M+E Connections

With NAB Show in Las Vegas canceled this year, Sony Electronics took to the Internet on April 30 to spotlight its latest professional products and solutions, including its expanded portfolio of Ci cloud-based collaboration and content management tools.

“Because we have the infrastructure in place to support a remote workforce, we have been able to continue to support our customers” despite Sony’s staff mostly working from home like nearly everybody else amid the ongoing pandemic, John Studdert, VP of media solutions at Sony Imaging Products & Solutions-Americas, said during an online presentation.

In it and separate video presentations, Sony touted its latest offerings representing what he called the “five tenets” of its media solutions offerings: Imaging, HDR, Internet Protocol (IP) Live, cloud workflow, and artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics.

The company’s expanded Ci cloud-based collaboration and content management tools includes an enhanced hybrid asset management solution that unifies Ci and Sony’s Media Backbone NavigatorX content and workflow management software solution, as well as a new Media Analytics Portal. Enhanced hybrid operation of Ci and NavigatorX is expected to become available in June, Sony said, noting “customers will be able to manage content in any facility or in the cloud.”

Sony’s newly launched cloud-based solution supports content creators with its diverse AI analytics models and services, including object recognition and speech-to-text via a single Web-based portal, it said. “Whether used for sports content management or program production, Media Analytics Portal enhances media workflows by augmenting metadata and automating media processes for greater efficiency and productivity,” Sony said, noting its expected availability starts this fall.

“Designed to bring disparate systems and redundant file transfers into a single unified platform, Ci plans to have updates” in May that include the launch of Ci Catalog, Sony said. Ci Catalog “streamlines asset management for large media enterprises and enables better management of finished assets, streamlining work for marketing, sales, distribution and archive teams,” it said.

“Our industry is seeing rapid evolution as the need to develop content for cross-platform distribution has transformed both the creative process and post-production workflows,” according to Theresa Alesso, Sony Electronics Pro Division president. “We are driven to provide the industry with essential technologies that enable them to continue efficient operation, even in difficult circumstances,” she said in a statement, adding: “We are also driven by our customers’ needs to optimize content for live broadcast, cloud-based management and storage,” and over-the-top (OTT) on-demand consumption. “There is no such thing as single-platform distribution anymore,” she said, noting, “our goal is to help customers maximize their return on investment with technologies that enable them to reach the broadest possible audience, across the widest array of distribution channels, and with the simplest production process.”

Sony also expanded the capabilities of its digital motion picture camera Venice to offer “greater creative freedom and usability for creators of features, episodic and short-form content,” it said. Launching in November, Version 6.0 firmware will support 6the import of a new Advanced Rendering Transform (.art) file including a new “Technicolor look library,” addition of second user frame line and expanded High Frame Rate (HFR) capabilities, among other new features, Sony said.

The FX9 full-frame camera Version 2.0 firmware, meanwhile, will expand shooting capabilities and improve its user operation, Sony said, noting that will launch in October and support 4K 60p/50p recording through oversampling from a 5K cropped area of 6K full-frame sensor.

Also, as demand for High Dynamic Range (HDR) content continues to grow, Sony said it is “fully committed to supporting HDR across its professional solutions portfolio.”

The company enhanced its Scene Referred (SR) Live workflow for this year “by incorporating SR Live metadata,” Studdert said during the online presentation.

SR Live workflow focuses on creating the best live HDR and Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) programs simultaneously produced by a single production unit, the company said. “Sony HDC camera settings are captured by the camera and sent throughout the production process,” the company said, explaining: “This allows the SDR production to be perfectly replicated, as intended by the shading craftsperson. Only the HDR signals need to be switched and routed, eliminating the need to add separate production staff to handle the SDR.”

SR Live Metadata is already supported by the HDRC-4000 HDR production converter unit and PWS-4500 production server, Sony said. Starting this summer, Sony’s live production systems, including HDC-series system cameras with in-CCU recording capability, will also be supported, it said.

In addition, file-based production systems, including the PXW-Z750, PXW-Z450 and PXW-X400 professional camcorders, will support SR Live Metadata with the application software Catalyst Prepare by the end of 2020, it noted.