Mr McNaughton, who had just turned 57, died last week after a long battle with bowel cancer.
He was a key part of the sports graphics technology team at Animated Research Ltd (ARL) in Dunedin.
He won an Emmy in 2012 for his work in designing a ball tracking device for Major League Baseball and was was also named as a Emmy nominee on March 26, the day he died.
ARL founder Sir Ian Taylor said there was some remarkable tributes to Mr McNaughton at his funeral which pointed to how well regarded and talented he was.
Sir Ian had first met Mr McNaughton when he was part of a University of Otago team, which had just won the International Collegiate Programming Contest, known as the Olympic Games for computer programming for university students.
‘‘They beat all the top universities: Harvard, UCLA, Yale, all of them and the first one from outside the Unites States. It really was amazing and showed how it could be done from NZ, from Dunedin. They were the best in the world.’’
Mr McNaughton joined the team and started blazing a trail in his own unique way.
‘‘You would go and see him with a problem and he wouldn’t solve the actual first problem. Instead he would look at something bigger, something which no-one else would have thought about.’’
Sir Ian said he had been thinking a lot about Mr McNaughton in the past few days and all that he had done.
Mr McNaughton had shown a lot of courage over the past five years as he battled cancer.
He had been heavily involved in many of the innovations the company had come up with.
‘‘We used to have great debates over all sorts of different things. He used to just work away quietly in his wee corner office, doing amazing things. He never pushed himself forward, but he delivered some incredible stuff.’’
Sir Ian said it was great he was nominated for the Emmy this year for more work with Major League Baseball. But he was equally proud of putting together a programme for numeracy and literacy for prisoners.
He also branched into commercials, creating the water-skiing penguins for Bluebirds chips.
He had been involved in graphics for sports such as America’s Cup yachting, golf and cricket, and also working with Formula 1.
Mr McNaughton, who went to King’s High School in the 1980s, was a huge diamond in the business, and there had been a lot of remembering and thinking about him in the office this week, Sir Ian said.
Mr McNaughton is survived by partner Cindy and children Harrison and McKenzie.
