Sony's 3-D Dreams

http://www.forbes.com/enterprisetech/2009/01/08/ces-stringer-keynote-tech-enter-cx_de_0108stringer.html

David M. Ewalt, 01.08.09, 4:00 PM ET

LAS VEGAS -

LAS VEGAS--By the standards of the International Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer is a big star. But he's got nothing on Tom Hanks.

Stringer's keynote address at CES Thursday opened with an appearance by the Oscar-winning actor, who has a new Sony Pictures film, Angels and Demons, coming out in May. Hanks launched into a funny naughty-child routine, reading marketing text off the teleprompter in a disinterested monotone and sniping at overenthusiastic copy. On an assertion that Sony digital video technology allows anybody to pick up a camera and shoot and edit his own TV show, Hanks said, "And what a gem of a program that must be."

Hollywood dreams dominated the nearly two-hour presentation. Stringer demonstrated "Flex OLED," a thin, bendable, full-color digital video screen. He trotted out Walt Disney and Pixar animation head John Lassetter to testify about how Sony's Blu-ray discs improve the at-home movie-watching experience. And he showed off wonky-looking prototype spectacles that can superimpose movies inside the wearer's field of vision.

"Oh look, they're so cool and hip," joked Hanks. "I think these are the best glasses Sony's ever made."

But the real star of the show--at least, the technological star--was digital 3-D. During a demo, the audience was asked to put on black plastic sunglasses with polarized lenses. The specs, from 3-D technology maker RealD, look more like Buddy Holly's eyewear than the old red and blue glasses used in 1950s movie houses, and provide a much more startling experience. Stringer showed off a Pixar-animated clip of anthropomorphic cars racing through a digitized Tokyo, as well as footage captured last week during the FedEx Orange Bowl. Both segments popped out at viewers, even in the less than ideal viewing conditions of a conference center ballroom.

If they catch on, 3-D movies could be a boon to companies like Sony , which have watched movie revenues fall, thanks to inexpensive home theaters that keep consumers out of multiplexes. But the technology required to display a digital 3-D film is so complicated it can't realistically be replicated at home, which could send interested viewers back to the silver screen.

"I think that 3-D represents the opportunity to actually re-energize our audiences worldwide about the film medium and give them an experience that can only be seen in the movie theaters," said DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, who joined Stringer onstage. DreamWorks has completely retooled its studio to make 3-D movies, he said, and starting this year, every one of the studio's films will be produced in 3-D, beginning with the very first storyboard.

Katzenberg, who Stringer called "the John the Baptist of 3-D," likens the new film format to a revolution on the scale of the transition from silent movies to synchronized sound in the 1920s, and the arrival of color movies in the 1930s. "Here we are 70 years later, and the movie industry is entering what I believe will be a third period of change," Katzenberg said.

Stringer also announced developments on smaller screens. Sony Pictures Television and Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions will debut Dr. Oz, a franchise starring Oprah's doctor, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in the fall of 2009. Oz joined Stringer onstage for an awkward segment where he measured the CEO's waistline (39 inches) and lectured the buffet-happy Vegas crowd about the dangers of overeating.

Stringer also brought on New York Yankees Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson to plug the company's involvement in the team's new stadium, which will feature more than 500 Bravia televisions in concourses, restaurants and luxury suites, as well as a Sony-powered TV control rooms.

Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai took the stage to tout the company's achievements in the gaming world. Sony's gaming console has lagged behind competing products from Microsoft and Nintendo: Recent sales figures show there are more than 35 million Nintendo Wiis on the market, 28 million Microsoft Xbox 360s and 20 million PlayStation 3s.

But Hirai focused on the positive: good growth in PlayStation's online gaming platforms, including more than 330 million content downloads and 17 million accounts on the PlayStation Network. He showed off a new game called FreeRealms, a multi-user world aimed particularly at teen girls, which is in open beta-testing and due to launch later this year. And he announced a partnership with MTV networks to provide more than 2,000 hours of programming for Sony's digital video delivery service, which already boasts nearly 1,200 movies and 3,000 TV episodes.

Sony's computer division got a little bit of attention for its hot new gadget, a Vaio notebook PC that weighs in at just 1.4 pounds and is as thin as a deck of cards. Stringer drew the slim gadget out of his jacket pocket and promised attendees it would deliver "a full PC experience," not the limited functionality of other hardware in the increasingly popular "netbook" market.