People
Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO Utilizing Virtual Production Technology to share message with global employees
Nov 4, 2020
Every quarter, Sony holds a global meeting addressing all 110,000 Sony Group employees worldwide. At the end of October this year, messages from Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO and other top management were broadcasted live※1 to the world. Initially, the event was planned to be held at the studio of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) in the U.S. and distributed globally. However, in view of the current situation, the event was held virtually.
Kenichiro Yoshida’s message to Sony Group employees utilized "Virtual Production Technology" that enables remote video production, making it seem as if he was speaking from the Sony Pictures Studio lot. The famed landmark Thalberg Building, located within the Sony Pictures Studio lot, was captured and converted into a volumetric point-cloud asset, and then recreated on a large display using Sony Innovation Studios’※2 Atom View technology, as a backdrop for Kenichiro Yoshida in Tokyo. By synchronizing the camera lens and the background, the video is created in real time, to appear as though Kenichiro Yoshida is speaking to all employees from the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, California.
With the current difficulty of travel and transportation of goods across borders, “Remote” technologies are essential in the world of today. See the potential for Sony's Virtual Production Technology, that extends to applications including cinematography, within the realm of entertainment.
※1 Kenichiro Yoshida delivered a pre-recorded message which was then distributed.
※2 Sony Innovation Studios is a new state-of-the-art digital technology facility established by SPE in June 2018.
