South Africa to be 3D’s testing ground

Sony SA has announced the launch of 3D in South Africa in 2010. While the FIFA 2010 World Cup is being held in South Africa this year, Sony Corporation considers South Africa as a most important market to promote 3D.

With the near-completed Soccer City stadium near Soweto as the backdrop, Sony SA this week showcased its first ever Full HD 3D Bravia TV for the home. As a global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, Sony were able to bring retailers and the media into the stadium to view progress in the construction of the stadium first hand. However, the LX-900 Series, which features 3D integrated technology, Motionflow Pro 200Hz, LED Backlight technology and built-in Wi-Fi access, competed strongly for attention.

While Sony SA expects retail sales to be flat during the World Cup, it sees the tournament as a testing ground for the technology, and will also use it to create a marketing platform, along with a massive consumer education focus on new television formats. The real market take-off, says Andrew Fraser, Senior Brand Manager at Sony SA, will happen in the run-up to the holiday season at the end of the year.

“This Christmas will be a 3D Christmas,”” he says.

Revolutionary 3D Integrated Technology

Imagine movie images that vividly leap out from the TV screen to the living room in Full HD clarity ‚ that is the fully-immersive entertainment experience that BRAVIA LX-900 can deliver. Under the hood, BRAVIA LX-900 is powered by Sony’s revolutionary 3D Integrated technology, combining a 3D Sync Transmitter, frame-sequential display and high frame rate Motionflow 200Hz technology at a specific signal processing speed to reproduce Full HD resolution 3D images. To ensure users fully enjoy 3D viewing on the BRAVIA LX-900, the 3D TV also comes bundled with two sets of active shutter glasses that are synchronized with the images shown on the display. Additional active shutter glasses can be purchased separately.

Premium Monolithic Design

Complementing the BRAVIA LX-900’s high performance display features is its sleek premium Monolithic design. The Monolithic design is Sony’s new aesthetic direction for its home entertainment collection in 2010. BRAVIA LX-900’s screen flows seamlessly into its bezel in a frameless design, offering viewers an engaging new cinematic experience, in addition to being a conversation piece in any living space.

BRAVIA Internet Video & BRAVIA Widgets with Wi-Fi Connectivity

Apart from being a revolutionary 3D TV, the BRAVIA LX-900 is also capable of high performance as a regular Full HD LCD TV with value-added features. The BRAVIA LX-900 offers hours of endless entertainment to users with the BRAVIA Internet Video & BRAVIA Internet Widgets features.

Intelligent Energy-saving Features

Keeping the environment in mind, Sony has equipped the BRAVIA LX-900 with energy-saving features such as the Intelligent Presence Sensor and Ambient Sensor. The Intelligent Presence Sensor switches the TV to Picture Off Mode when it cannot detect faces within a certain range of the TV. This is a great tool especially for users who leave the room and may forget to come back to turn off the TV or for people who doze off in the middle of watching a show.

On the other hand, the Ambient Sensor automatically adjusts the picture brightness according to the amount of light available in the viewing environment, thus lowering power consumption when viewing in a dimly lit room. Additionally, the BRAVIA features several Eco Settings including the Energy Saving Switch and Edge-lit LED backlight technology that helps to reduce power consumption while improving upon backlight performance as compared with conventional CCFL backlight TVs.

Sony SA plans to have the BRAVIA LX-900 available in South Africa before the end of 2010.

In addition, 3D Ready, 100Hz models – the NX710 and NX810 Series – should be launched in South Africa during the South African winter 2010.

The new Sony 3D and 3D-Ready TV pricing is not finalised but is anticipated not to be higher than current models with equivalent frame rates.

Andrew Fraser, Senior Brand Manager at Sony SA is with the 3D Bravia TV that will be launched in SA in the second half of 2010.

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