Sony Bows 8K Camera for Generating 8K, 4K, HD Signal Outputs Simultaneously

Sony used the IBC 2017 show Friday to lift the wraps off its first 8K broadcast camera to include three 8K sensors. “Sony always has its eye on the future,” Richard Scott, head of media solutions at Sony Professional Europe, told a news conference webcast live from Sony’s IBC booth in Amsterdam. The UHC-8300 “has been designed to cover all of the features necessary for premium productions, including live broadcasts and high-end documentaries,” Scott said. Sony developed the UHC-8300 with “customer input provided by NHK,” which is planning the launch of 8K commercial broadcast services in 2018 as a prelude to 8K Super Hi-Vision coverage of the Tokyo Olympics in July 2020, he said. “We expect this camera to be used not only for 8K production, but also for 4K production,” he said. “It’s able to generate 8K, 4K and HD signal outputs simultaneously, applying different color spaces and OETF to each signal,” he said of the opto-electronic transfer function for high dynamic range. With its three 8K sensors, the camera “gives media companies the flexibility to capture content in 8K with the possibility to cut out a 4K image in real time for use in 4K HDR live production,” Scott said. The Sony DADC New Media Solutions business, which offers digital supply chain services and physical disc replication, is being put under the wing of the Sony Professional Solutions Group, said Adam Fry, vice president-Sony Professional Europe. The move is in keeping with Sony Professional’s strategy to convert itself from a company known exclusively as a broadcast hardware products supplier to “one offering an equal balance of hardware and services within just a few years,” Fry said. “We are now able to offer services to our customers right from the digitization of archives through to media production and distribution on fully managed” over-the-top platforms, he said. “This, I believe, will accelerate Sony to being a true services company.”