ludwig

Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....

 and the Musée National d'Art Moderne

Musée National d'Art Moderne

The Musée National d'Art Moderne is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. Created in 1947, it was then housed in the Palais de Tokyo and moved to its current location in 1977...

at the Beauborg in Paris.