
Broadcasters’ demands on cameras are increasing, from asking for IP readiness to standards flexibility and better control in multicamera environments. Vendors are answering the call. Pictured: Sony’s CNA-2 camera control network adapter.
Sinclair Broadcast Group is deploying new cloud-based news and content gathering and production workflows by combining technologies from Avid, Sony and Marquis Broadcast. This new approach, Sinclair says, “leverages 5G networks to reduce connectivity costs while enriching the flow of news metadata” to accelerate the speed of its news operations. Ernie Ensign, Sinclair AVP news technology […]

A Sinclair/Sony/Avid experiment aims to optimize news photographers’ field time by immediately logging metadata into cameras in the field, while Starlink and 5G rollouts continue to boost reliability in more remote scenarios. Above, Vislink’s MVP Streamur Live Streaming App in action, allowing reporters to broadcast into the production workflow using a mobile device.
Sony and Vidgo today announced a new deal bringing Vidgo’s premiere streaming service to millions of Sony smart TV viewers across the nation. “56% of U.S. homes own a smart TV and Sony continues to increase its share of TV purchases, despite downturns for the traditional top three brands,” said Paul Erickson, director of research, Parks Associates. […]

For Fox’s 10th Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., this Sunday, the broadcaster will integrate modular “flypacks” built for the FIFA World Cup along with new augmented reality graphics. Above, State Farm Stadium and the Fox pregame set (Christian Petersen/Getty Images).

Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s chief financial officer, will become its president and COO, Sony Corp. said in a statement Thursday. Kenichiro Yoshida remains chairman and chief executive, signaling continuity at the Tokyo-based maker of PlayStation game machines, Bravia TVs and Spider-Man movies. Also Thursday, Sony reported a 6% decline in net profit for the October-December quarter, at 326.8 billion yen ($2.5 billion).
Sony Electronics is launching two scalable series of its Crystal LED premium displays. The BH-series (ZRD-BH12D and ZRD-BH15D) and the CH-series (ZRD-CH12D and ZRD-CH15D) are designed for corporations, retail environments and screening rooms. Both new series will be available in a P1.2mm and P1.5mm pixel pitch and deliver the picture quality and colors “associated with Crystal LED, […]
CBS’s ‘On The Dot’ Makes Climate A Vehicle For Newscast Change

On the Dot with David Schechter, a new reporting brand from the CBS Local News Innovation Lab, aims to shake up the O&O’s local newscasts with longer-form, cinematically shot deep dives on climate change.

Broadcasters kept their focus largely on a NextGen TV narrative headed into this week’s CES in Las Vegas, where around 100,000 attendees are expected. Sinclair is discussing its own flurry of ATSC 3.0 developments, while the demise of pay TV service Evoca was one setback in the NextGen saga.
Japan’s Sony Ups Forecasts As Profits Grow

Tokyo-based Sony’s July-September profit totaled 264 billion yen, or $1.8 billion, up from 213 billion yen in the previous year, mainly on strong demand for its music and movies, prompting the Japanese entertainment and electronics giant to raise its annual sales and profit forecasts.
Starting Friday night, the Philadelphia Phillies will face off against the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball’s World Series on Fox. The network is deploying more than 40 of Sony’s cameras, including: Nine HDC-5500s — 4K Global shutter imager HDR/SDR camera systems will be used in the dugouts, first and third base, the left and right […]
Game Creek Video, a long-standing customer of Sony Electronics, has selected 10 of the company’s shallow depth of field HDC-F5500 system cameras with Super 35mm 4K CMOS global shutter image sensor and high frame rate capabilities, to serve the needs of its entertainment, sports and corporate customers. The F5500s are being used to achieve cinematic capture alongside additional […]

The fully remote production launches tonight with a new mobile fleet of 16 that’s producing the games in 1080p with High Dynamic Range with around 250 people onsite for each TNF game. (Courtesy of Prime Video)

IBC’s first in-person event since 2019 may have fewer days and attendees than at its high-water mark, but vendors are packing their schedules with meetings and say they’re excited to be doing business in person again.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s April-June profit totaled 218 billion yen ($1.6 billion), up from 212 billion yen a year earlier, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Friday.

Video walls are getting “bigger and bigger and cheaper and cheaper,” prompting wider adoption among broadcasters who are discovering a broad raft of storytelling and set design opportunities in their adoption. Above, FX Design Group delivered the set for KHON Honolulu, which includes a 3.9 pixel pitch video wall background that stretches nearly 33 feet long and just over 8 feet high.

Nobuyuki Idei, who led Japan’s Sony from 1998 through 2005, died June 2 of liver failure. He was 84. Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida said he and the company were indebted to Idei’s vision in preparing Sony for the Internet age.
Sony’s Profit Surges On Healthy Film, Game, Music Growth

Sony’s fiscal fourth quarter surged 67% to 111.1 billion yen ($852.7 million) from the previous year, as the Japanese entertainment and electronics company racked up profits in video game and movie divisions, the company said Tuesday.

Attendance may have been almost halved by the pandemic, but tech vendors felt the more intimate environment allowed them to conduct business on a more productive level. On the show floor, the continued shift of broadcast workflows to the public cloud dominated many discussions, while others focused on NextGen TV’s pressing need to monetize.
Nevion, a Sony Group company and provider of virtualized media production solutions, is adding essential broadcast control functionality to its flagship VideoIPath media orchestration platform This integration, Nevion says, will provide a consistent system for both broadcast control and network orchestration, supporting the complete production lifecycle (engineering, set-up, production, tear-down). It will also make it simpler and […]

The broadcasters are writing a new playbook for live coverage of a war where embedding isn’t an option, connectivity can be disrupted at any time and safety is a constant concern. Above: TVU Networks has used three cellular carriers in support of customers covering the conflict in Ukraine: KyivStar, Vodafone and LifeCell.

New research from Sony shows that ATSC 3.0 offers a large variety of innovative usecases using multicast delivery. In addition to high bitrate television broadcasts to stationary televisions, ATSC 3.0 also supports multicast file delivery to the automotive industry since very robust physical layer parameters can be selected and therefore reliable high-speed reception is now possible.

Teed up by riveting playoffs, NBC will rely on the same core technical setup it employs for its regular-season NFL games when it broadcasts Super Bowl 56 on Sunday. “The more you can stick with what got you to where you are, the better off you are,” says Drew Esocoff, the big game’s director. Above, the Infinity Screen by Samsung in SoFi Stadium (Photo: Will Navarro).
‘Spider-Man’ Lifts Profit At Electronics Maker Sony

Tokyo-based Sony Corp. recorded a 346 billion yen ($3 billion) profit for the fiscal third quarter, up from 310.7 billion yen the previous year. Quarterly sales edged up to 3 trillion yen ($26 billion) from 2.7 trillion yen.
Inside Newsday’s Live Production Facility

The Long Island newspaper has remade itself as a multimedia news producer with a two-studio, multimillion-dollar production operation and a team of MMJs ramping up extensive video coverage. (Newsday photo)

Major set manufacturers Samsung, LG and Sony glanced over NextGen TV in their presentations, although Hisense and Tablo unveiled new NextGen-enabled products in this year’s heavily slimmed-down event.

Recent supply chain issues notwithstanding, newsrooms are embracing LED video walls for their dropping prices, ease of use and improved quality over older, LCD options. Above: WRDW Augusta, Ga., included a large video wall in its new facility, designed by FX, that it moved into earlier this year. (Source: WRDW)
Avid has introduced out interoperability of Sony and TVU Networks IP-connected devices with MediaCentral | Stream to dramatically expand the pool of journalists, producers and other production resources who can contribute live streams from anywhere for news and remote live production workflows. MediaCentral | Stream is a rapidly deployed, software-only solution that immediately opens the MediaCentral platform to contributions over IP from sources anywhere using any device. With MediaCentral | Stream, production teams can easily ingest multiple incoming IP streams in on-premises […]
Sony has rolled out its HDC-F5500 system camera, the latest entry in Sony’s HDC camera series, which boasts a highly sensitive Super 35mm, 4K CMOS global shutter image sensor that enables shallow depth of field. Sony says: “Thanks to the global shutter effect to prevent rolling shutter distortion and flash band, and its high frame […]

Sony has announced that it is withdrawing as an exhibitor at the 2021 IBC Show, slated for Dec. 3-6 at the RAI in Amsterdam. In a statement from a representative of Sony Europe, the company cited the ongoing pandemic as well as logistics, adding that it will have representatives at the show.

Theresa Alesso, Pro Division president, Sony Electronics, said “we’ve considered the unprecedented circumstances and made the difficult decision that we will not be participating in person at next month’s NAB Show or InfoComm.”

AT&T moves further away from the video biz with the divestment of the thriving anime-focused niche SVOD service.
A unique underwater camera system designed and built by Telemetrics, a provider of robotic camera control systems, will be deployed by the Associated Press at this year’s major sporting event in Tokyo to capture still images of the swimmers and divers as they hit the water and swim up from the bottom of the pool during […]
Big Pic Media has delivered the latest generation 4K HDR monitoring, display calibration and mastering systems to Evolutions, one of Britain’s largest independent post-production companies. The project forms part of ongoing investment in new resources. It includes four Sony BVM-HX310 4K HDR master monitors, an MTI Film Cortex Enterprise mastering and validation system and a […]
Sony Profit Zooms To Record On Video Games, ‘Demon Slayer’

Tokyo-based Sony’s quarterly sales rose 27% from 1.7 trillion yen to 2.2 trillion yen ($20 billion). Sony had reported a January-March profit of 12.6 billion yen last year.
TAG Video Systems marks another milestone by adding visualization and monitoring support for Sony’s Hawk-Eye, a high-performance camera used in sports applications with atypical output. TAG, a worldwide provider of 100% SW, 100% IP, 100% COTS/cloud, probing, monitoring and multiviewing solutions for all four of the major broadcast applications (live production, playout, delivery and OTT), says it is the […]

New camera angles and innovative AR graphics will mark Tampa’s Super Bowl LV with a sparser crowd allowing for novel camera positions and experimentation.