With its projectors, televisions, and audio components, Sony has been a mainstay in the home theater market for decades. Here, Kathleen Thomas, head of custom integration sales at Sony Electronics, discusses the company’s current stable of home theater solutions and provides a hint at what’s coming.
RESI: How much of Sony’s business involves home theater products in terms of product sales?
KATHLEEN THOMAS: I think that depends on what you think of as a home theater product, as we make many things that can be put into a home theater context, like our BRAVIA Theater U, which can create a personal home theater experience or help someone who has hearing challenges, or PlayStation. The concept of what home theater is has changed and is not necessarily a closed, darkened room anymore. The other day, I saw a bedroom with a very high-end Sony projector mounted in it with a drop-down screen and shades. Our CLED is technically a Professional product built for film production that we use for video displays and home theater. It is difficult to quantify, as home theater is a context and not a category of product.
With the price of 100-inch-plus LED displays getting so much less expensive, do you expect front projection to still have a vital role in the home theater category?
Front projection is an experience unique from anything direct view. There is still a large customer base that prefers the look of a reflected image for the cinematic effect, and there are huge benefits to being able to put big speakers behind a perforated screen. While I think some of the business is going to large TVs on the low end and modular DVLED on the high end, there will be an ongoing place for the more traditional experience, as well as the custom and versatile install experience that you get with projectors.
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Speaking of large models, we’re seeing larger than 100-inch models from competitors. When can we expect models over 100 inches from Sony (that aren’t in the CLED lineup)?
We see a lot of opportunity with the ever-increasing size of TVs. Performance differences can be even more noticeable. Don’t worry, Sony is not sitting this out. We are simply perfectionists, and picture quality and creator intent are paramount to anything we do. We are very excited about our upcoming RGB LED display technology, which we can create in larger panel sizes than conventional TV/OLED displays.
Do you see a time when MicroLED will ever approach more mainstream pricing? Is it realistic that we might see a 100-inch MicroLED under 10k? 20k? 50k? If so, what does the timeline look like when that might happen?
Over time, almost all technology becomes more affordable, but there is also a lot of marketing language around “Micro” and “Mini,” when the real question is overall picture quality. How good the processor is and how well you are controlling the backlight are much more important questions than the number of zones or the physical size/quantity of the LEDs. In the end, technology is just a means to an end, which is performance. As we go from an era where OLED was clearly dominant in picture quality to a time where there are multiple ways to get to superior performance, I think it speaks even more loudly that we don’t get caught up in any particular technology. It is one of many tools we have to get to better performance.
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The new RGB MiniLED that Sony has developed is a game-changer for the high-end television market. How do you see it as affecting Sony’s television and home theater business?
RGB is something that we have been working on for decades — you could argue the Trinitron, developed in the ’60s, was the beginning — but in 2004, we had an RGB backlight on the Qualia 005, before 4K was even a thing. You can see hints of our unique implementation in the backlight of the BRAVIA 9 with its individual zone control processors mounted on the backlight panel, delivering an unprecedented 22 bits of control. Now imagine that backlight is in color, no filters, just pure illumination with unprecedented color gamut, increased brightness, blooming, and off-axis color shift no longer being a challenge. A technology is only as good as the execution, and Sony has the processing power and the intimate relationship to the content creation process to fully deliver on the promise of RGB performance.
With more residential video walls entering the CI market, what are Sony’s plans for the technology?
CLED is one of our biggest growth categories this year. It is indeed a premium product in the market, but it is also incredible. It was developed for and is used in production studios around the world to give actors an immersive experience in production. To me, it is the purest execution of our “Cinema is Coming Home” message. We opened a showroom in Florida last year and will be opening another in the next couple of months, partnering with Cinematech. We are in this for the long haul and will continue to innovate in the category.
The recent projector announcement was a refresh of the line with the new HDR processing chip. Is there a timeline for a next-gen projector, and if so, what might that feature?
We announced the BRAVIA Projector 7 earlier this year, and it answers a lot of needs the market has. It takes the small footprint of the XW5000ES, ramps up the brightness, and adds the XR Processor for Projector, which you mentioned, that provides frame-by-frame tone mapping to maximize apparent brightness and color accuracy. For gamers, the 4K 120fps at up to 12ms input lag, plus Auto Low Latency Mode via HDMI 2.1 inputs provides the necessary smooth and clear movement for responsive and immersive gameplay. It also adds the ability to quickly change aspect ratio on the fly, making it a fantastic high-end projector in a small, sub-$10k package. As for what is next, we will have to wait and see!
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On the audio side, Sony’s updated line of AV receivers has generated a lot of interest from integrators, despite it being a very competitive market. What do you think gives Sony’s receivers the edge over the competition?
This year is the celebration of 60 years of ES, and I think that it endures because we haven’t strayed from the core values of the brand, even though the technology and number of channels change. I remember selling ES on the sales floor decades ago, and the story was, it sounds great, it is built like a tank, we make sure it integrates, and Sony backs it up with a 5-year warranty, plus the company is stable — Sony isn’t going anywhere. I will say, as an audio nerd coming to Sony four years ago, I was blown away meeting the engineers who work on ES. They proudly show off their bins of capacitors, which they listened to in the design process, and the different solder formulations. These people are as fanatical as anyone you would find at your local audiophile show.
How do Sony’s speakers and soundbars integrate with the company’s high-end television and projector offerings?
One of the things that is truly special about all of Sony’s products is that we are involved in every aspect of music and film production, so we can go to the experts to make sure the reproduction is up to their standards as content creators. The people who mix Sony films evaluate the soundbars to make sure they are reproducing the film accurately before they go into production. Also, the company’s understanding and even the creation of codecs allow us to fully leverage the relationship between the soundbar and TV, so we can do cool things like work in conjunction with the TV speakers to make it seem like the sound from the soundbar is coming from the TV with Center Channel lift.
What are the dealer benefits of working with the Sony home theater ecosystem?
From a product perspective, it is all about performance and providing their customers with an amazing experience that truly is how the creators of the content they watch and listen to intended. From an installer’s perspective, the product is reliable and the API is very stable. We work closely with all the major control companies to make sure that we are aligned. If a problem does arise, we have a dedicated sales support team and service support team to help you resolve any issues. From a business owner’s perspective, our sales team is here to make sure you get product when you need it, and we drive overall profitability and higher ASP. Overall, as a company, we see the CI channel as a critical part of our business, and we strive to make the relationship a true partnership.
For more information, visit https://www.sonypremiumhome.com.
