Sony Media Cloud Services to Showcase New Ci Offerings at Sony Booth at NAB

CULVER CITY, Cali., April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Media Cloud Services is pleased to invite media and entertainment industry professionals to stop by the Sony booth in Central Hall (C11001) and learn more about Ci, a groundbreaking cloud-based video production platform that is re-inventing the way content is shot, developed, and delivered. Over the past twelve months, Ci has been used on daytime talk shows, major motion pictures, reality television, trailers, pilots, top film schools, independent productions, news, and even the Winter Games in Sochi. With its rapidly growing and diverse user base in mind, Ci recently introduced a variety of workspace plans that offer more storage, faster upload tools, and team capabilities to support today's agile production requirements.

"Ci was built for all participants of the creative and collaborative economy – from enterprise companies to the next generation filmmaker," said Naomi Climer, president, Sony Media Cloud Services. "We understand firsthand that production needs, teams, and environments change constantly and created Ci with the collaborative applications, media-sized storage options, and team capabilities creative professionals need to make their production workflows more efficient, cost effective, and collaborative."

Over the past year, Ci has been utilized by NBC Universal, The Weather Company, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, Raycom Media, Producers Guild of America, Turner Broadcasting, Locarno Film Festival, Crackle Productions, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and more. Ci has been leveraged in a variety of ways - from uploading, storing, and sharing 100MB+ media files, review of dailies, and archiving of content to promo distribution, film submissions, and classroom work.

Numerous independent filmmakers, like Sony's own 2013 PROduction Award winner, Jon Edwards of Naïve Studio and Dr. Shaun Wilson, a filmmaker for Honeyhouse Films and Senior Lecturer at RMIT University in Victoria Australia, were able to save both time and money with Ci in their technology toolbox.

"With Ci, I can showcase work and discuss ideas with teams across the globe like they're in the room with me," said Edwards. "Then simply transfer raw clips to view, download, adjust, and discuss online in real-time via Ci instead of faceless file transfers. To see my typography transformed before my eyes has been amazing. It's addictive to say the least."

"Right away, you could tell Ci was created with the filmmaker in mind. We wanted more than just a cloud storage platform. Ci's sophisticated, yet simplistic approach to media production, storage, collaboration, and approvals was different than anything else we had seen in the market," said Wilson. "With Ci I can upload footage so my global team can view, comment, or work on it in a matter of minutes – literally cutting hours out of the filmmaking process and making it cheaper to make films."

Ci's flexible subscriptions allow individuals to get started with a free 5GB account and evolve towards bigger and more professional plans as their portfolio needs grow. Personal and team subscriptions range from $10 - $100 per month with 25GB to 100GB of storage. Enterprise accounts that require 1 TB or more can be customized to accommodate companies with large teams and additional terabytes or petabytes of storage requirements. 

The entire Ci platform and new Team Workspaces can be seen in action next week during NAB in the Sony booth (C11001) and will showcase integration with Sony's CBK-WA100 wireless camera adapter and RoughCut exports to Sony Vegas. On Tuesday, April 8, at 9:40 a.m. Ms. Climer will be featured as a panelist on the Update On Industry Cloud panel (S225). Ci will also be showcased during a Sony NAB Live session, an interactive discussion with The Weather Channel on the Anycast Touch Stage in the Sony booth on Wednesday, April 9, at 10:00 a.m. To learn more about Ci's services, subscriptions and packages please visit https://www.sonymcs.com.

About Sony Media Cloud Services LLC

Sony Media Cloud Services, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, revolutionizes media and entertainment production workflows with Ci, a media-centric cloud platform with innovative applications that empower creative professionals and the next generation of filmmakers to create, share, and collaborate with high-value media. Utilized by large-scale productions, independently produced films, television shows, universities, advertising agencies, sports and news companies, videographers, editors, and prosumers, Ci's browser-based Software-as-a-Service platform connects people, content, and devices from any location in the world to make the creative process more streamlined, collaborative, and cost effective. For more information, please visit www.sonymcs.com.

SOURCE Sony Media Cloud Services