Sony 2006 Annual Report Download - page 16

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There it is. A football stadium filled with excited fans. Looks of anticipation and apprehension etched into the
players’ expressions. Scenes so real you are pulled in right among them. Thrill to the vivid, high-resolution
images that unfold before your eyes thanks to Sony HD technology.
Sony’s vast range of electronics products and content enables it to expand the realm of high definition
from the movie and broadcasting business to television, games and other home entertainment, making it
possible for people everywhere to experience the excitement of HD first-hand.
HD World
The World of High Definition, Created by Sony
PROFESSIONAL USE
Broadcasting
The adoption of Sony HD cameras, video tape recorders and editing
equipment by major broadcasters is helping to speed the adoption
of HD broadcasting worldwide. Cumulative shipments of HDCAM™
recording devices—now the standard for HD content creation—
since the format’s launch in 1997 have surpassed 24,000 units*
worldwide. In Japan, for example, they have already been installed
by all of the country’s terrestrial broadcasters. They are also being
used in such high profile live sports broadcasts as the Super Bowl
and the Masters Golf Tournament in the United States, and in
mobile HD broadcasting units around the world, generating a large
and appreciative audience for the crisp, evocative images yielded
by HD filming and broadcasting.
In April 2006, we released the blue-violet laser-based “XDCAM”
HD Professional Disc™ system, which is used for newsgathering.
Major Motion Pictures Created with CineAlta
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Lucasfilm Ltd./Twentieth Century Fox)
Sin City (Troublemaker Studios)
Superman Returns (Warner Bros. Entertainment)
Click (Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.)
4K-SXRD
Sony’s 4K-SXRD is a display device for high-resolution
projectors that achieves an 8.85-megapixel density (4096 x
2160 pixels)—more than four times that of Full HD TV—and a
high contrast of 4,000:1. Sony was able to achieve such
stunning resolution and clarity by optimizing the driving circuit
in each pixel and by using a thin liquid crystal cell layer and
crystal alignment control technologies.
The logo for “Full HD 1080” covers Sony consumer products that
record, display or replay HD images at 1080 pixels (scanning lines)
or more of vertical resolution. We plan to attach this logo to a wide
variety of products in this category.
CBS, one of the four major U.S. networks, has already decided to
adopt this system. As the industry continues to move toward high
definition, we intend to play a major support role by supplying the
HD equipment suited to our customers’ operating environments
and needs.
* As of March 31, 2006 (includes HDCAM-SR and CineAlta)
Digital Cinema
In 1999, Sony took the lead in the industry by commercializing
CineAlta™, a 24-frame-per-second HD professional movie production
system. CineAlta paved the way for vast improvements in movie
production efficiency by shifting from tape to recording in digital
HD on tape, making it possible to shoot and edit digitally and
achieve the same superb image quality as film. The system has
been adopted extensively, and is already credited with the
production of more than 400 movies to date. Genesis®, a CineAlta
camera jointly developed by Sony and Panavision Inc., achieves
even greater image quality thanks to an image sensor equivalent in
size to 35-millimeter film.
Movie theaters in the United States and other locales have also
begun replacing their conventional film projection equipment with
high-intensity, high-contrast projectors incorporating our proprietary
4K Silicon X-tal (“crystal”) Reflective Display (SXRD) device. These
projectors not only make it possible to screen movies at an image
quality approximately four times that of Full HD TV, but also enable
the entire filming process to be performed digitally—from shooting
Yutaka Yoshida
Production Camera
Department, Camera &
Storage System Division,
B&P Business Group
Sony Corporation
Development of the HDC-3300 Super Motion Camera
Content creators are constantly looking
for new ways to enhance the viewing
experience. Our desire to accomplish
that goal is what has driven development
of the HDC-3300 Super Motion Camera,
which achieves 3x speed slow motion
effects in full HD resolution (scheduled
launch: October 2006). High-speed pro-
cessing of HD content, which contains
3x as much picture information, is tech-
nologically difficult, but the outstanding
resolution achieved by the HDC-3300
Super Motion Camera means you can
even see the stitching on a baseball in a pitcher’s hand! Viewers of HD
sports broadcasting will be able to enjoy a whole range of new footage.
I am really excited about the HDC-3300 Super Motion Camera
and the technologies it uses: circuitry technology that facilitates out-
standing, low-noise resolution, optical transmission technology that
enables transmission without deterioration of image quality, and the
advanced digital signal processing technology that reflects our
accumulated expertise in broadcasting cameras. I look forward to
this camera going on the market, in our continuing effort to meet
the customer’s expectations.