Sony's "luxurious" range of TVs.

Yesterday, in a warehouse in the back streets of Sydney’s Alexandria, Sony Australia created a UCHI or “home”: a purpose built concept space to demonstrate cutting edge products which the company said “continue to redefine the digital landscape through advances in high definition, connectivity and design."

The event was exclusive to the media and will concludes with a release of Sony’s range of Blu-ray technology.

Small, light and connected products
Key themes within the UCHI , which was created in collaboration with designer Amanda Henderson, were products that were small, light and connected. Sony also displayed its understanding of women’s technology needs and, in fact acknowledged that the demands by the female consumer were driving many of the product concepts.

One of these was the global launch (in Alexandria) of the Vaio TT series, the world’s smallest and lightest Blu-ray notebook designed to fit into a handbag or tote. According to Sony marketing manager of the Vaio group, Kent Tanigaki, the TT series Vaio is the world’s lightest notebook PC with both Blu-ray reading and writing capabilities.

“It’s ideal for businesswomen who appreciate a little bit of down time after a long flight. The unit is powerful and portable enough to be a hardworking business notebook and is also perfect for watching high definition Blu-ray movies,” he told www.connectedwomen.net.au at the launch.

Sony has also shown women that it understands the power of colour and has designed the TT series in premium, carbon, black, gold and red. The products are available in store now and pricing ranging from $3,999-$2,999.

Notebook lights up when you touch it

Sony has released the world's lightest ranges of Vaio notebooks.

The sister range to the TT is the VAIO CS series encased in gloss white, red, pink, bronze, black and matte black. The CS range incorporates artificial intelligence technology, which means the full colour LED and new touch sensor enables the CS to respond by “lighting up” when you touch its cover.

Tanigaki said that Sony was exploring the space where “technology and fashion intersect.”
The CS range features ‘12 Tone Analysis’ technology in VAIO MusicBox which categorises an entire music collection on the notebook into 24 ‘moods’, delivering a soundtrack for every part of the day.

Designer Colette Dinnigan and photographer Gary Heery, collaborated to demonstrate Sony’s new _900 digital SLR camera which showcase images through a unique digital fabric printing procedure.

The VAIO Movie Story function matches the choice of theme and soundtrack with video clips and photos, then adds special effects, cinematic transitions and synchronised music to quickly create a homemade movie.
Pricing ranges from $1,699-$1,499 and the CS is available next month.

Creative minds behind showcase
Sony also called on some of Australian creative heavyweights to contribute to the showcase, including renowned photographic artist, Gary Heery, who used Sony’s new _900 digital SLR camera to showcase images through a unique digital fabric printing procedure.

Meanwhile, Australian fashion icon Collette Dinnigan designed a gown exclusively for UCHI. A one off couture creation, Sony claimed that “the gown gives new meaning to tech-fused fashion.”

TV as slim as CD case
The world’s thinnest production LCD TV, the BRAVIA ZX1 was also unveiled at the UCHI. In fact, the 9.9mmi HD TV is as thin as a CD case.

The Bravia ZX1 available in 2009 is as slim as a CD case.

Sony senior marketing manager Noriyasu Yamada told www.connectedwomen.net.au that this engineering advance was achieved by using side-mounted LEDs to illuminate the screen, instead of the usual backlight array.

“Edge LED technology is the secret,” he said, “whether it is mounted on the wall or on its table-top stand, the ZX1 won't be marred by wires from set top boxes or other devices. The two-part system uses a super-fast wireless connection to deliver a top-quality HD signal from the media receiver, which contains the MPEG4 AVC HD tunerii, to the ZX1 in real time.

The BRAVIA ZX1 won’t be available until 2009, and pricing hasn’t been released yet.

Sony also displayed its latest range of new digital cameras, personal audio and audio as well as Blu-ray players. www.connectedwomen.net.au will bring you updates on these products in upcoming editions.