Sony Unleashes Portable Entertainment With New LocationFree Products

The notion of portable entertainment will be taking another step forward with today's announcement by Sony Electronics about the next-generation of its LocationFree® products.

Here at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) Expo, the company introduced a simplified LF-X11 12-inch LocationFree TV with expanded wireless range and the LF-PK1 LocationFree Player Pak for PC users.

"The next generation LocationFree TV is every bit as cutting-edge as our initial product and easier to operate," said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the Home Products Division for Sony Electronics. "People want their media content to be portable and geared to their tastes and personal schedule. With the LocationFree, you can watch your favorite programs anytime and anywhere with a broadband connection."

The LocationFree Base Station connects to a variety of audio visual devices, such as a set top TV tuner, DVD player and personal video recorder (PVR). The 12-inch LocationFree TV can access the base station so you can watch your favorite TV programming, DVDs or PVR content wirelessly in home and over the Internet while on the road.

Expanding functionality, Sony's new LocationFree Player Pak, LF-PK1, includes a base station and software, which allows PC users to enjoy the benefits of LocationFree TV.

The redesigned LF-X11 LocationFree TV adds improved wireless performance with a dual-band MAT (Multi-directional Audio & Visual Transmission) antenna, along with a new wireless software system with real-time ARQ (Automatic Repeat request) and rate adoption technology. These enhancements provide stable and multi directional wireless transmissions with an expanded wireless range of up to 100 feet in a typical home environment.

Sony's NetAV function simplifies operation and makes installation a snap with a simple worry-free setup wizard. The new LocationFree products also integrate a dynamic DNS service so there is no longer any need to use external dynamic DNS providers. This makes the setup process less complicated.

The new NetAV function also incorporates the MPEG4 ASP (Advanced Simple Profile) compression scheme for content transmission over the Internet. The MPEG4 format provides high quality video at lower data rates and smaller file sizes than the MPEG2 compression standard. Further, MPEG4 features flexible compression ratios and, when combined with the LocationFree service's automatic bit rate control, results in a multimedia experience optimized for the available Internet bandwidth.

LocationFree Player software is also equipped with a key system, which uniquely identifies each base station and PC loaded with the LocationFree Player by an initial one button registration. As a result, the content sent from the base station over the Internet is viewed only by the intended user.

Adding to the product's convenient setup, Sony has opened a LocationFree customer support line at 1-866-925-SONY (7669). The toll-free line operates Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. eastern time. Sony also offers online support and product information at www.sony.com/locationfree.

The LF-PK1 LocationFree Player Pak is currently available for about $350, while the LocationFree TV LF-X11 will ship in late September for about $1,500.

Both products can be purchased at SonyStyle.com, Sony Style® retail stores (www.sonystyle.com/retail) and authorized dealers nationwide.

   Contact:
   Greg Belloni
   Sony Electronics Inc.
   858-942-4460
   greg.belloni@am.sony.com

   Brendan Mullin
   Burson-Marsteller
   212-614-4704
   brendan_mullin@nyc.bm.com

SOURCE: Sony Electronics Inc.

CONTACT: Greg Belloni of Sony Electronics Inc., +1-858-942-4460,
greg.belloni@am.sony.com; or Brendan Mullin of Burson-Marsteller,
+1-212-614-4704, brendan_mullin@nyc.bm.com, for Sony Electronics Inc.

Web site: http://www.sonystyle.com/
http://www.sony.com/locationfree