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A Sony executive has said that home entertainment is undergoing a massive shift in India with consumers now preferring premium audio systems for a true theater-like experience in their living rooms.
In an exclusive conversation with the Times of India tech that, Nezu Daisuke, global head of Sony’s home product business division, broke down how the company is tackling the unique challenges of Indian streaming quality, why entry-level systems are losing ground and how small-town India is driving the new boom in premium audio.
'Entry-level audio taking a backseat'
Daisuke said that indian premium audio segment (Rs 30,000 - Rs 50,000 range is growing across Tier 1, 2, and 3 cities even as the entry-level segment is slightly declining.Recently, the company expanded its premium home audio portfolio with the launch of its new BRAVIA Theatre lineup in India that aims to deliver an immersive, cinema-like experience directly into consumers' homes. The showstopper is BRAVIA Theatre Trio, which is being released alongside multiple soundbars, subwoofers and rear speakers, including the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 7, Bar 5, Sub 9, Sub 8, Rear 9 and Rear 8.When asked how Sony aims to convince value conscious customer in India to invest their hard-earned money into a premium soundbar instead of choosing a much cheaper, entry-level alternative, Daisuke said that the company is seeing “a natural evolution of taste”.
“Customers often start their home theater journey by buying an affordable, entry-level system. However, as they spend more time watching movies at home [with the rise of OTT], they want to significantly improve the quality of that experience. That is when they willingly transition toward our premium series. We make sure to offer a robust lineup that perfectly matches these evolving expectations for higher visual and audio quality,” Daisuke told TOI.He also said that the premium market is growing rapidly both globally and across India, and that the entry-level segment is actually experiencing a slight decline. “This shift is happening because customers in smaller Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, who may have purchased basic systems a few years ago, now want to upgrade their existing home setups,” he pointed out.
Sony is fixing the ‘stereo problem’ for Indian streaming
While talking about the booming OTT streaming in the country, Daisuke agreed that a lot of content on platforms is still broadcast in standard stereo (2.0 channel) rather than high-end Dolby Atmos. When inquired about how does Sony ensure viewers still get a premium, immersive audio experience, Daisuke explained about Sony’s “360 Spatial Sound Mapping” technology“Our core goal is to provide a customised, deeply immersive experience regardless of what the original source material looks like. If you feed our systems a standard 2.0-channel stereo input, our internal processors instantly calculate and upgrade it to a full 5.2 surround-sound experience,” Daisuke said,“By utilising our proprietary ‘360 Spatial Sound Mapping’ technology, we can actually create up to 24 ‘phantom’ speaker channels.
This artificial speaker array delivers the exact wrap-around immersiveness that Indian customers expect, even from older or basic streaming tracks,” he noted.BRAVIA Theatre Trio, the company’s latest flagship product, has a 9-physical speaker setup. But the technology creates up to 24 virtual “Phantom” speakers when paired with the Sub 9 and Rear 9 modules. This enables the speaker to deliver a theatre-like experience without having a sophisticated, vast speaker setup like in cinema halls.Daisuke also acknowledged that while Sony soundbar systems certainly deliver the absolute best, most synchronized experience by with a Sony Bravia TV, the products are built to deliver a a similar experience with any television brand. “While 60% of our soundbar users own Bravia TVs, the remaining 40% are using setups from manufacturers and they report being highly satisfied with our audio performance,” he said.
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