Sony

The newest console released in the PlayStation series, as well as Sony’s entry in the seventh-generation of consoles, is the PlayStation 3 (also called PS3), which launched in November 2006. It uses a unique processing architecture called the Cell microprocessor, a proprietary technology developed by Sony with the help of Toshiba and IBM. The graphics processing unit, the RSX ‘Reality Synthesizer’, was co-developed by NVIDIA and Sony. So far, it is behind its competitors, the Xbox 360 and Wii in terms of sales. Due to IBM’s location PlayStation 3 had to be designed and built in Sony’s Wonder Technology Lab based in New York City.Several versions of the ps3 have been released including the 20, 40, 60, and 80gb versions. The 20 and 60GB have been discontinued due to high production costs.

Currently the world’s best selling console, Sony’s follow-up console, the PlayStation 2 or PS2 or PSX2 was released in Japan on March 4, 2000 and later in North America on October 26, 2000. The PS2 is powered by a proprietary central processing unit, called the Emotion Engine and was the first video game console to have DVD playback functionality. Some game developers complained that the PlayStation 2 was too hard to develop for, and others also claimed that the PS2 was not as powerful as its competitors. Despite these complaints, the PlayStation 2 had widespread support from third party developers and was very successful in the marketplace. It placed first in number of units sold in its generation, with Microsoft’s Xbox placing a distant second, Nintendo’s GameCube third and Sega’s Dreamcast fourth, which had been discontinued.

Sony’s first foray into the video game market, the PlayStation (codenamed PSX during development, currently called PSone), was initially set to be an add-on for Nintendo’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System (a.k.a. Super Famicom) video game console as an answer to Sega’s Sega CD. When the prospect of releasing the system as an add-on dissolved, Sony transformed it into the PlayStation video game console. The PlayStation was released in Japan on December 3, 1994 and later in North America on September 9, 1995. The system was widely popular and became the best selling home console up until that time.

Sony Computer Entertainment, Incorporated (???????????????????????, Kabushiki Gaisha Son? Konpy?ta Entateinmento?) (SCEI) is a Japanese video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, mostly in video game consoles and is a full subsidiary of Sony that was established on November 16, 1993 in Tokyo, Japan.

SCEI handles the Research & Development, production, and sales of hardware and software for their high-selling PlayStation line of handheld and video game consoles. SCEI is also a developer and publisher of video games for their systems, and is comprised of several subsidiaries covering the company’s biggest markets: America, Europe, Oceania and Asia. The Original Soundtracks of its game franchises are produced and distributed by Sony’s Japanese distributive unit Aniplex.

The Chairman and CEO of SCEI was Ken Kutaragi who is also known as “The Father of the PlayStation”. Kutaragi also served as President of SCEI until November 30, 2006 when the position was replaced by Kaz Hirai. On April 26, 2007 Sony announced that Kutaragi will retire from his executive position at SCEI effective June 19, 2007. Kaz Hirai’s position, who was President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, is now held by Jack Tretton.

Currently based in Minami-Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, it also has offices around the world such as in in the United States in Foster City, California, USA and a distribution center Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Also in Canada with offices and in distribution center in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. In Australia the offices are in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

A parody of this advert was run in the UK by Tango, a brand of soft drink. The advert was filmed in Swansea, Wales and featured fruit in place of bouncing balls.

Circulating only throughout the internet, a video filmed by a clan features 64 players simultaneously hopping down a slope and over Humvees on the Sharqi Peninsula, a map in Battlefield 2. Instead of “BRAVIA - Color like no other” at the end of the original Bouncy Balls commercial, the clan’s video read “Bunny hopping - Like no other”.

On Belgian television, channel VT4 showed a commercial for a soccer event, using soccer balls and the same music as the Sony commercial.

At the Game Developers Conference of 2008, video game developer Crytek reproduced the commercial to demonstrate its CryEngine 2 game engine. Instead of multi-colored bouncy balls, Crytek used bouncing teapots. At the end of the demonstration, the video reads “Realtime - Like no other.”

Siana, a World of Warcraft player on the Kazzak(EU)realm made a parody replacing the bouncing balls with gnomes jumping down the Ironforge hill. The video ends with all the gnomes formed like a heart around Siana and the text “Gnomes - like no other” is shown. The video then fades off, and the World of Warcraft logo is shown.

The launch of the BRAVIA brand was supported by an advertising campaign featuring 250,000 brightly-colored rubber balls (real, not computer-generated) bouncing down a San Francisco street. The advertisement was made by former Danish photographer Nicolai Fuglsig. The idea was originally a segment of The Late Show with David Letterman in 1996, in which bouncy balls rolled down the same street. Fallon, the advertising agency involved with the commercial, denied ever having watched the episode and claimed the similarity was a coincidence. Their idea was brought to life by director Nicolai Fuglsig with the help of Los Angeles-based special effects guru Barry Conner. In addition to the 12 air mortars, Conner deployed three giant skips, each lifted 50 feet into the air and containing 35,000 coloured bouncy balls.

The first shot required 50,000 balls to be sent cascading down a hill, colliding at a road junction with a further 50,000 that had been fired along a side street. A team of 50 interns was on hand to gather up the balls for the six takes it took over four days. Golf nets were erected at the sides of the street and every drain was blocked.

This television and cinema advertisement is accompanied by the song Heartbeats, written by Swedish duo The Knife and performed by José González. The track became very popular on radio stations in the UK after it was released by Peacefrog Records. The advert helped his debut album Veneer reach number 7 in the UK albums chart.

The soundtrack used in the beginning of the backstage video, Making of Sony Bravia Commercial, is Everything Is Alright by Four Tet.

Like other high definition television lines the various Bravia models differ in capability as well as screen size. Display capability depends on which high definition outputs are supported, and the input signal supplied to the television. Bravia televisions can display video from a variety of sources. The quality of the picture depends on the quality of the input.

The coax connector can receive regular television broadcasts, cable and VCR/DVD output and will also receive and decode whatever high definition content is available on broadcast or cable television. Most high definition television which is broadcast is in the lower resolution high-definition formats.

Other traditional VCR/DVD outputs such as S-Video or Composite video deliver the traditional television resolution that is no better than the resolution displayed by traditional television.

The HDMI input delivers the highest quality signal to the television and produces the highest quality high definition television picture, to the limits of the capabilities of the television. However, all HDMI has the HDCP content protection system built-in and this will degrade resolution of the display should the HDCP detect the presence of an unauthorized device. This limits the devices which deliver high definition TV content to those which are unable to record or otherwise duplicate protected content.

A VGA style computer connection is available, however the resolution of the video signal received from a computer may be limited to resolutions below the capability of the television depending on the capabilities of the computer’s graphics card.

Purists will want to adjust the display on installation. The default configuration artificially enhances the color and contrast of the image to produce a more eye-catching, “vivid”, display. This is easily done via a menu selection.

Some of the higher end XBR models include MotionFlow 120 Hz, Sony’s name for frame interpolation.

BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions as well as front and rear projection TVs. The name is an acronym of “Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture”. All new Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America now carry the BRAVIA logo. The name BRAVIA replaces the “LCD WEGA” brand name which Sony used for their LCD TVs until Summer 2005 (early promotional photos exist of the first BRAVIA TVs still bearing the WEGA name).

The BRAVIA brand is also used on mobile phones in the Japanese market

In June, 2006, Spanish-language support for domestic U.S. customers and Central/South American customers was re-established after a period of hiatus at an Argentina-based third-party call center company named Teleperformance. This facility is manned by a team of approximately 30 agents who are tasked with support for Sony’s VAIO notebook and desktop computers, as well as Sony’s line of consumer electronics, such as televisions, DVD players, digital recorders, video and still-image cameras, and sound systems. Unlike their English-only counterparts, these agents are empowered to make determinations of hardware failure and arrange service as necessary to resolve customers’ product concerns.

In June of 2007, Alorica transitioned the Sony technical support to another location, having replaced it with their support account for a warehouse retailer.

The last permanent head of the CISC was SEL Vice President Maureen Reed.

The person currently leading operations at the CISC is Mr. David Christopher.