On September 5, 2024, at the CEDIA Expo in Denver, Sony announced two new projectors branded under its BRAVIA moniker. Designed for luxury home theaters is the native 4K, 3,400-lumen, laser, BRAVIA Projector 9 (VPL-XW8100ES), and designed for custom install is the native 4K, 2,700-lumen, laser, BRAVIA Projector 8 (VPL-XW6100ES). The two BRAVIA projectors sit between Sony’s laser flagship, 10,000-lumen, VPL-GTZ380, and Sony’s best-selling, 2,000-lumen, entry laser model, VPL-XW5000ES.
If you haven’t heard it already, Sony’s tagline for its family of BRAVIA televisions, soundbars, and now projectors is, “Cinema is Coming Home,” and the new Projector 9 and Projector 8 deliver every sentiment this embodies.
You probably already know Sony makes award-winning displays and audio gear for consumer electronics and the custom install channel. Sony earned the number one spot in the 2024 CE Pro 100 Brand Analysis in the following categories: Projectors, 4K & 8K TVs, Blu-ray/DVD Disc Players, Audio-Video Receivers, and Headphones. But do you know just how deep Sony is in the creation of content? More about that in a minute.
Deep Dive into Sony’s BRAVIA Projector 9 and BRAVIA Projector 8
The BRAVIA Projector 9 and BRAVIA Projector 8 have upgraded brightness over their predecessors with 3,400 lumens and 2,700, respectively. The big story here is the new XR Processor for Projector, which has been adapted from Sony’s flagship TV lineup. “The XR Processor is the reason why for six generations in a row we have won the ‘King of TV’ shootout,” said JT Austin, Sony Electronics’ Technology Manager, Home Entertainment. “It all comes down to processing.”
Cross Analysis is the differentiating factor between the XR Processor for Projector, Sony’s other processors, and most other video processors in the market. “When we cross-analyze, we’re looking at hundreds of thousands of elements in each frame and cross-analyzing all those different factors,” Austin explained. It delivers a more natural, more realistic, more cinematic image because we’re taking a look at the image as a whole.”
The XR Processor for Projector feature set runs deep. Pro Cinematic HDR encompasses Contrast, Color, and Clarity.
CONTRAST: One of the more significant processing upgrades year-over-year is in the contrast. “Frame by frame, scene by scene, metadata creation allows us to get closer to the original reference the Hollywood creators actually saw when they did the final master,” said Austin.
Unlike Sony’s flagship OLED TV or mini-LED, until now, it was difficult for a projector to follow the curve of deep black and bright, brights. “With XR Dynamic Tone Mapping, we’re looking at every single frame and individual component of the scene giving us deeper blacks without crushing the shadow detail, and we’re elevating the brights without losing highlight detail” he explained.
The second part of the contrast equation is what Sony calls XR Deep Black. “This is part of our laser dimming algorithm and provides the ability to get deeper blacks while maintaining shadow detail and increasing gain in the bright areas,” he said. “So, overall, HDR has a more impactful contrast without losing detail in extreme dark or extreme bright areas.”
COLOR: XR Triluminos Pro is Sony’s flagship TV color engine and is now available in its BRAVIA projectors. “This is a combination of the processing, the actual laser light system, and the panel all working together,” explained Austin. “We’re looking at + 95% DCI-P3 coverage. All the new HDR content streaming at a high bitrate, we’re able to get more color volume, more accurate colors as well.” The BRAVIA Projector 9 features Live Color Enhancer, delivering an even more dramatic effect. “We’re not going for those oversaturated radioactive-looking colors,” he said. “You can now have a 120- to 150-inch protection screen that is much closer to that faithful intent.”
CLARITY: One of the big features of Sony’s TVs that get rave reviews is XR Clear Image, its new upscaling engine. “Not only is it in charge of the upscaling, but it’s also in charge of reducing noise that’s introduced from compression, streaming, and all the different steps between the studio and your living room,” Austin explained. This is accomplished in three steps. The first is improving the clarity. “We have a database we call “Super Resolution” which is thousands of images from Sony Pictures. When it’s looking at a scene, it knows this is a leaf, this is a tree, this is grass, this is brick, this is whatever it may be. And it allows us to get more detail and clarity, closer to 4K, even if we’re watching compressed 4K or HD.”
Because there are so many input sources delivering varying resolutions and quality, Intelligent Upscaling analyzes the incoming signal and changes how it is processed to get closer to a 4K image. Zone division and dynamic frame analysis also reduce noise while leaving film grain to deliver the creator’s intent.
This year, HDMI 2.1 is also new for NextGen game consoles and PCs. It supports 4K120 and auto-low latency mode. “At a 12-millisecond spec [with a 4K120 signal], it is right up there with some of the best TVs today. It’s almost unheard of in the projection space,” Austin added.
Ease of Installation
Sony’s ES lineup has always been built from the ground up for CI-first, incorporating features and technology that make these products easy to integrate. The two new BRAVIA projectors will maintain the same smaller and lighter chassis as the previous generation, making installation easier than the competition.
New this year is keystone correction. “This is something we haven’t done on previous 4K cinema projectors because it affected the native resolution, and we didn’t want to take that step down,” Austin said. “But now, by combining lens shift corner correction and our XR Clear Image upscaling, we’re confident we can do that keystone correction and still get you a great-looking image on that wall.
Other improvements include increased position memory to support a wider range of aspect ratios and an increased blanking amount optimized for 2:35:1 and 2:40:1.
For the past five years, Sony has polled its CI dealers and found that the majority of integrators install projectors utilizing “out of the box” settings, without doing additional calibration. “We’ve always been renowned for excellent out-of-the-box accuracy and delivering that cinematic look,” Austin said. This year, the default out-of-the-box modes, Cinema Film 1 and Cinema Film 2, are further tuned for an even more phenomenal image. If you want to dive down the full calibration process, all the Sony Pro tools are on board. New detailed calibration for full-color correction, full-color space, and gamma correction in both SDR and HDR are available. “So, you can really dial this thing in with your calibration tools and software to be as accurate as possible,” Austin added.
As usual, Sony works with all the major control partners such as AMX, Conrtol4, Crestron, Savant, and remote monitoring with Domotz and OvrC.
Content Creators First
Not everyone is aware that a driving force behind Sony’s delivering outstanding image quality is its long history of innovating and creating products for Hollywood filmmakers and producers in nearly every aspect of content creation. “Whether it’s movies, television, video content for internet consumption, Sony makes the tools that content creators use to faithfully deliver their creative vision,” said Jeff Goldstein head of sales for Sony’s CI channel. “The projector is the embodiment of “cinema at home” delivering the content creator’s vision into the home just the way it was intended.”
As a reminder of how deeply Sony is entrenched on the creation side, Austin shared a few recent projects. “If you look at our camera division, Paramount and Joseph Kosinski chose it for Top Gun: Maverick, Disney and James Cameron chose the camera system for Avatar: Way of Water, FX, and Hulu chose it for Shogun, and Apple chose it for Masters of the Air. We’re becoming the go-to reference for cinema cameras.
Sony Pictures Animation is credited with revolutionizing the animation industry. “It started with some of the earlier CG titles like Hotel Transylvania. The Across the Spider-Verse series won an Academy Award for essentially creating a brand-new animation style that we want to deliver into customer’s theaters,” he added.
Sony has earned its bragging rights on many fronts, including audio. In Hollywood and around the world, Sony has the most sought-after soundtrack record stage. Austin said, “For his 91st birthday, we renamed the building in honor of John Williams because it was his favorite place where he recorded some of his most iconic film scores.”
Then there’s the Sound Foley, responsible for more than 400 titles for Sony Pictures and notable film producers and filmmakers such as Ridley Scott, Quentin Tarantino, and many more. “And, of course, there’s Dolby Atmos mixing as well. In our Culver lot alone, we have 14 Dolby Atmos mixing stages. So not only are we doing our own titles like Spider-Man Universe, Spider-Verse, and Gran Turismo series, but there are also titles for HBO, Warner, and Universal.”
These days, everyone is excited by the magic and endless possibilities of virtual production. Austin explained, “The Pixomondo virtual production stage at Sony Pictures houses a two-and-a-half story Sony Crystal LED video wall system with a 180-degree wrap around.” Pixomondo’s work can be seen in HBO’s House of the Dragon, Paramount’s Star Trek: Discovery, and Lionsgate’s John Wick Chapter 4. Sony offers end-to-end virtual production through its Crystal LED video walls and VENICE camera platform designed to work seamlessly together. “This is really a pro-Hollywood experience that no one else in the industry has, and it separates Sony’s entire product development chain we have across TV, audio, and of course now across projector as well,” he said.
Bringing it all Together
Austin said that Sony’s product chain of TVs, audio, and the newly introduced projectors is the driving force behind the branding of the new projectors under BRAVIA. “It helps us tell a complete story across the whole product lineup and differentiates the hierarchy.” Sony’s TV lineup has the flagship BRAVIA 9, followed by the BRAVIA 8 and BRAVIA 7. Following suit, Sony’s soundbars are BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 and BRAVIA Theater Bar 8, and joining the family are the BRAVIA Projector 9 and BRAVIA Projector 8.
Further solidifying its commitment to the overall viewing experience, Sony Pictures purchased the dine-in movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse in June. “It demonstrates that our entire company is focused on the whole cinema experience regardless of if it’s in Hollywood, in the theater, or in your home theater,” concluded Austin.
