The world of Jim Slater visited the Sony Technology Centre at Atsugi ...

DIGITAL SONY 4K WORLD
Jim Slater
visited the Sony
Technology Centre
at Atsugi and the
4K Digital Cinema
projector factory in
Kosai, Japan
The world of
The itinerary for the trip had been
carefully worked out beforehand in
conjunction with Basingstoke-based
Josh Honda, Senior Manager of the
European Digital Cinema and Signage group, so
as to maximise both what we could be shown
and the opportunities for discussion, and I was
delighted to be accompanied throughout the
trip by Mark Clowes, Marketing Manager for
Digital Cinema. On arrival in Japan we were
joined by another well known journalist in the
Digital Cinema field, Bill Mead, who runs the
acclaimed www.DcinemaToday.com website
and contributes technical articles to Film
Journal International. The four of us rapidly
discovered how much experience we had in
common, and for the next three days we never
seemed to stop talking!
Monday morning saw us taking an hour and
half train ride from Yokohama to the impressive
Sony Technology Centre at Atsugi, a sizeable
campus with several large buildings, which is
the largest Sony Research and Development
site worldwide. Key research areas include
materials, display devices, core technology
developments, and information technologies,
and the centre has been at the heart of many
technology breakthroughs, mainly for the
broadcast industry, since it opened, originally as
a factory, in 1960.
Sony United - the holistic approach
Shigeo Saito, General Manager of the Digital
Cinema Department, had assembled a team of
senior managers covering all the areas which
we had indicated that we might like to discuss,
and he opened his presentation by explaining
how the many different facets of the Sony
company and the many different businesses
which it is made up of - ‘Sony United’ was the
expressive phrase he used - all work together
for the good of the whole. He took us through
cinema technology • september 2010 • www.cinematechnologymagazine.com
SONY 4K
I am well used to travelling to
different locations for Cinema
Technology magazine, but a recent
invitation from Sony to talk
with their top technical people
and to visit their digital cinema
projector factory in Japan
broke all the records - with the
five day round trip approaching
13,000 miles, I reckon that must
be about a mile for every word
of the resulting CT articles.
the business to business areas, showing how
the Visual Presentations Solutions division
includes projectors, displays and, to my
surprise, professional special purpose printers
- they are all ‘output devices’, as he explained.
The aim of the digital cinema business is to
provide high quality digital images right through
the chain from acquisition to exhibition, in
parallel with ensuring innovative workflow
methods which can lead to cost reductions.
The history of 4K
The history of the development of the Sony
4K projector was explained in detail, with the
first 4K business (data) projectors such as the
SRX-R110 appearing in 2005. The substantially
larger high-brightness Digital Cinema
projectors, SRX-R220 and 210 came to market
during the next couple of years. The current
Digital Cinema model, the more compact SRX-
R320 came to market in 2009, effectively the
third generation of Sony’s 4K projector line,
and there is also a complete range of business
projectors and a very high-brightness noncinema
projector the SRX-T420 which is used
in applications such as Visualisation, Simulation
and large venue events /exhibitions. Audi,
Jaguar Land Rover and other key automotive
manufacturers all benefit from the Sony 4K
high resolution to speed up their costly design
process.
Common platform - common
development
The various projector ranges are based on
a common technology platform using the
SXRD (Silicon Crystal Reflective Display)
chip which is designed and developed at the
Atsugi Technology Centre, with the display
chips actually being manufactured in the Sony
semiconductor factory at Kumamoto in the
south of Japan. Keeping everything in house,
from chip manufacture through to the final
projector manufacture is regarded as a great
strength of the Sony DC projectors, whereas
competing DLP Cinema® projectors are made
by several other manufacturers who have to
buy in the essential light-engine components
from semiconductor manufacturer Texas
Instruments and build these into their own
projector designs.
SXRD basics
The technology of the SXRD chip design was
explained in some detail and it was shown
how the 1.55 inch diagonal display chip can
be manufactured with extremely small (0.35µ
- micron) gaps between the pixels. Such small

Polarised
light out
to panel
Light input
SXRD Panel
Pre-polarising beam splitter
PBS polarises the light prior
to reaching the SXRD panel.
A similar external polarised unit
is used on the reflected beam output from the
SXRD panel
inter-pixel gaps give an aperture ratio of over
92%, increasing the efficiency of the reflected
display, minimising light leakage between the
pixels and increasing the contrast of the final
display.
Liquid crystal displays use three elements to
modulate the passage of light: a pre polariser, a
rotation medium and a post polariser.
Prior to the light reaching the SXRD panel it
is pre-polarised by being reflected from an
external Polarised Beam Splitter (PBS).
At this point it is oriented in line with the
crystal alignment in the SXRD imager. The prepolarised
light beam then passes through the
vertically aligned SXRD liquid crystal material
which sets the final polarity. This is a special
vertically aligned design specific to SXRD.
Within the SXRD panel, the light reflects off
the surface of the Silicon backplane and back
towards the PBS. If the SXRD pixel has rotated
the light, it is then not aligned with the post-
PBS orientation and is allowed to pass. If the
incoming light has not been rotated, then it is
reflected within the PBS back into the source
light path.
The SXRD panel uses a production process that
Sony has perfected over the years in its own
dedicated manufacturing facility at Kumamoto,
allowing everything to be manufactured to the
highest of quality standards. No semiconductor
manufacturer will talk about yields, but I
gained the impression that the Sony process is
well under control, and that manufacturing a
range of SXRD chips for different equipment
has long been routine. I asked whether the
semiconductor development had come to a
halt, but was told that there is a continuing
process of development and improvement of
both the chips and the manufacturing methods
at Sony semiconductor, and we were given
examples of where improvements to the
manufacturing process had given rise to more
reliable operation.
In the SXRD panel, light from the lamp enters through the glass substrate at the top, passes through the Liquid
Crystal layer, reflects off the mirrored surface of the Silicon backplane, then passes out through the Liquid Crystal,
toward the lens and screen.
Not just the projector
The team were keen to stress that their Digital
Cinema offering doesn’t stop with the projector,
but includes a built in media block, with all
the security advantages that this can provide, a
library server, touch panel and a range of lenses
suitable for all cinemas.
The projectors have been designed to accept
a range of Xenon lamps from different
manufacturers, which means that cinemas can
choose the best and most economical lamp
for their situation, and that companies who
already have contracts with particular lamp
manufacturers for their existing projectors can
continue to use the same source when Sony
Digital Cinema projectors are installed - this
type of flexibility can often prove decisive
when contracts are being negotiated.
The hardware is complemented by a
range of software developed in-house
but in conjunction with users - cinema
managements and technicians. We were
told how the software systems involved with
the TMS (Theatre Management System), the
SMS (Screen Management System) and the
Cinewatch projection monitoring system are
continuously under development and how
feedback from cinema operators is used to
Index Matching Indium-Tin-
Oxide (IMITO) Glass
Substrate
Vertically Aligned Nematic
Liquid Crystal
Inorganic Alignment Layers
Silicon Backplane
make systems more usable - the Graphical
User Interface is a good example of part of the
system that has benefited from customer input
and feedback. We were given some ideas as to
future improvements that are being considered
by those actually working in this area, and it
was interesting to discuss with the engineers
responsible for writing the relevant software
their longer term plans for an ‘Enterprise TMS’
pre-show system that will also look after DCP
deliveries and tie everything in with booking
management, point of sale and signage systems.
The Sony engineers were obviously proud of
their LMT-300 4K media block, which is builtin
to the SRX-R320 projectors. Containing JPEG
2000 decoding equipment and 1.7 Terabytes of
storage, they told us that the Sony equipment
is now recognised by many in the cinema
business as a real competitor for the server
units made by their perhaps better known
competitors in this field.
The leader in 4K
Although Sony were late to the Digital Cinema
market compared with their DLP competitors,
their initial marketing to cinema owners
was based on the ‘we waited until we could
provide you with the best quality images, and
The Sony LMT-300 Media Block forms an integral part of the Sony Digital Cinema projectors
www.cinematechnologymagazine.com • cinema technology • september 2010

that means 4K’ story, which had something of a
ring of truth about it at the time, but with only
a small number of projectors established in
the marketplace the choice of system was yet
another headache for the cinema owner and it
is no surprise that many chose to stay with the
much longer established micromirrors. But time
moves quickly, and all that was nearly five years
ago, and the Atsugi team were keen to make
it clear to us that Sony/SXRD is certainly not a
minor player any more.
The initial sales were slow, with only tens sold
in the first couple of years, but 2009 saw a
huge uplift in sales, and several recent contracts
for the SRX-R320 have made Sony a player
to contend with. It is estimated that around
25% of all digital screens worldwide are now
equipped with Sony 4K equipment and we
were told that a total of around 4000 units had
been sold by the end of July 2010, the date of
our visit. With total world digital projector sales
of around 17,000 at that time, the 25% figure
seems believable, but our hosts weren’t content
with that and insisted that their current rate of
production and sales means that Sony expect
to ship 50% of the total number of Digital
Cinema projectors made in the calendar year
2010. We are all aware of the long lead times
that cinemas are facing in getting DLP ‘Series
2’ projectors out of the other manufacturers
at the current time, and, as our hosts kept on
reminding us, the others are all only 2K, and
only Sony can provide 4K now.
The total solution
The message the Japanese team wanted to
put across was that only Sony can provide
a one-stop-shop Digital Cinema solution,
and because they make the SXRD chip, the
media block, the projector and the Theatre
Management System, Sony has the best
knowledge about 4K Digital Cinema projection
systems. They are convinced that 4K is the
future (and we discussed in detail some of the
conclusions of the controversial Sony white
paper ‘Does 4K Really Make a Difference?’)
and made the telling points that Sony has been
providing 4K projector systems since 2007, and
that the SXRD chips enable them to provide 4K
projectors now.
Sony were delighted to tell me that they
have recently reached agreement with Toho
Cinemas, the largest cinema exhibitor in
Japan, to equip all their 545 screens with
Sony 4K projectors. In addition Sony will
provide the cinema group with ‘Digital Cinema
Solution Services’ including a TMS (Theatre
Management System), Central Server System,
customized maintenance and a service
operation which will include a call-centre,
remote management over network, and
regular maintenance visits. The arrangement
is designed to enable Toho Cinemas to
reduce both their initial investment and their
operational costs.
0 cinema technology • september 2010 • www.cinematechnologymagazine.com
The Sony 3D system works by positioning the left and right eye 2K images in an ‘over and under’
configuration within the image area of the 4K chip (shown grey). Both images are shown simultaneously at
24fps.
In general, for the cinema owner who is
planning to go to 4K they suggest that by using
the Sony system they can have the benefits of
4K immediately and on into the future, without
getting into the potential headaches that an
expensive and potentially time consuming
upgrade from a 2K to 4K DLP projector might
involve.
A better 3D system?
As one who has tried to keep an unbiased
view of the many 3D cinema systems, I was
interested to encounter the sheer full-blooded
enthusiasm put into their presentation on the
Sony 3D system, which was in turn described
as both ‘a better way of providing 3D’ and
‘flicker-free 3D’.
After a thorough analysis of the business
case for 3D cinema from the points of view
of film-makers, external content providers
(live concerts, sport, video games, special
events) and exhibitors, we were given good
explanations of how the system works, and
comparisons with the ‘triple-flash’ systems used
in conjunction with DLP® projection system.
Advantages claimed as unique for the Sony 3D
system included:
• No triple-flash artefacts. This gave rise to
an interesting discussion on what exactly
these artefacts might be and how worrying
(or not) they might be to a small crosssection
of a cinema audience.
• Full colour detail. The Sony 3D system
is the only one to use 4:4:4 colour subsampling
when encoding, the others use
4:2:2
• Fully compatible with 60p live content.
This should be especially suitable for
coverage of sports events and video gaming.
Not many exhibitors are yet aware how
this could impact their alternative content
business in the near future. Many sports
require fast moving images, and although
blurring may be tolerated on a small home
TV, it won’t be acceptable on a large cinema
screen. It is generally agreed that TV signal
capture and distribution will eventually
develop to a full progressive spec. Gaming
using the Playstation 3 can already provide
1080/60p images, and trials in the US have
proven that this can seriously become
another revenue stream for exhibitors,
especially when you consider that 6-8 new
game launch events take place each year.
Questions about 3D resolution
It is important to remember that so far all 3D
Digital Cinema systems are limited to 2K - there
is no such thing yet as a 4K 3D system. Some
critics (competitors?) of the Sony 3D system
have claimed that because of the way the two
images, for left and right eye, are laid out one
on top of the other on the image area of the
4K chip (diagram above), the 3D images are
actually slightly less than 2K resolution. The
facts are that when showing ‘flat’ i.e. 1:1.85
aspect ratio images (although ‘flat’ doesn’t
seem a particularly good word to use with 3D
images....) the Sony system actually needs to
crop just ten pixels (lines) from the top and ten
pixels from the bottom of the image, in order
to fit the two images onto the imaging area.
Any working projectionist will tell you that in
a real-life cinema situation you will frequently
need to lose this amount of image due to the
need for masking and blanking to be applied,
so, to me, this loss of a few lines top and bottom
on the imaging chip won’t make any difference
at all to the pictures that the audience
sees. I understand that all the major studios are
coming round to accepting this for 3D.
For ‘Scope images with a 1:2.39 aspect ratio
the two 2K images fit comfortably onto the

chip area without having to lose any pixels,
and it was pointed out that in cinemas which
use fixed height screens with moveable side
masking it could even be possible to increase
the pixel count if that were ever to be deemed
desirable.
Seeing for ourselves
We were then taken to the research centre’s
own ‘mini cinema’ preview theatre and wellequipped
projection room. We first of all
watched some excellent 4K clips shot on a
digital camera, followed by movie clips from
‘Dark Knight’. The 2D pictures on the silver
screen were good, and we were told that a
small blemish on the screen meant that the
screen was due to be replaced very soon.
We then moved to the adjacent projection
room, and watched as Senior Engineering
Manager Masato Aizawa, who had previously
introduced us to the projection facilities,
changed the projection lens on the SRX-R320
from 2D to the dual 3D version. Even under
the disadvantage of being watched closely by
me and my camera, the complete changeover
took him only about five minutes and clearly
showed me that the procedure would be very
practical in a working cinema, something that
I had had doubts about before. It was notable
that the lens mounting assembly has been
carefully arranged that no realignment of any
sort is needed (once the very first one-time
alignment has been carried out) when the 2D
lens is replaced by the dual-lens 3D assembly,
and once Aizawa-san had used the projector
touch-screen to call up the appropriate 3D
settings, the pictures in the auditorium were
immediately bright, sharp and in focus.
Hands on with the SRX-R320
We were provided with an excellent technical
session about the SRX-R320 projector, and
being allowed ‘hands-on’ access actually
answered many of the technical questions
that I had previously wanted to ask. The
Sony projector is physically somewhat longer
than its equivalent DLP competitors (which
admittedly don’t yet do 4K) and I had been
curious to find out why, and indeed asked
whether it might not be possible to reduce the
size of future projectors. Once I saw the optical
engine, based on a 1.55 inch chip, which is
considerable larger than the 1.2 inch and 0.98
inch chips of the DLP projectors, things started
to make sense.
The whole 1.55 inch active area of the SXRD
chip obviously needs to be fully illuminated
by the light from the Xenon, so all the optical
components need to be physically large enough
to carry the ‘light path’, and all these optical
components, including the triple colour prism
arrangements, need to be big enough for the
complete cross-sectional area of the light beam
to pass through. This explained some of the
extra size of the projector (the Sony engineers
were keen to remind me that the R320 is
considerably smaller than its predecessor, but
I argued that the size reduction had been
vertical rather than in horizontal length, and
that the length can be an embarrassment in
some small projection rooms). I pointed out
that a smaller overall design would increase the
number of applications for Sony digital cinema
projectors in smaller cinemas, perhaps allowing
for new projectors to be ceiling-hung in small
auditoria, and also noted that a number of the
Sony 4K data projectors are very much smaller
than the R320.
www.cinematechnologymagazine.com • cinema technology • september 2010

Having previously had considerable experience
of technical discussions with Japanese
broadcasting engineers, from whom I had
learned that they were always far too polite to
say a blunt ‘no’ to my sometimes outlandish
suggestions, I wondered whether I had perhaps
over-stepped the bounds of politeness by
asking such questions about the size of the
projectors, but it rapidly became apparent that
the Sony engineers and managers with whom
I spoke were very interested to discuss our
ideas, which made it much easier when we
came to talk about future developments in later
sessions.
To my mind there appears to be plenty of
‘spare’ space in the R320 cabinet at the
moment, and it is interesting to note that
the projector is air-cooled whereas some of
it competitors use the more complex liquid
cooling systems. So a redesign might be able
to save some space, but whilst the large 1.55
inch chip is in use, the chances of reducing the
size of the optical path are virtually nil. ‘So how
about developing a smaller 4K chip?’ was my
perhaps too provocative question, to which,
after much discussion, I gathered the reply
that it might be technically possible eventually,
but that the company first has to recoup some
of the vast investment that it has made in the
existing equipment. But I was also left with the
feeling that those Sony engineers might well be
beavering away secretly at something smaller
- it would be surprising if they weren’t.
The difficult questions
As we got to know each other better I became
brave enough to ask our hosts some of the
technical questions that are often raised about
the stability and the longevity of the SXRD
imaging chip technology. Although I well realise
that many of the potential so-called difficulties
may have been raised by those promulgating
the alternative DLP technologies, I also know
that experienced cinema installers whose views
I respect have told me that they have doubts
about whether the liquid crystal reflectors
on the SXRD chips will remain stable as they
are subject to the long-term heat from Xenon
lamps. They suggest that heat might affect the
colour consistency, an area where the DCI
specifications must be adhered to strictly, and
that the lifetime of the chips may be reduced
due to the effects of heat.
I was told that there is absolutely no evidence
for these suggestions - the word ‘myths’ was
actually used, and the Sony engineers provided
plenty of evidence to back their case.
The truth, of course, is that only time will prove
the validity of each side’s assertions, and that
whilst the DLP moving micro-mirror technology
has been proven over a period of more
than ten years, SXRD in Digital Cinema has
been available for less than half that time.
I was assured that due to the chip construction,
cinema technology • september 2010 • www.cinematechnologymagazine.com
using inorganic thin films which are not very
temperature sensitive to keep the liquid crystal
material in alignment, and to chip cooling
arrangements having been carefully designed
from square one, none of the suggested problems
with colour stability or limited lifetimes
has actually ever showed up in a working commercial
cinema projector.
I was reminded of the initial doubts about
the longevity of the silicon hinges of the TI
micromirrors - how could such tiny devices
survive billions of operations without mechanical
failure? More than ten years of experience
showed that there just isn’t a problem - only
a handful of DLP chips worldwide have ever
become faulty, in spite of millions being used
every day in all sorts of hostile environments.
The Sony engineers assured me that good
design applied to the SXRD chips in the digital
cinema projectors has ensured that there will
be no problems due to heat. The actual reflective
SXRD chips are mounted with substantial
heat sinks on their back surfaces, and each
chip is also mounted on a peltier effect device.
You can think of the peltier effect as that of a
thermocouple in reverse, whereby the application
of a voltage to a semiconductor junction
can produce a temperature difference - they
are even used in 12 volt car ‘fridges’ these
days! The peltier effect device controls the
temperature of the SXRD chip at all times,
cooling or heating as necessary, and I was told
that this, together with the airflow over the
heatsink, ensured that the chip temperature
remains within tightly controlled tolerances at
all times.
The ‘proof of the pudding’ could be that
those sourcing Sony 4K projectors under a
VPF financing arrangement are effectively
given a 10 year warranty that the equipment
will continue to operate to the original high
standards - a case of Sony ‘putting its money
where its mouth is’ - they wouldn’t be offering
such a warranty if they weren’t confident in the
longevity of their product.
Continuous improvement?
Having been told that the SXRD chips are
produced in the Sony semiconductor factory,
I asked if the chips were subject to continuous
development, and whether later chips are
better than earlier ones. It seems that although
projector users would not notice any differences,
semiconductor development is an ongoing
process, both to increase the yield of the
process and to improve consistency. Projectors
are now being fitted with what are effectively
the fifth generation of SXRD panels.
It was great to be able to talk with people who
knew about the detailed design of the SXRD
chips. They are currently conducting intensive
ageing tests, and it is obvious that many factors,
including lamp power, frequency of usage and
duration of usage will affect the lifetime of the
panels. I learned a great deal about the major
factors that can affect colour consistency, uniformity
and the longevity of the devices.
I was given an example of an improvement
that had taken place on the non-Cinema
projectors before the launch of the first Digital
Cinema projector, the SRX-R220, by making
the thin layer of thermo-conducting glue
between the chips and the heatsink more
consistent. It was interesting to hear that after
several years of checking each imaging chip as
it arrived at the assembly factory at Kosai, the
number of faulty chips received became so tiny
that this is no longer considered necessary, removing
the need for an extra checking process
and improving manufacturing efficiency and
reducing overall costs.
Future Gazing
I love visiting research and development centres,
since there are always clues to be picked
up about exciting new future developments.
Sony were obviously not going to give away
their crown jewels to a couple of journalists,
but we were privileged to learn in detail about
a brilliant new ‘beyond HD’ display monitor,
and to have a sneak preview of a new technology
that could prove extremely beneficial to
cinemas wanting to provide access technologies
such as subtitling and signing for people who
are hard of hearing.

The SRM-L560 is a 56-inch Quad Full HD
professional video monitor, delivering a staggering
3840 x 2160 resolution - four times that
of Full HD (1920 x 1080). One use that was
demonstrated was to show the screen with
four separate HD displays - ideal for broadcast
monitoring, except for its inevitable high cost.
Using similar technologies to those used in
Sony’s smaller top-quality broadcast monitors,
the SRM-L560 achieves accurate colour
reproduction, precise images, and unsurpassed
picture quality. Colour reproduction uses a 12bit
output accuracy signal processing engine,
a non-linear Cubic Conversion (NCC) colour
management system with 3D look-up tables,
and a sophisticated high-purity LED backlight
system using groups of LEDS covering the
whole area of the screen, rather than just providing
edge illumination, which is more usual.
This monitor can be used for many different
applications, but for cinema use it could be
superb for showing digital ‘rushes’ during movie
production and for DC post-production tasks
in true 4K without having to set up a 4K Digital
Cinema projector.
The list price of the SRM-L560 is about
US$80,000 US, around four times that of the
standard broadcast monitor. Quite a coincidence
that you pay four times the price for four
times the resolution, unlike the Sony 4K projector,
which isn’t even double the price of a
typical 2K model. The high cost of the monitor
wouldn’t matter on a feature film shoot costing
millions, of course, and the sheer convenience
of being able to critically examine 4K pictures
with ease may well make the SRM-L560 the solution
of choice on many a film production set.
And the ‘grand finale’ - laser light
A major bugbear of projection rooms everywhere
is the need for kilowatts of lamp power
cinema technology • september 2010 • www.cinematechnologymagazine.com
to illuminate the cinema screen. We need all
the light we can get, of course, but can’t easily
get around the problems that the unavoidable
accompanying heat brings with it.
Earlier this year an interesting news sheet
emanated quietly from Sony’s R&D department
under the headline ‘Sony develops highly
efficient RGB laser light source module for large
screen projectors’, and during my visit to Atsugi
I just had to find out more.
I wasn’t able to see one in action, but Sony has
developed an RGB laser light source module
that is working now, and which one day, in
the not too distant future, judging from my
conversations with the research engineers,
could be suitable for large screen digital
cinema projectors. The module incorporates
high power lasers of the three primary colours:
Red Green and Blue (RGB) with a combined
output power of 21W (equivalent to 5,000
lumens), in a single
package measuring just
15.2cm x 11.3 cm x 3.5
cm - approximately the
size of a paperback book.
The newly developed
RGB laser module uses
semiconductor diodes
for the red and blue lasers, and a compact,
high power solid-state SHG (Second Harmonic
Generation wavelength conversion) laser for
the green. Both the red and green lasers were
developed internally by Sony. The three lasers
generate output powers of 10W for red, 6W
for green, and 5W for blue, resulting in a
total of 21W. Energy conversion ratios for the
lasers range from 15 to 22% (18% on average),
representing extremely high efficiency for
this type of visible light laser and low energy
consumption within the module itself.
Sony expect this module to be used as the light
source for a range of projectors, from 1,000
lumen home theatre projectors to 10,000
lumen large screen projectors, and even
digital cinema projectors. The module design
is scaleable, since each generates collimated
low divergence light beams for each of the
three colours, enabling multiple modules to be
stacked.
When used in place of xenon lamps these
modules will provide high brightness (by
stacking multiple modules), much longer
lifetimes, lower power consumption, higher
contrast, a wider colour gamut, and, equally
importantly, the possibility of being able to
make the optical components much smaller,
which, as discussed earlier, could make for
more compact projectors.
An exciting future
The R&D people said that this technology is
in the process of being transferred to Sony
Manufacturing Systems Corporation, and that
sample shipments will be made later this year.
I guess that it will be some considerable time
before all the complications of designing
and building a laser-driven Digital Cinema
projector are overcome, but I left the Atsugi
R&D centre excited at the thoughts of what
such a development could mean for the future
of the cinema exhibition business. Smaller,
cooler-running solid state projectors with
no moving parts except fans could lead to
the rapid rollout of fully automated remotecontrolled
projection rooms in the cinemas of
the not-too-distant future and to a revolution
in the way that cinemas are manned and
operated.
Thanks to all the many Sony staff in Japan who
were so open and helpful in their discussions
and demonstrations, and willing to answer my
many questions so fully. Thanks also to Josh
Honda for making this visit possible and to
Mark Clowes who looked after me from start
to finish of what turned out to be a useful and
enjoyable trip.
In the next issue of Cinema Technology I
will be reporting on my visit to the Sony
factory in Kosai where the Sony 4K Digital
Cinema projectors are made, and taking a
look at some of the exciting new products
in the Sony HQ VIP showroom.