Complete Coverage:NAB Show 2013
As expected, Sony spent much of its annual press conference
discussing some major advances in 4K production and workflows as part of its
push to offer a complete ecosystem for 4K content.
But the company also announced a number of significant
broadcast deployments and a number of new cameras, monitors and other more
traditional broadcast equipment.
These included the unveiling of two new shoulder-mount
cameras, the PMW-400 and HDC-2570, new OLED monitors and a new Optical Disk
Archiving (ODA) solution.
As previously reported, the Golf Channel will be first
deployment of the ODA system which represents quite a break from the LTO tapes
many archives currently use.
For the new Optical Disk Archiving solution, Sony announced
a partnership with Dalet's media asset management systems that will closely tie
the widely used MAM system in with its archiving offerings.
Separately, Front Porch Digital, a provider of cloud-based
content storage management systems, announced that it will integrate Sony's new
Optical Disc Archive products into its DIVArchive system as an alternate means
of storage for both DIVArchive and LYNXSM cloud-based disaster recovery and
media asset storage service.
Sony also announced some significant deployments of its
Media Backbone production system at Gray Television, which is ongoing, and The
Weather Channel, which will occur over the next year.
In an interview with B&C,
Alec Shapiro, president of Sony Electronics' Professional Solutions of America
division said, "I think that Sony is uniquely positioned to provide what we
call lens to the living room for 4K. We have highest performing cameras with
the F65, which was used in a number of upcoming films and the newer F5 and F55
cameras, which are becoming quite popular for TV series and commercial
production."
Shapiro noted that over 2,000 units of the F5 and F55 had
been sold since they became available in February of this year.
During the press conference, Sony showed clips of some
upcoming theatrical films that used its F65 4K camera and brought Phil Squyres,
senior VP of technical operations at Sony Pictures Television, up on the stage
to discuss how its 4K cameras were being used in the production of upcoming
network TV and cable programming.
Squyres noted that they were producing two series in 4K,
including the upcoming Showtime drama, Masters
of Sex, and that they had shot or were preparing to shoot three pilots in
4K.
"We haven't had any real issues with production or workflow
and are hoping to shoot more in the future," Squyres said.
Sony Electronics president and COO Phil Molyneux also took the stage to
show off some lower prices for 4K consumer equipment.
He noted that
their new 55-inch 4K TV would be priced at $4,999 and the 65-inch as $6,999,
much less than the $24,999 price tag announced for its 84 inch 4K set last
fall. "The two new sets extend 4K into prices that are more within reach," he
said.
Molyneux also noted that its 4K movie download
service announced at CES would bow later this year but provided no further
details.
