Las Vegas, NV—Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, took the stage at Sony’s press conference held on the eve of CES 2023’s opening day. He explained that collaboration with creators who create Kando (emotion) is essential to advancing Sony’s purpose to “fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology.”
Yoshida also emphasized that the “live” sharing of time and space is the essence of entertainment. He added that Sony’s creation and interaction technology will support the virtual world to provide live experiences—and connect them with the physical world in exciting ways.
Sony is exhibiting in the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth # 18600. In addition, coverage of Sony’s press conference and videos introducing its booth exhibits are accessible via the online platform Sony Square.
Sony at CES 2023
Under the theme “Moving People Forward,” Sony’s exhibition focuses on its efforts to “move people’s hearts and expand the possibilities of entertainment.” It plans to do so through its collaboration with creators as well as through various technologies and initiatives relating to the metaverse, mobility and other areas.
Moreover, as an environmental initiative, some of the booth panels are made of Original Blended Material, a paper material developed by Sony. It is an environmentally conscious paper material made from bamboo, sugar cane and post-consumer recycled paper. Sony is also working to reduce environmental impact by reusing curtains from other events and utilizing rental materials.
Moving Creators Forward
Here are some highlights of the Sony booth at CES 2023.
Star Sphere
This project attempts to bring space closer to all and discover space perspectives to provide an opportunity to think about the global environment and social issues. On January 3, 2023, a remote controllable nano-satellite called EYE was launched.
It integrates a camera capable of shooting from space. Sony is exhibiting the Space Shooting Lab. The experimental simulator proposes a “space” for experiential photography from space that Star Sphere will offer in the future. It also has a mock-up of a nano-satellite with Sony camera equipment.
Technology for Creators
This booth showcases image production solutions. They include digital cinema cameras such as the Venice 2; the Alpha full-frame mirrorless camera series; the VlogCam series; the professional Airpeak drone; and Xperia smartphones.
It also features the Creators’ Cloud, a cloud-based media production platform. In addition, Sony is demonstrating high-quality sound content production through microphones and headphones for professionals and general creators.
Expanding Potential of Virtual and Physical
Virtual Fan Engagement
Sony is conducting a PoC (proof of concept) with English Premier League football club Manchester City. The goal is to encourage the next generation of online fan communities via engagement through the combination of physical and virtual to excite both new and existing sports fans. 
In the booth, visitors experience metaverse content as if they were in the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City’s home, reproduced in virtual space. Fans can express their feelings for the team by creating their own customizable avatars on their smartphones. In the future, they can connect with millions of fans worldwide, in addition to accessing services to increase engagement.
Sports Fan Experiences Created from Live Sports Data
This exhibit introduces initiatives related to new data-driven sports fan experiences. It takes visitors through the journey of sports data from data capture on the field. It creates virtual content in real time and offers it on various platforms to fans. Multiple technologies from Hawk-Eye Innovations, Beyond Sports and Pulselive, all Sony Group companies, showcase Sony’s sports businesses’ ability to “revolutionize how we capture, visualize, deliver and make interactive live-action data for the fans.”
Portable Volumetric Capture
This area showcases a prototype of a new system that can capture and distribute animated 3D reconstructions of people, objects and spaces with low latency in any location. The system only requires seven sensors, which allows setup anywhere quickly, meeting the demand for live 3D video distribution. Visitors can experience a 360º view of Manchester City players and the audience shown in a 3D metaverse space.
Spatial Reality Display
Sony is featuring a 27-inch prototype of the Spatial Reality Display (SR Display) that reproduces the real world with 3D spatial images. The larger screen format enables the display of life-sized objects.
Consequently, engineers can reproduce product designs more realistically, for example. At the booth, the SR Display shows 3D computer graphics content with applications in various fields, such as point cloud data used in VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality).
Previsualization Powered by “mocopi”
Previsualization technology is demonstrated using Sony’s mobile motion capture system, “mocopi.” It allows creators to check their camerawork and character positions with VFX editing at the preproduction stage. A CG model is shown on the viewing monitor, which is synchronized in real time with the movement of a performing model wearing the mocopi device. Sony believes this technology will streamline production workflow, allowing creators to simulate production at an early stage.
