"Live" Entertainment and "Real Time"
■ Entertainment is "LIVE"
On Sunday, June 3rd, I attended a concert by the Sony Philharmonic Orchestra at the Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo. One of the reasons is because I succeeded the role of special adviser from Hirai-san for this orchestra which is comprised of diverse members from among current and former Sony Group employees and their families. The orchestra performed Brahms' Violin Concerto and other pieces, and I listened to the performance in the company of the Ambassador of Austria to Japan. I learned that Brahms was born in Germany and much of his professional life was spent in Austria.
The performance of the solo violinist was outstanding and she explained the origins of the cadenza played in the latter half of the first movement when I visited her after the performance. Hearing such music performed live reaffirmed my belief that "the essence of entertainment is LIVE."
■ Getting Closer to People through "Live" Content
As I spoke about at our Corporate Strategy Meeting on May 22 and at our Management Conference on the 24th, our mission is to deliver kando to people, and to achieve this, our fundamental approach at Sony is "getting closer to people." Bringing together users and creators through our products, services, and content, and delivering to them a "live" experience they can only have through us, is one way we can get "closer to people." At Sony Music Japan's all-hands meeting "Sony Music GROUP MEETING 2018" (April 27), I mentioned that the music events at Zepp Halls and artist meet-and-greets have a special value because they are in fact "live."
■ "Getting Closer to People" through "Real-time" Technology
The other facet of "getting closer to people" is technology. The fundamental human motivation of wanting to enjoy our favorite music or visual entertainment whenever and wherever we choose, will not change. However, the technology that allows us to do so is evolving.
Through our tape recorders and VCRs, Sony has delivered the benefit of enabling users to "time-shift." Building on this concept, I believe that it is important for us to pursue "real-time technology" - technology that depicts and reproduces the real world in the highest possible quality. In the same way that we create and deliver live content, I believe there is great value in pursuing "real-time" video and audio technology to fulfill people's innate desire which is routed in the fact that they live in the real world.
We are continuing to evolve our "real-time technologies," such as our high-resolution audio with higher sampling frequencies which enable us to reproduce sounds truer to the original, and ORBEYE, which shows the status of a surgical procedure in 4K/3D and in real-time.
■ "Getting Even Closer" to People through AI and Data
At the Management Conference, I also talked about taking advantage of AI and data to get closer to users' motivations and to provide creators with crucial data for creating content that users will favor. The topic of "Lifeplanners" or sales employees at Sony Life Insurance leveraging AI in their approach to customers also came up during the subsequent panel session. In my third blog, I wrote that we must deeply consider megatrends in society and technology, and as such, I believe that AI will be the key for us to better create and deliver kando across all of our business domains going forward.
■ Your Continuing Feedback
Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all of you for your continuing valuable feedback on this blog. I was surprised to receive such a large number of responses to my question about the remote control shown in my fourth blog, and I would like to continue conveying the insight and learning I have gained through your feedback in my blog posts and speeches going forward.