Newhouse and Sony announce new equipment, renewed partnership

The relationship between Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and the multimedia conglomerate Sony just got stronger. 

On Wednesday, dubbed “Sony Signature Innovation Day,” both jointly announced a renewed partnership that provides new professional-grade technology and industry training for students by Sony experts at Newhouse.

The equipment, which includes Sony’s flagship VENICE and BURANO line of cameras, will be integrated into Dick Clark Studios and will be used in broadcasting or by those pursuing careers in visual communications, according to a Newhouse press release.

“This exciting partnership with Sony is more than an enhancement in technology; it’s a strategic investment in our students’ futures,” Newhouse School dean Mark Lodato said in the release.

Theresa Alesso, president of Sony’s Imaging Products and Solutions in the Americas, sat down with The NewsHouse to talk about the partnership and the opportunities it presents for Newhouse students.

The following Q&A has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Why Newhouse? What made Syracuse University and the Newhouse School such a great partnership for Sony?

This partnership is really an expansion of what started many years ago. Syracuse is a renowned communications school, and we’re thrilled that the two brands can come together. The ability to be able to shape the next generation of photographers and journalists is super important for Sony. Bringing together the best of Syracuse and the best of Sony, with our technology in the hands of students, so that we can be prepared for what the new world looks like as we transition into technology.

For the Bandier music program and public relations department, how do you see working with that equipment advancing their careers?

The great thing about Sony technology is that the whole color science and the menu system, from our Alpha mirrorless camera all the way up to Venice, follow the same philosophy. Students could be shooting still photography and a little bit of video may use our Alpha camera. Students who are doing a feature may use an Alpha for a B camera, or use a Burano and a Venice. The full line of Sony camera technology I treat almost like a paintbrush for a painter, depending on the story the creator is trying to tell. Whether it’s a music creator or a broadcast media creator, you can pick the right paintbrush in the Sony system and use it to tell your story.

Is this the first of its kind that Sony has introduced in the past year?

We’re thrilled to add Syracuse to a number of other amazing colleges. We’ve probably been doing work with Syracuse for over 20 years. We have done the Alexia, the Winter Games, and the Empire State Games with our still [photography] side. Newhouse has a ton of Sony gear in it, but we wanted to move from the smaller partnership we had to a much larger one.

We’ve done other partnerships with USC Film School, Texas A&M, and Full Sail University. We focus quite a bit on the cinema and creator side because our core is camera technology, but we have a variety of technologies for schools. Our entry point always seems to be cinema, creative journalism, and communications, but then we also have classroom technology such as flat panels and pan-tilt-zoom cameras, like the ones you see here. … Education, specifically higher education, is a huge focus for us as a vertical because we can touch almost every area of a university. We’re thrilled to have Syracuse in a much larger partnership with other key universities that are truly best in class.

Do you see partnerships like these expanding to other universities?

We’ve done quite a bit over the last 25 years, and we look to continue that. What we love about the Newhouse School of Public Communications is that you are really bringing out the best in your students. Being able to marry that with what we’ve done before, and what we will be doing here, is exciting. We plan to bring some Sony engineers in to really talk to the students: What are you looking for? What challenges have you faced as you’ve gone through Newhouse, either as undergraduates or grad students? Then we can take that feedback back to Japan so we can build better technology. We take that very seriously, and partnering with a school like Newhouse in a much broader way will give us better insight to help us continue to be on the cutting edge of technology.

What opportunities do you see for students coming out of this? Will there be internships or early career options?

Sure. I think the first piece is just being able to have their voice heard, right? Having visibility with engineers, really be part of the product pipeline, that’s a huge opportunity.

A second piece is that there are a number of trade shows we attend, for example, Cine Gear or NAB (National Association of Broadcasters). For many years, we’ve brought select students from our partner schools. It’s a process of interviewing and all of that. We’ve brought them to the trade show to give them access to learn the product hands-on, work the trade show with us and our people, and get access to meeting people within the industry that maybe without that partnership, you may never have had a chance at internships potentially. Our corporate headquarters is in San Diego, and we are always looking for interns there. I think we also like to work as we build our pipeline for new hires. We hired a number of people from Montclair State University, which built an entire broadcast program with us about eight years ago. We would love to do the same with Syracuse.

Can you share a timeline for when these engineers will come?

We’re already in September, so probably by springtime, we should be able to hold what we call VOC workshops, voice of customer workshops, where students can provide feedback. At other universities, we’ve done something similar, although to be completely transparent, we haven’t yet set the parameters for Newhouse. We create small groups of students that the school chooses, and then we bring engineers in to talk through the latest cameras, what’s missing, and so on. We make sure students get some time with the gear first, and then we bring the engineers in. So, hopefully, fall or spring at the latest.

Is there anything you’d like to add about this partnership for the students who are probably going to be reading this online at 11 tonight?

We hope that this partnership will allow Newhouse School to have greater visibility of what that pipeline of tech looks like, which will help prepare their students even better to be ready for what that looks like. You know, how do you use AI for good and not evil? A lot of the tech now has AI built in, whether it’s auto-tracking or autofocus. Those are all great things behind the lens so that the creator can focus on the project they’re doing and not worry so much about the tech side. Working with Sony, being a Syracuse student, you can get access to best-in-class technology, understand where the world will be five years from today as best as we possibly can, and work together to make sure that everyone is educated so that when you come out and graduate, you can be a huge success.