Sony offered up to virtual viewers a well-rounded portfolio of products, technologies and market positioning at the all-digital CES this week, showcasing its evolution in this, its 50th year as a CES exhibitor, as a “creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology,” as Mike Fasulo, president and COO of Sony Electronics of North America, said.
Dealerscope has already covered some of the earlier announced products, such as the new BRAVIA XR TV series – 4K, OLED and 8K TVs featuring Cognitive Processing technology – as well as Sony’s Crystal LED super-large modular displays, but there was more revealed during the company’s two CES presentations.
Additional product introductions that were spotlighted included the AirPeak, a compact-sized drone for professional photography use that is designed to carry Sony’s Alpha cameras and is slated to ship later in 2021 in the U.S. It was unveiled at the Media Day conference by Sony Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida.
Sony also announced an expansion of its 360 Reality Audio services and product offerings, including new video streaming capabilities and content creation tools. This technology, introduced in 2019, makes it possible for artists and creators to produce music by mapping sound sources such as vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information, and placing them within a spherical space. The technology can be experienced through Sony headphone models such as the WH-1000XM4, which sports dual noise-sensor technology as well as being 360 Reality Audio-ready, and beginning in the Spring, via 360 Reality Audio-compatible speakers SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 which will be available then for purchase, the company says.
Some gaming news was also shared by Jim Ryan, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who touted the company’s market dominance, stating that Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 5 console, which hit retail shelves in November, was in fact “the biggest console launch of all time.”
Nancy is a contributing editor for Dealerscope.
