Sony: Security Direction for the Future

At a press meeting held in Tokyo on November 1st, Sony stated that its Professional Solutions Business, which provides broadcast- and professional-use products and services, would focus on the following three priority strategic initiatives: Content creation (image production), digital cinema and visual security. One consequence of Sony's focus on security is the new video security organization in Europe. GIT-SECURITY.com had the opportunity to talk to Bruno Winnen, Head of Video Security Europe, about the new organization and Sony's strategy and direction for the security market.

GIT-SECURITY.com: In October you reorganized your activities in the field of security. Can you explain our readers what is the change and why Sony changed the organization?

B. Winnen: In the past we had a more regionally organized structure for the whole Professional Solutions Business. This meant that we had no true pan-European strategy and we had differences in the product offering, the way to market and the marketing for the different countries. With Sony now having recognized security as a strong area of growth, we installed a pan-European organization with regional teams 100 % dedicated to video security. Now we have one European team, one strategy to the market and specialist who concentrate on video security. Within this team, Simon Nash will head the North Region including the UK, Ireland and the Nordics. Chris Vandenbrouck and his team will be responsible for the Central Region including Benelux, DACH, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, while Fabien Hubsch will head the South East Region team that takes care of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Greece and east Europe. Product specialists in every country will support the teams and pan-European marketing managers will be responsible for the product line-up and the positioning of the different products in the market. Our customers, specifiers, system integrators and end users will benefit from this new organization.

A new organization is one thing but will you also change your approach to the market?

B. Winnen: Yes, there will also be a change with regard to our distribution and our relationship to installers and system integrators. In the past we did not have the resources to go for a second-tier strategy. With a clear strategy and a leaner organization we will now invest even more into our partnership with the distributors and we will introduce a new partner program in the near future. We will have a very close relationship with our Integrators and installers and our aim is to help them to be successful in their business. During 2010 we had a closer look at the distribution channels within Europe and we do now concentrate on distributors that play a pro-active role in the market. The results are fifty percent less distributors in Europe but a hundred percent dedication to service and partnership.

How does your product strategy look like for the near future?

B. Winnen: In general Sony is focused to enhance its product competitiveness through platform integration and common chassis development with our semiconductor and consumer business units. We have fully renewed our lineup over 12 months and just completed 28 models of HD lineup deployment to the market. We do already have a good position when it comes to high-end products, but we expanded our product line-up more to entry to mid range through development of cost-competitive products like the new X-series. Furthermore, we introduced 4ch/8ch plug and play turn-key HD recording solution (NSR-S series) to make the IP/HD easier for everybody in the industry. By these lineup expansion, Sony is now positioned not only high end camera manufacturer, but also affordable entry HD security solution provider.

There are more and more HD cameras on the market. What are the USP's of Sony cameras?

B. Winnen: Our R&D departments are constantly working to improve the picture quality of our cameras. As a lot of key components like CMOS image sensors are developed by Sony, it is easier for us to ensure superior picture quality. If you look at the picture quality, HD resolution is almost the new standard. But resolution is only one component of picture quality for security application. We want to combine HD pictures with great low light performance in our day/night cameras and have integrated IR illuminators in some of our cameras. We also focus on the development of better and better Wide Dynamic Range capabilities of our cameras. Normally the higher the resolution of a camera is, the more difficult it is the offer a good WDR functionality. The introduction of our „View-DR" technology dramatically enhances visibility in bright and dark areas.

What do you want to achieve in the next months?

B. Winnen: We aim to become the market leader in IP by the end of 2012 in Europe. Nothing less than that.