USA - From April 6-9, Sony’s NAB Show 2025 exhibit in Las Vegas (N439) immersed attendees in leading innovations, insights, workflows, and expertise supporting four key areas: live production solutions, news and production workflows, imaging solutions, and virtual production.
New highlights include a Super35mm camera system with Variable Neutral Density (VND), an ultra-compact full-frame camera extension system, and a camera tracking solution for enriching content creation.
Sony’s enhancements and technologies support the latest industry needs and capabilities by enabling new forms of expression and productivity through cloud and IP protocols, cinematic capture, and Spatial Content creation, as well as augmented extended reality (XR) and virtual effects (VFX) workflows. The company is empowering broadcasters, cinematographers, production teams and content creators at all levels to bring their vision to life with more flexibility and efficiency.
Introducing the next step in the evolution of Sony’s long-standing system cameras, the HDC-F5500V Super 35mm 4K CMOS camera for live production made its debut at NAB Show 2025. The camera features a global shutter imager, PL lens mount, and a new optional software licence adds VND capabilities for increased depth of field control and a wide range of brightness control through virtual iris capabilities.
Designed for the demands of today’s live productions, the camera provides beautifully detailed imagery and ND control during on-tally. It also offers workflow advantages including a wealth of features for HDR and SDR production, and the same infrastructure as its HDC-5500V 2/3-inch counterpart, including IP networking, remote multi-camera operation and an in-CCU (camera control unit) record option. It is planned to be available in summer 2025.
As virtual production gains market adoption, Sony is at the forefront with an inclusive suite of virtual production offerings that support Spatial Content Creation. At NAB Show 2025, the company introduced the Ocellus (ASR-CT1) camera tracking system, a marker-free tracking system that can be used indoors and outdoors. This new solution is camera agnostic and uses four out of five image sensors on a sensor unit to track feature point on video signals. The Ocellus is designed for use in both broadcast applications such as news, sports and weather, as well as cinematic applications. The camera tracking system is expected to be available in fall 2025.
Additionally, Sony’s Virtual Production Tool Set, a series of resources that streamlines pre-production and on-set workflows, is gaining new features to bring pre-visualisation to life, before a production takes place. Updated software addresses viewing angle correction and adds Crystal LED off-axis colour compensations. In addition, it provides rendering high picture quality CG backgrounds at high frames per second by ray-tracing acceleration, and also supports real-time moiré alerts display for VENICE 2 operation.
