NEW YORK - Yesterday, I attended Sony's pre-NAB briefing at their office at 550 Madison Avenue. While some of the product announcements are under embargo until the first week of April, the company did reveal their overall NAB strategy. Sony plans on showing "complete solutions" at NAB in Las Vegas this April and is also "looking beyond broadcast to a new range of markets" notes executive Alec Shapiro.
Its NAB exhibit will include a Beyond HD theater, where they will screen 2K and 4K material. There will also be space dedicated to cameras, workflow, monitoring, media, creative software, live productions, pro audio and 3D.
4K will have a special emphasis, in fact, the company reports that Sony Pictures is currently working on After Earth, a new feature being shot by director M. Night Shyamalan using the company's F65 camera. The project marks the director's first feature using acquisition media other than film. Sony began delivering the F65 in January of this year and reports that they will have delivered 100 F65s by NAB, with orders worldwide already totaling 400.
The company also called attention to the success of its F3, which began shipping just prior to NAB last year. To date, Sony has delivered 3,000 F3s, which are being used on project such as Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer,
Key and Peele, and
Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Some of the Royal Wedding was also captured with the camera. In November, Sony introduced a new zoom lens, and upgrades are also available that allow for 3D and S-LOG/4:4:4 RGB) recording. The F3 is very flexible thanks to its compatibility with Canon, Nikon and PL lenses.
On the monitoring front, Sony introduced its Trimaster monitors and more affordable PVM line last year, and has gone on to ship over 2,000 OLED units. At NAB, they plan to show additional size OLED displays.
Alec Shapiro also mentioned the upcoming opening of the Sony Digital Motion Picture Center on May 1, of which he will serve as president. The Digital Motion Picture Center will be situated on Stage 7 of the Sony Picture Studios Lot and will be a resource for training, and education for DPs, cinematographers, and film professionals. The Center will focus on all Sony Super 35mm cameras and workflows, and will showcase how to use these cameras in most creative ways possible.