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LIVE @ ISE 2026 - Inside Sony’s Bravia BZ Key Series And Crystal LED Breakthroughs

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Crowded floor, brighter screens, and a surprising focus on simplicity—that’s what stood out as we walked the Sony stand with Adam Dover. We unpack how the new Bravia BZ Key Series and a thoughtfully positioned Crystal LED range push professional display quality while cutting setup time and reducing waste, all without losing sight of what clients actually see on the wall.

We start with the big leap: XR processing arrives in Sony’s pro lineup, bringing AI-driven, frame-by-frame scene mapping that sharpens detail and deepens contrast in both bright offices and glassy living spaces. Anti-reflective coatings, improved optical films, and enhanced LED backlights deliver deeper blacks and cleaner highlights where lesser screens wash out. Then we shift from picture to process: a pro-first GUI replaces the usual Google wrapper with a Sony setup wizard that speeds navigation to the settings integrators touch most. Paired with Remote Device Manager, installers can scan a QR code, preassign rooms, and let displays auto-provision on the network—no more walking around with a remote, repeating the same steps from room to room.

For teams crossing from large LCDs to modular LED, Sony introduces a mid-market Crystal LED line tuned to 800 nits that narrows the price jump without sacrificing premium image quality. Panels are lighter, thinner, front-serviceable, and hot-swappable, with a new anti-reflective finish and cooler thermal behaviour, making them easier to integrate. On the operations side, the BZP series is 24/7-ready with ambient light sensing to optimise power draw throughout the day, maintaining clarity in bright conditions while cutting energy at night. Sustainability isn’t a slide—it runs through the product: up to 43% recycled plastics in select displays, smaller packaging with reduced ink for easier recycling, and roughly 30% lower power consumption versus the prior generation.

If you’re specifying for retail, corporate campuses, custom homes, or marine projects, this walkthrough covers what matters: image performance you can defend, deployment that scales, and responsible footprint choices your clients will appreciate. Want more details or spec sheets? Explore the lineup at pro.sony. If this breakdown helped you plan your next project, follow, share it with your team, and leave a quick review to tell us what you want us to test next.

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SPEAKER_01

We're here on a very busy Sony stand with Adam Dover. Uh ISE 2026 day two.

New Booth Design And Sustainability

SPEAKER_00

Day two, you know, we go again. Here we go again. How's it been for you? It's been great, actually. Again, really busy show, which is great. We've got uh completely new to stand new stand design. You know, we keep leveling it up year after year. And this year, kind of we've got also some really exciting new product launches across our Brave Via professional displays and LED displays. So, you know, we've got a lot to shout about, um, you know, a lot for our customers to see. Whilst keeping sustainability at the heart of everything we do, the the booth, once again, is um we've got our certification for completely sustainable booth. So um, yeah, we're really proud of that, and that's something that is really close to the heart of what we do. That's for sure. It's no, it's not, and it takes a lot of work. You know, the guys have been designing this. You basically finish ISC and you go, you go again to the next one. Onto the next. So, yeah, so we do a great job.

Bravia BZ Key Series And XR Chip

SPEAKER_01

You've got some great stuff here. Can we just start off with this uh the new lineup that you've got? Yeah, obviously very bright. I don't know that comes across on the screen, but uh, so yeah, fantastic.

SPEAKER_00

We um we're continuing to kind of expand on our display portfolio. We've got a really successful lineup. Um, you know, a lot of what we do in the professional side resonates directly from what we do in the consumer world. Um so it's all about you know picture quality is first and foremost the most important thing. And then we have you adapt those to they're perfect for professional environments, whether that's professional or even custom installation, because you know it's it's uh professional installation. Yeah, yeah, of course. Um so and what we're doing this year is whilst we've got a completely new display lineup, we've got introduced our brand new Bravia BZ Key Series, um, which takes that to the next level. So we've got our Deep Black Non-Glare Premium and Deep Black Non-Glare Standard across those lineups, but we're also introducing the new XR chipset. So previously there were X1 chipsets from those displays. We've now taken that to the next level of AR XR chipset, which is introducing some AI technologies there for frame-by-frame scene mapping. So you're really getting the best picture on screen again now in our professional displays, as you would with our consumer technology.

SPEAKER_01

So the X1 chip was pretty impressive.

Picture Quality For Pro And Home Use

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. And you know, we just continue to take that to the next level. And it's really about okay, well, what can we do to continuously improve that image performance? And it, like I said, image performance for us is first and foremost, and then it's like, okay, well, then we consider how we can make that best in certain environments. So whether it's a high brightness environment in a you know, in a workspace or in an office, or whether it's at home, um, you know, we want to make sure that people are getting the best viewing experience they can. So not only it's the technologies that are going in the displays, but what we're doing on the outside with new optical films, enhancing the LED backlights. Yeah, it's just everything that we can do to make the better, best image on screen and give the customers the best yeah experience. Fantastic.

New Pro GUI And Setup Wizard

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it is a pro range, but as you just said, you can use it in a residential property and a commercial as well. Yeah, exactly. Not everybody's got a nice dark room to close the curtains stuff. You want a nice brigai room or an orange room or something like that, and patio doors, bifold doors, yeah, and you've got that deep black and you've got the anti-clare. Yeah, it's uh it works really well. You're also talking early about uh a new GUI. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, so we're a professional, you know, we we've got professional displays, and you guys are professional installers. So we want to make sure that you know you're getting the best experience that you can deliver, you know, a simple integration to your customers. So um, we obviously introduced a new CI mode on Bravias uh a couple of years ago. Um, with our professional displays now, we're taking that to the next level. We're removing the Google kind of Google display, the Google home element, and it's actually uh a new Sony wizard. So yeah, it's just uh an easier kind of way to navigate the menus and get into those pro settings and just set up those displays, whether that's you know, via IP on control systems or however you want to manage those across real estates or houses.

SPEAKER_01

So you can integrate that a bit better to the to that kind of environment.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's just it's just a a better way for you guys, an easier way for you guys to navigate menus and and go into those settings and you know and profile those uh to best suit your end user and give them again that best experience, not only viewing but also using, because we all know what it's like, you know, it's like okay, how do I get this to work? And yeah, yeah, for for you guys, if you can set it up, yeah, we make it easier for you guys to set it up perfectly if you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01

And obviously, speed as well, because obviously was Android. Yeah, and then it was Google, which is nice and fast and a big upgrade on the Android, and the uh thing you Sony Wizards.

Remote Device Manager And Provisioning

24/7 Operation And Energy Sensing

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. And we've also faster or how would you kind of I think it's just easier navigation. So yeah, naturally, naturally just easier, faster to use rather than having to you know go through, dive into multiple menu settings to find things you want, it's just an easier way to navigate that. So it's more simple. And it also works um seamlessly with our remote device manager. So that's particularly popular in the V2B world where you're managing multiple displays across corporal real estates. But you know, for kind of the residential business, again, it's it's perfect because a lot of installations you're doing multiple displays across, you know, across houses, across marine residential. So the the RDM basically means that you can simplify the um provisioning and deployment of those. So um you simply scan the QR code, you get all the serial number details beforehand, you can log that and profile that exactly where it's going. So it's like whether that's going in meeting room one, two, three, bedroom one, two, three. Um, it just means that as soon as they hit the network, they provision exactly for those spaces. So you don't have to go around with the remote one by one and just go it's a bit cumbersome that way, isn't it? Exactly. Yeah. Are these 24-7 screens or so? The BZP series lineup is all 24-7. Yep. Yeah. So yeah, for perfect for yeah, again, usage across, you know, predominantly um professional, and that's kind of mainly retail where you know they've got those displays running. Um, when it is also um 24-7, we've got technology within those displays to optimize the displays for that long-term use. So we've got the the brightness sensors on the display that'll detect the brightness of the environment and then adjust the brightness accordingly to that area. So it's like so quite energy efficient as well. Energy efficient in times when it's darker and you don't need so much brightness, um, but also making sure that there's no compromise on the the image performance when it's in a bright environment. Um, so it's basically everything we're kind of doing is like quality without compromise. Yeah, all right, fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

And these screens are they available now or later on in the year?

Availability Timeline And Crystal LED Mid-Market

Design, Serviceability, And Thermal Performance

SPEAKER_00

These are launched just before ISE, so they were launched last Thursday, uh just ahead of ISE, and ISE is the first showing of them. Nice. And they'll be available uh around Q1 time, end of uh June time, I believe. So not far to go. And the the thing with these is not only have we introduced a new kind of Bravia display lineup, we've also introduced a new Crystal LED series because when it comes to displays, you know, we we really feel focus on that premium space and giving customers that you know exceptional quality. Um we've this year we tried to bridge the gap between kind of typical Bravia and LED. So whereas you know, I know you guys are super familiar with a lot of our bigger 98 inch LEDs and monsters that you put into installations. Um but when it comes to the LED world, people want um kind of going from uh 98 inch to an LED. Sometimes there's quite a big price gap, and it's like, well, I don't necessarily need that. Yeah, it scares us. So what we've introduced is kind of new mid-market, so you're still getting that premium Sony image quality. Um, but some of the features are a bit more um not dumbed down as such, but the brightness we've got 800 nits in the BH and CH series, which is our flagship range, you've got 1200 and 1700 nits, which is you know that that's like that's that's a bit too bright. So in this new series, really the sunglasses, yeah, it's that it's 800 nits. So it's a bit nice, it's a bit kind of nicer, more comfortable viewing experience. You're still getting that Sony premium image quality. We've also um introduced a new ref anti-reflective coating on it so it performs better in brighter spaces, but also we've again once again kind of redefined the design. So the panels are slightly um shallower, narrower, therefore slightly lighter. They're all um wall mountable, front serviceable, um, and you can hot swap the panels. So for you guys, when it's installations, it's not like okay, we need to think about how much room we've got behind to do that. Um, they're all front, yeah, wall mountable, front serviceable, and they run at very, very low temperature. So it's not like you stand in front of it and start to cook the room. Get a bit hot, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So also when you're saying about the uh the screens are lighter and thinner, obviously packaging as well for delivery costs.

Sustainability: Materials, Packaging, Logistics

Power Savings, Eco Tools, And Customer Control

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's that's a massive thing for us as she kind of links into our sustainability. So with our new Bravia series as well, we've got a completely new chassis. So that chassis again is slightly narrower, the bezel is consistent all the way around. Um, and we've also got Centre Visa. So whether you're doing it portrait or landscape, there's not so much baffling around with measurements anymore, which is nicer. Thankfully. But yeah, and what we have the kind of um our sustainability, I said, is the heart of what we do, and we've got our make it, move it, use it, and reuse it. So when it comes to making it, we've increased the amount of sourplas, our our recycled plastic that we're using in displays, so it's now up to 43% recycled plastic in the displays, which is massive because at the end of the day, we're you know, a tech we're an electronics manufacturer. It's about how can we do that more sustainably? So using more sustainable plastics in the production, when it comes to the packaging, we've reduced the packaging size. So space the size of the displays has gone down, packaging size is continually reducing, the amount of ink we're using on packaging is reducing, which makes it easier to recycle. Right, okay. But when it comes to then logistics, you know you things like that, you wouldn't really consider it. It's just the small details that add up to that kind of overall picture. And then power consumption in the screens across the range, across any VZP series range, 30% lower than the previous generation. But they still got eco mode built into them than they're gonna be able to do it. Still got eco mode built into them, yeah. So yeah, that there's there's the dashboard there that you can constantly kind of monitor, measure, manage the performance of those devices.

SPEAKER_01

Does it still kind of tell you off when you uh you go to adjust this the setting and it's like, no, are you aware that this is gonna go?

SPEAKER_00

Out of the box, we want to make sure that it's as eco-friendly as possible. Um, but of course, everyone has their preferences of how they need to be using spaces. So if you need to if you need to turn off those settings and have it full brightness every time because Mr. Client A wants, you know, I want full brightness when I'm sat a meter away, then fine, we can. The client's always right, aren't they?

Where To Learn More And Closing

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the client is always right, yeah. So if people want to find out a bit more about these new products, where the best placements go to is the Sony website. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

So they can visit us at pro.sony and we've got our entire lineup on there.

SPEAKER_01

Fantastic. Well, enjoy the rest of the show. It's a fantastic stand. So you're really busy. And uh yeah, enjoy the rest of the show.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you guys for coming along. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. Thanks a lot.