Since 2020, there has been a paradigm shift in consumer behavior toward the desire for a premium viewing experience in the home versus going to a small-screen movie theater. Movie theaters will consistently deliver the bigger-than-life experience, but Robert Brennan, product technology manager of Home Entertainment and Sound for Sony Electronics, said, “More consumers are looking for an on-demand premium experience at home.” This change in consumer appetite has created an opportunity for CI dealers to open a new dialog with their customers.
CI Touch Points
Overhead aside, customer acquisition is one of the most expensive aspects of owning and growing a business. “You can win a World Series with a lot of singles,” Brennan quipped. “So, one thing that I teach salespeople is this idea that TV purchases are transactional, and potentially, it’s one and done. They might return to purchase another TV or some audio. But, from a business perspective, one of the major benefits of projection is that there are a lot of built-in touchpoints. It’s a system that can grow and improve over time.”
Related: How Sony Helps its Dealers Grow
Brennan suggested, “Check in with your customer to determine how the unit is performing. Maybe it is time to look at an upgrade from one laser projector to another, or your client is moving the projector to a different space, and a new screen is needed for ambient light conditions in that room. While at the house, look around, ‘Hey, you’re missing audio on the back porch. Did you know that we could do that?’ From a business perspective, the customer who buys a projector is more valuable long-term to a dealer not just because of the ASP today but because of this relationship you end up having.”
Go Big and Stay Home
When you think about immersive experiences in the world of display technologies, bigger is just better. Brennan urges that accuracy and creative intention are critical no matter the type of content, which is why Sony displays are a clear choice.
“There are a lot of trigger points where a dealer can identify something that a customer might be interested in for creating immersive experiences,” he said. One reason might be similar to why parents install a pool. They want to have the house where all the kids hang out so they know where they are. Movie night or watch parties with friends and neighbors, and of course, bigger is going to win every time when it comes to watching sports.
A TV up to 98 inches can deliver an immersive experience, but the big payoff is measured in feet on a screen provided by a laser projector. “The ultimate immersive experience is when I watch a movie on a 130-inch screen with my 4K laser projector,” said Brennan.
Sony’s advanced laser projection technologies deliver an in-home immersive experience that often outshines a small movie theater or sports bar with the added benefit of privacy.
Lens to Living Room
You might think the immersive conversation with CI customers would be about upsizing to a larger display. A big screen is the vehicle to deliver an immersive experience.
Whether a Sony TV or projector, “We position our overall lineup as the place to go for the big screen immersive experience because of Sony’s universal commitment to faithfully recreating the creative intention behind whatever you’re watching—movies, TV shows, video games, or live sports,” Brennan said.
When it comes to image quality, there are several differentiators which set Sony apart from its competition. “It is what we call the lens to living room business strategy,” he added. “First, there’s content creation, and Sony has several monikers, such as Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Pictures Animation, and Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation, with several first-party studios and numerous divisions.
Related: Sony’s New ES AVR is a Game Changer
“We not only create content, but we make the cinema cameras, the mastering monitors, and the mixing boards used in the process. We build the cameras and equipment used by the majority of all live sports broadcasts,” Brennan added. “We’re also the only TV or projector manufacturer who is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters.”
Thinking Inside the Box
It’s no secret that a handful of manufacturers build many of the pieces and parts that comprise TVs for all the major brands. Where the rubber meets the road is in the image processing engineered explicitly for each type of display. With Cognitive Processor XR™, BRAVIA TVs analyze the content and recreate it the same way humans see and hear in the real world. The X1™ Ultimate for the projector takes its acclaimed BRAVIA TV video processing and optimizes it for projection. The power of this video engine enables prodigious data processing, with real-time enhancement for each on-screen object.
Every year, Value Electronics, an independent audio/video retailer, hosts its annual 4K TV Shootout, and for the fifth year in a row, Sony was crowned “King of TV.” Due to its win in most categories judged and the average of all categories for both SDR and HDR, the Sony A95L OLED was crowned the “King of TV” for 2023. “We win this event because of the processor and its ability to understand the incoming video signal and what it should do,” Brennan said.
Sony’s BVM series is the broadcast industry’s standard professional monitor that every major studio relies on. “We use that same process in our televisions and have tuned it specifically for our projectors,” Brennan explained. “You take these decades of experience of Sony making movies and assisting broadcasters and home consumption, and we all that know-how is expressed physically as a chip.
The End Game
Sony’s line of premium BRAVIA XR televisions, the all-laser ES home theater projector lineup, the new ES AV receiver line, professional BRAVIA displays, and Crystal LED direct view displays are all examples of Sony’s commitment to the highest quality.
“There are lots of companies that make excellent TVs and projectors, but only Sony has the commitment and the ability to deliver an accurate experience in the home in addition to a big experience,” concluded Brennan.
