LAS VEGAS – Okay, the first part of that headline isn’t quite true, but we found it a little funny that two of the industry’s heaviest-hitters have decided to alter their names in just about the exact same fashion.
We hit the Panasonic press conference Sunday afternoon at the National Association of Broadcasters convention first and they told us right away they aren’t the broadcast division of Panasonic anymore, they are to be referred to as “Panasonic Solutions Company”, something the company officially launched on April 1st. “The new B2B-focused company will incorporate the operations of Panasonic Computer Solutions Company, Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company and Panasonic Professional Display Company,” reads its release.
About an hour and a half later, the folks at Sony told us essentially the same thing. No longer is Sony’s professional division about TV and film and broadcast, it’s instead, “Sony Professional Solutions of America”.
What does this mean to the broadcasters and others who use Panasonic and Sony gear? Not a lot probably. But the sales reps will get new business cards, we are sure…
And as for the con(3D!)tent of the confer(3D!)ences, the main(3D!) thrust had(3D!) something to do (3D!) with a new dimension in tele(3D!)vision.
While we at Cartt.ca are less than sold on the concept for many reasons, both Sony and Panasonic were pushing the technology as hard as they could. Sony was showing the final round of The Masters during its press conference delivered by DirecTV (the experience was sub-optimal, to say the least with ghosting and blurry-ness around the edges and it was completely unwatchable when lying down, not that I actually laid down…)
Both companies are pressing on, however. Panasonic is building what it says is the world’s first fully 3DTV studio in Los Angeles with AEG, which will be made available for anyone to rent and it has even forged a relationship with the University of Southern California, which will study 3D viewing in the home to figure out how people do it, what they’d like and how to make it better.
Sony trotted out a number of folks to chat about all things Sony and 3D, including BSkyB, which has launched a 3DTV channel to 1,500 pubs in England (Blackburn vs. Man U in 3D was broadcast Sunday). They will be making that channel available to all their customers later this year. Keeping with soccer, or football, World Cup host broadcaster HBS noted that 25 of the 64 matches in South Africa will be shot and produced in 3D, with cameras in much different positions (like field level) than the old 2D way of doing things.
Each company had their usual list of new products and line additions, too. Sony said it’ll have a new, much cheaper 35mm XDCam for 2011 NAB, for example, to “ooohs” from the floor when they briefly showed the demo product.
Panasonic noted a number of additions to P2 product division, adding it has sold 140,000 P2 units since launch seven years ago and that NBC Universal’s local media, CNBC and Telemundo are switching fully to Panasonic P2 HD.
As for the rest of the company’s product launches, which are legion, click here and here.
Greg O’Brien is in Las Vegas this week covering the National Association of Broadcasters 2010 convention. Comment below, follow him on Twitter, e-mail editorial@cartt.ca, or come see him at the Canadian Suite where Cartt.ca is one of the myriad sponsors of the annual networking social.
