Sony plans to market an HD videoconferencing system that the company says is the first truly 1080i-formated scheme of its kind ever produced. The new PCS-XG80 system marries 1080i with 60 fps that Sony says will produce as much of a lifelike quality to long-distance conferences as technically possible.

The system is backward-compatible to allow users the option of connecting with HD-quality video through high-bandwidth connections (or via SD legacy systems) using Internet Protocol and/or ISDN. Sony's new system is an expansion of its current HD videoconferencing product series, such as its PCS-HG90 system.

Sony said users can seamlessly input computer data in HD (at 30 fps) for dual streaming, in order to allow two separate parallel streams of video from other sources, such as PowerPoint or DVD.