Sony is gearing up to bring 3D home entertainment to the mass market in a bid to revitalise itself, writes IAN CAMPBELL

SONY ANNOUNCED its commitment to 3D home entertainment at IFA in Berlin this week, in a pre-event press conference where Howard Stringer, CEO and president, outlined his plans for revitalising the Japanese consumer electronics company.

“3D is clearly on the way to the mass market,” he said. “The train is on the track and Sony are ready to drive it home.”

On show at the Sony exhibition stand was a prototype 3D TV experience that uses stereoscopic, active-shutter technology. Viewers wear glasses that receive alternate frames in each eye via infra-red from a high definition TV.

Sony plans to introduce a 3D compatible Bravia LCD TV in 2010.

Panasonic has been showing a similar system which suggests a common standard is soon to be ratified, paving the way for 3D Blu-ray discs and compatible TVs to be the next big thing in our livingrooms.

Mr Stringer expects Sony to lead the way. “Sony’s technological leadership, together with our ownership and unique understanding of all forms of content, means we will be able deliver the entire 3D value chain,” he said.

With a footprint that covers Hollywood with Sony Pictures, video games with PlayStation 3 and computers with the Vaio range, Mr Stringer sees 3D as the centrepiece of its home entertainment strategy and an opportunity that the company is uniquely positioned to exploit.

Sony is also active in the professional arena, selling 3D projectors to cinemas in a burgeoning market. The number of digital 3D cinema screens is expected to reach 7,000 by the end of 2009 as the film industry steps up its commitment to the new format.

A raft of theatrical releases is gathering pace with James Cameron’s live action feature Avatar due out before Christmas and Steven Spielberg’s 3D re-working of Tintin also in the pipeline.

“It is being driven by increased consumer demand as well as higher ticket premiums,” said Mr Stringer.

The case for taking the technology into the living room has been strengthened by Blu-ray discs, which have the capacity to store the content, and Sky, which has committed to launching a 3D satellite channel in the UK next year.

Impressive 3D demos of wide-ranging content were on show at the Sony stand, including natural history programmes and football.

For Sony, 3D represents a chance to reassert itself at a time when it has lost ground to Apple in the portable music market, and Wii and Xbox in computer games.

“3D is an area where the collective strengths of Sony can blaze a path of leadership again,” said Mr Stringer.

He described Sony as a content company with an intuitive grasp of technology, drawing on a unique combination of resources.

Acknowledging that the company had run into difficulty, he said the recession had prompted Sony to restructure and re-evaluate everything it does, recognising that “beautiful product” was not enough.

“They must be networked; they must have real economic value and capture the imagination. Sony has to find new ways to differentiate and serve the needs and desires of newly networked customers.”

Part of its networked vision were upgrades to its PlayStation Network (PSN), with plans to launch a new video on-demand service by the end of year in the UK, France and Germany. Ireland will be in a second wave that will go live in 2010.

“3D and PlayStation network are two of the pillars of our overall strategy, areas where Sony can lead the industry and provide the very best experience for consumers,” he said.

The company has also entered the fray in the emerging internet TV market. Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players will feature Bravia internet video, a “walled garden” of web sites and “catch-up” TV services from broadcasters across Europe.

Along with the BBC, RTÉ was notably absent from a list of partners that included ARD in Germany, M6 in France, Mediaset in Italy, RTVE and LaSexta in Spain and Five in the UK.

A growing sense that Ireland was falling on the wrong side of the digital divide when it comes to home entertainment was reinforced with Sony’s plans to launch TVs with built-in satellite, cable and terrestrial TV tuners that do away with set-top boxes.

With no launch date for a digital terrestrial service in Ireland, it is unlikely that the TVs will make it across the water.

“3D and PlayStation network are two of the pillars of our overall strategy, areas where Sony can lead the industry and provide the very best experience for consumers

– Howard Stringer Sony CEO and president