It’s award season – and Sony has won no less than five Product of the Year awards at the annual European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA), awards, the largest editorial multimedia organization in Europe. The seductive Xperia Tablet Z won outright in the coveted Tablet of the Year 2013-2014 category, a stunning victory in Sony’s attempt to set new standards in the rapidly expanding tablet sector. Other accolades went to two Sony cameras, a Bravia TV and a HT receiver in a thrilling night.
Thanks to the Taiwan’s NCC Agency, we learned late last week that Sony would be soon announcing the NEX-5T. While not a lot of details are known about the camera, a registry like that points to a near future release. Not to be outdone, a Korean Agency has let it slip that Sony has just registered the NEX-FS700R and NEX-FS700RH. If those models sound familiar, that’s because the NEX-FS700 is a current 4K camera from Sony that also happens to be priced far below the industry darling RED cameras. Like the NEX-5T, we have no details to go off of, other than the camera does exist and is likely being announced in the coming weeks. What we do know, however, is that, judging from their names, the two new models very carry over the 4K tradition with improvements and not a radical shift as the series model number has stayed the same.
It’s hard to imagine that Blu-ray has already been out for nearly a decade. After a two year war with Toshiba’s losing HD DVD, the Sony backed format would eventually become the victor, thanks in part to the PlayStation 3. With discs cable of holding 50GB, though a 400GB and 1TB were shown off years ago with little news on them since, it’s easy to see why the PS4 and Xbox One are using the medium to help bring HD games to your living room. Even with 50GB of space available on each Blu-ray disc, the industry and consumers to an extent are already running into a roadblock, especially if you consider 4K films which even at compressed rates can be around 300GB and uncompressed a whopping 3TB that the time for thinking of a new format medium has come. To that end, Sony and Panasonic are hoping to create a new 300GB optical disc.
Two weeks after CES, the Sony Laser Source Projector with 3LCD was announced. Unlike other high end projectors that Sony makes, this units replaces the old bulb based technology with a 3LCD laser; a world first.. This ensures that no bulb replacement is required in the projectors lifetime while offering a consistent 4,000-lumen. The projector also packs a 1900 x 1200 resolution and has up to 20,000 hours maintenance free time, thanks to its lack of bulb. Now, the unit has an official model number and release date.
The Sony NEX-FS700 has no shortage of features. The sub $10,000 camera which is priced well below a RED camera is able to shoot Super Slow Motion (120-240 fps Full HD or 480 up to 960 fps with reduced resolution) right out of the box. Most desired from the camera however is its capability to shoot 4K. Set for a June release, Sony will begin to ship a new NEX-IFR5 interface unit for the NEX-FS700 which allows the camera to make full use of the internal big sensor and 3G-SDI output. According to Sony, the NEX-IFR5 interface receives the uncompressed bit-stream carrying RAW sensor data, metadata, timecode and start/stop commands from the NEX-FS700U via 3G-SDI. The FS700 RAW files are recorded to the AXS memory cards in the AXS-R5 RAW recorder, where they can be screened and converted using Sony’s free RAW Viewer software.
Sony is no stranger to the professional market and to some extent, they’ve better delivered to them than to consumers this past decade. Cameras, camcorders, and professional displays like their upcoming 30- and 56-inch 4K OLED are just a few of many different ways Sony caters to content creators. While less known, now their Anycast studio-in-a-box system is receiving a substantial upgrade. Announced at NAB 2013, the live broadcasting box that can be used at sporting events and other demanding live events is stepping into the 21st century with a native sliding dual touchscreen. This new 1080p display features a tilt-screen and allows for multitasking by displaying audio and video editing functions on each respected screen.
A crowd pleaser during CES 2013, Sony unveiled a 56-inch OLED monitor that floored journalists and rivals. The extremely color rich television with deep blacks had something for everyone and had many walking away without being able to find a fault. Now, Sony has announced the fate of the next generation television. Unlike the 55- and 65-inch 4K XBR TVs which were just announced for an April 21st release at an extremely affordable price, the 4K OLED televisions will be taking a different route. Due to the high cost of OLED manufacturing and the longer production process, Sony is opting to release 30-inch (4,096 x 2,160) and 56-inch (3,840 x 2160) 4K OLED monitors for professionals.
Those who’ve been following the Red vs. Sony lawsuit will recall that Red, creator of Red digital cameras, sued Sony in the ever-escalating patent wars between companies. In the suit, Red specifically targeted the Sony F5, F55 and F65 cameras for violating patents that they believe they hold. Besides the normal financial award that they can gain from this, Red is also seeking sales injunction on the mentioned cameras and wants them destroyed. As expected, Sony has wasted no time and is now countersuing Red with their own patent claims.
With more a then year under its belt, Final Cut Pro X has become quite the editing tool and a ridiculously affordable price. While criticized during its initial release for lacking some key features from previous iterations, Apple has achieved quite a bit during the time to continue to update the program to grow out its list of features. This task is that much more impressive when you consider that Final Cut Pro X was built completely from scratch where previous iterations of the program have had years to mature into their form. With its latest set of updates, Apple is also going on the offensive by launching a new marketing campaign, intended at winning back some of the professional users who may still have doubts. According to the LA Times:
Now, after updating the software seven times since its release in 2011, Apple is launching a campaign Thursday aimed at winning back skeptical professional users.
That campaign, timed to coincide with the National Assn. of Broadcasters convention that starts April 6 in Las Vegas, will feature users like Julian Liurette, who followed the firestorm from his video editing desk in Toronto at the Globe and Mail newspaper.
After waiting a year as Apple gradually released updates, Liurette finally gave it a try and was surprised. So Liurette began moving the newspaper’s video operations from the old version to Final Cut Pro X.
So what’s changed and what’s new? That list, after the jump.
Nearly a month ago, we reported on how Red Digital, the makers of the popular RED cameras, were suing Sony. The company believes that the Sony F65, F55, and F5 all infringe upon patents held by Red and not only must Sony pay financial penalties, but also destroy all existing cameras. Even then, we noted that the extreme quality of the suit and wording from Red points to the mindset that when you can’t beat them, sue them. This is especially true as Sony has singlehandedly beat Red with the 4K NEX-FS700 which is priced well below what Red has to offer while packing more features. Now, Sony has responded to the suit, stating that:
There tends to be two great sayings when it comes to the electronic world. When you can’t beat them, join them. Or in the case of Red Digital, the makers of the popular RED cameras, if you can’t beat them, sue them. Started in 1999 by Him Jannard, RED cameras have become quite popular with the indie and professional crowd, offering a low cost alternative to shooting in film while delivering superb quality. Most recently, RED cameras were used on movies like The Hobbit and, ironically, The Amazing Spider-Man from Sony Pictures. Sony, a long-time creator of professional cameras, has recently begun an expansion into the crowded $10,000 professional camera market with the 4K NEX-FS700 which is actually priced well below RED. Feeling the pinch from the competition, RED has reverted to the second option companies tend to take, suing their competitor. Furthering their class act, Red is seeking a court order to ban further sales of the Sony’s F65, F55 and F5 cameras and having them destroyed.
If you’ve attended a college or high school classroom in the last 10 years and experienced something outside of a overhead projector, chances are that it was a low lit projector. Heck, even most fancy office board room meetings tend to go with projectors which offer low lumen count, resulting in a dim picture or blurred content. Wants the lights on for your meeting? Forget about it!
Enter the Sony Laser Light Source Projector, a world first which replaces the old bulb based technology with a 3LCD laser. This ensures that no bulb replacement is required in the projectors lifetime while offering a consistent 4,000-lumen.
Sony is not only leading the charge of 4K with their epic 84-inch 4K television,but with content creation tools as well. Announced today, Sony will be releasing an SDK to developers for their XAVC 4K video format. The new format is already being utilized in the newly released Sony F5 and F55 CineAlta camcorders. Sony is also no stranger to creating more pro-consumer and indy 4K equipment, like the NEX-FS700 which is priced bellow $10,000 and includes lens, battery, and screen, unlike RED cameras. So far, fourteen companies, including Adobe and Apple, creator of the popular Premier Pro and Final Cut have signed on with the later already supporting 4K editing.
Do you remember the Sony NEX-FS700 that got announced last month? Yea, the one capable of recording 4K footage with Super Slow Motion (120-240 fps Full HD or 480 up to 960 fps with reduced resolution) and was rumored to be priced under $10k? While many ran around in a frenzy, saying that Sony couldn’t offer a low price and that the RED Scarlet is already priced near $10k, they seem to forget that with that price, RED only offers you a camera body. In actuality, most RED cameras since they require propitiatory cables, batteries and accessories start near the $16k price range. Delighting us today, its been revealed that the NEX-FS700 price tag will be well below $10,000 for a body and still under $10k with body and lens. We talk price, after the jump.
If you thought the only new professional grade camera from Sony was their 4k recording, sub $10,000 NEX-FS700, it’s time to think again. Not designed to cater to the same professional crowd, the Sony PMW-100 still packs a punch by offering true 1080p (1920 x 1280) recording with 50Mbps which meets the National Broadcasting Associations seal of approval for real HD. Despite a few other handheld camcorders being capable of offering the same specs, the Sony is the only one of the bunch which can do it all internally versus others needs for third party add-ons.
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