Students capture life in the Middle East in HD video on Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro

Press release

Published January 11th, 2011 - 09:48 GMT

Al Bawaba

Sony Ericsson Middle East has partnered with a group of budding media professionals from SAE Institute, the world’s largest creative media educator, in a competition to capture the essence of life in the Middle East in HD video on Sony Ericsson's Vivaz Pro.

Students from SAE Institute's film and digital journalism courses have recently submitted their completed video entries, in which the students aim to portray life in the Middle East through the high definition lens of the sleek Vivaz Pro (720p HD recording).

After three weeks of filming on the Vivaz pro handsets, which boast a 5.1 megapixel camera and 4x digital zoom, the two minute long videos have been submitted to the Sony Ericsson judging panel. The entries have also been uploaded on Sony Ericsson's Middle East Facebook page (www.facebook.com/SonyEricssonME) where the general public can vote for their favourite. Based on popular choice via the facebook page, the judging panel will reward the lucky winners.

The grand prize winner of the competition will be given an opportunity to make a paid corporate video for Sony Ericsson Middle East and a Vivaz Pro handset as prize. The second runner up will also be given a Vivaz Pro handset.

Ruediger Odenbach, General Manager, Sony Ericsson, Middle East, said: “Sony Ericsson believe in making the things of tomorrow possible today, and this unique competition gives the region’s future creative media professionals the opportunity to hone their skills using the latest high definitional mobile technology. Vivaz pro provides consumers with an unrivalled platform to produce and broadcast their experiences in HD video, and the videos by these talented SAE students truly reflect the amazingly diverse region in which we live.”

Predrag Toncev, Campus Manager of SAE Institute Dubai, said, “SAE Institute believes in education through hands-on, practical learning, and what better way for our students to practice their skills, experiment and broadcast their creativity to the world than with this unique competition. Digital or back-pack journalism is the way of the future, and this competition that introduces our students to the most cutting edge, mobile technology and teaches students to harness the powers of these new media devices to tell a story.”

Each video portrays the Sony Ericsson brand values - energetic, playful, optimistic and beautiful, and entrants where asked to represent how these themes are uniquely entwined with “life in the Middle East”. The winner of the competition will be announced later this month.

Background Information

Sony

In 1946, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the predecessor of Sony)
started as a small company with capital of just 190,000 yen and approximately 20 employees.
Founder Masaru Ibuka said the purpose of setting up the company was to "establish an ideal factory
that stresses a spirit of freedom and open mindedness that will, through technology, contribute to Japanese culture."
Symbolizing Sony's spirit of challenge to "do what has never been done before,"
the company has continued to release countless "Japan's first" and "world's first" products.

Company Profile

Ericsson

Ericsson is one of the leading providers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers, with about 40% of the world’s mobile traffic carried through our networks. We enable the full value of connectivity by creating game-changing technology and services that are easy to use, adopt and scale, making our customers successful in a fully connected world. For more than 140 years, our ideas, technology and people have changed the world: real turning points that have transformed lives, industries and society as a whole.

Company Profile

SAE Institute

SAE Institute is a Partner Institution of Middlesex University with whom it has validated its European degree programmes delivered at its UK, European and selected external campuses. SAE Institute's European higher education programmes comply with the requirements of the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (FQ-EHEA).