00 SONY PICTURES TECHNOLOGIES Mid-Range Plan: FY 2014 – FY 2016 Current Developments & Objectives SP Technologies Operations Technology Development Working with productions to leverage technology from Sony and other vendors to develop workflows to drive down production costs, improve workflows, eliminate unnecessary labor and reduce the time in post for Sony Pictures feature and television production. For example, eliminating the Digital Imaging Technician role on Screen Gems’ productions. Working with productions on and off set to assist film makers and television producers exploit new systems, such as the use of Sony's F65 and F55 digital cinema camera on After Earth, No Good Deed, One Direction 3D and new television productions. Developing the end-to-end ecosystem for 4k in conjunction with several Sony entities, other studios, Movielabs, and other technology and service providers Shooting technically good 4k content Creating picture delivery standards to improve the image quality so that 4k is about more than resolution Crucially, taking advantage of the new 4k market to raise the bar on industry standards for content protection. 4k is the most valuable version of the asset. Solving the problems of encoding 4k at reasonable bandwidths and file sizes.
11 SONY PICTURES TECHNOLOGIES Mid-Range Plan: FY 2014 – FY 2016 Current Developments & Objectives SP Technologies Operations Technology Development - continued Developing low cost ways to capture and archive 4K content to protect the long-term SPE library value for future commercialization. Some costs offset by support from Sony Corp’s 4K initiative. Developing forward looking technology applications such as Interactivity for digital delivery. Replacing Final Cut Pro in anticipation of Apple departing the professional software space. 4k Blu-ray standards The Verance watermark continues to be employed by filmmakers and the technology to detect the watermark has been installed in over 50 million PS3’s and is now required on all BD players released (targeting 38% penetration of all BD players by the end of 2012) supporting industry-wide anti-piracy efforts with technology for tracking piracy. Continue to advise Sony Electronics in its development of both consumer and professional products, especially those applications that have a direct impact on our business.
22 SONY PICTURES TECHNOLOGIES Mid-Range Plan: FY 2014 – FY 2016 Current Developments & Objectives SP Technologies Operations Digital Media Group DMG systems and services are increasingly helping to automate business processes and both SPE users and other Sony entities are continuing to replace vendor managed services in favor of DMG offerings at significantly reduced costs (approximately $8M {Ben to confirm} of avoided annual costs), including Screening Room Online and EAGL 2.0. The volume of digital assets managed by DMG continues to double year-over-year as more asset owners are seeking to leverage DMG for archiving and operational needs. Expanding tape library integration to all DMG systems and services to achieve lower per unit storage costs. Complete the integration of one DMG system with tape library storage to reduce operating costs. Investigate 3 rd -party cloud-based solutions to improve costs and increase flexibility. Significant reduction in physical deliveries of screeners as an internally-developed digital delivery method has been well adopted, and further roll-outs are planned.