Sony boss Kazuo Hirai chides hackers, spruiks products at CES

SONY boss Kazuo Hirai hit out at hackers as he announced new products including an ultra-thin TV.

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SONY has revealed a new ultra-high definition TV that is thinner than its current premium Xperia Z3 smartphone.

It was among new products revealed by the Japanese manufacturer at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sony has been facing tough times; job losses, a huge financial loss, the end of its Vaio PC business and what chief executive Kazuo Hirai described yesterday as a “vicious” cyberattack.

“Both Sony Pictures Entertainment former employees and certainly current employees were unfortunately the victim of one of the most vicious and malicious cyberattacks we have known in recent history,” he said.

“I am very proud of all employees and all the partners we’ve worked with as well who stood up against the extortionate effort of these criminals.

“I have to say freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of association, these are very important lifelines of Sony and our entertainment business.”

IN-DEPTH: CES 2015

Sony’s bright spot yesterday was its PlayStation 4 console sales. Mr Hirai said the company had sold more than 18.5 million PS4 consoles overall, including more than 4.1 million units during the holiday season.

“This is a remarkable success for this next generation console,” he said.

The pitch of yesterday’s speech further indicates the Japanese firm will move away from markets that drain its resources and concentrate on profitable and established ones. Cameras are one of these.

Another is image sensors, especially those it supplies to the automotive industry for drive assistance systems. Then there’s audio. Mr Hirai announced what he called a “symphonic load speaker” where the sound radiates out from a aesthetically designed lamp.

With its 4K TVs in market, Sony has been shooting series such as The Blacklist and Masters of Sex in 4K and Mr Hirai said the company would continue to strengthen its 4K content “both in creation and delivery”.

Sony Electronics president Mike Fasulo announced a new X900 C TV series, incredibly thin 4K LCD sets that were just 5mm thick and thinner than its current high-end Xperia smartphone. Units on display appeared to have little or no bezel, offering a modern look. The lower 40 per cent of the display however is thicker.

Mr Fasulo said all of Sony’s 2015 smart TVs would use Google’s latest Android TV platform. Voice recognition would include an ability to translate between 42 languages.

A new “X1” processor brought better upgrading of vision quality from any video source by improving not only resolution but also taking into account bitrate.

Sony would further develop its partnership with Netflix which will partner it to bring more 4K quality programs to its sets.

Yesterday Sony also announced a new version of its 4K hobbyist camera released last year. and reviewed by The Australian. The new 4K camera would be 30 per cent smaller, 40 per cent lighter and 50 per cent cheaper than last year’s model, Mr Fasulo said.

It would cost about $US1000 and included “balanced” optical image stabilisation which offered crisp shooting without the need for a tripod, he said.

Sony yesterday also took on the popular GoPro action camera by launching its own updated ultra high definition 4K camera. GoPro launched a 4K camera late last year. The new Sony action cam can shoot at up to 100 megabits per second.

The company is releasing a new stainless steel edition SmartWatch 3 from next month in the US.

Sony also announced a high definition audio walkman NW-ZX2 and a multi-sensor, waterproof headset prototype for fitness tracking.

At $US1200, the new walkman with its support for lossless CODECS is definitely for audiophiles and comes as legendary singer Neil Young is due to take the stage at CES to discuss his own PonoPlayer portable music player for high quality audio devotees.

* Chris Griffith travelled to CES in Las Vegas courtesy of Acer, Sony and Samsung.