The increased use of high-definition technology at all levels of professional and collegiate sports has led Sony Electronics to form a dedicated sales and marketing team focused on this area.

The goal, according to Alec Shapiro, senior vice president of sales and marketing in Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Production Systems group, is to help those in the sports industry ease their transition to HD.

Based in Park Ridge, N.J., Sony’s new Sports Sales and Marketing Solutions team will be led by Steve Stubelt and will work with professional sports organizations, broadcast networks and OB truck companies. The group also has account managers who will work with system integrators and venue managers at stadiums and arenas.

Working closely with the professional sports marketing team will be Sony’s new Sports and Education Sales team focused on the collegiate Division I marketplace and headed up by Mary Schoof, national sales manager.

Sony’s focus on sports production complements the efforts underway in the consumer electronics area, where the company has established an array of relationships and sponsorships.

These include such athletes as NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, pro golfer Michelle Wie and NASCAR driver Ryan Newman.

Sony’s Bravia™ televisions are the official LCD HDTV brand of the New York Yankees and NASCAR.

The company also sponsors the Sony Open in Hawaii and teams with CBS for its HD coverage of NFL football games.

Shapiro said the time is right for a strengthened sales and marketing focus on professional and collegiate sports.

“There are a significant number of new stadiums under construction and existing facilities are quickly making the transition to HD,” he said. “Sony is uniquely qualified to be the prime source of expertise when it comes to HD at major sports facilities.”

Shapiro added that each member of the new sales and marketing organization has extensive experience both in the sports world and in the world of high-definition technology.

A Sony veteran, Stubelt was most recently a regional sales manager and also served as a national accounts manager covering the sports OB truck company market.

Schoof, who joined Sony in 1991, previously held the role of regional sales manager. She is also a member of East Carolina University’s Athletics Hall of Fame, as a result of her days as a star player for its women’s basketball team.

Shapiro said with high-performance technology increasingly available at lower costs, the use of HD acquisition and recording technology is becoming more widespread throughout the sports world. Video has long been a valuable training tool in sports, and HD adds a new level of picture quality and detail.

According to Stubelt, “Coaches are recording practices and games in HD, stadiums are feeding HD content directly from the truck to scoreboards and to displays throughout a venue, and teams are feeding more HD footage to networks for broadcast. The goal of this new team is to support all these applications and raise awareness of the benefits and ROI of HD production.”

“What’s happening in professionalsports directly impacts what’s happening at the collegiate level,” added Schoof. “This is a unique time in professional and college sports, as it relates to the use of video and audio technology. With this new team and new focus, we’ll not only be able to address customers’ needs for specific product categories, but we’ll also be able to respond to customers faster and deliver even higher levels of end-user service and support.”