Audio Video News

At a press conference last week, Sony Electronics' professional division outlined the company's strategy for the broadband network era, and announced a number of new broadcast and professional products that will be on display at the upcoming National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in April.

Edward Grebow, president of Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company, says that "We are entering a new era in broadcasting. The 21st century will see a merger of broadcasting, personal computing, and telecommunications. To be successful, companies will need to combine not only digital expertise, systems integration, and service capabilities, but network experience and an understanding of electronic distribution platforms."

According to Grebow, Sony is reinventing itself for the broadband network era and has reorganized much of its worldwide operations around the formation of "network" companies. Grebow states that "this 'reinvention' is taking place because the introduction of digital broadcasting, the merging of broadcasting and telecommunications infrastructures, the growth of the Internet, and the progress of broadband networks are all proceeding at an incredible pace."

Grebow continues, "Sony's belief is that in a networked world content will have added value, and that the desire to produce and distribute quality content will lead to joint efforts in diverse industries and applications, such as movies, medicine, education, publishing, and broadcasting." Grebow identified a number of areas in which his company is focusing, including acceptance of MPEG by customers and manufacturers, high-definition acquisition and editing of content, and networking via ATM, i.LINK (IEEE 1394 or FireWire), SDI, SDTI-CP, and Ethernet.