Sony's Bravia-Drome zoetrope unveiled

Sony's ambitious new advert features the Bravia-Drome
Sony's ambitious new advert features the Bravia-Drome

In order to create a bit of 'wow' factor for its latest Bravia advert, Sony has developed one of the biggest-ever zoetropes in Italy.

Dubbed the Bravia-Drome, the company is utilising 100-year-old technology to show off its latest motion tech – Motionflow 200Hz.

For those not familiar with what a zoetrope is, it's a spinning device that creates the illusion of movement out of static pictures – essentially movies before the movies were invented.

Sony's Bravia-Drome has some impressive stats. The Drome is 10m in diameter, can reach speeds of 50kph, and it took six weeks to build from scratch.

World in Motionflow

The advert is currently shooting in Turin, with some big-name football players showing off their skills, including IFA World Player of the Year Kaká. Still images of him will be placed in the Drome, to give the effect of him playing.

Motionflow 200Hz is Sony's new TV tech that apparently eliminates all jerkiness from pictures and makes fast-moving action sequences in movies much clearer and smoother.

Giles Morrison, General Manager, Marketing Communications, Sony Europe, said about the project: "The BRAVIA-drome has been designed to explain the technology behind Motionflow in a way that makes it easy for anyone to understand.

"As we have proved with previous campaigns, including 'Balls', 'Paint' and 'Play-doh', simple ideas effectively executed can be immensely powerful.

"This is about delivering a truly spectacular experience that people can believe in. The choice of Kaka was an easy one, as not only does he have that superstar quality but football is an ideal way to show our customers the full effect of Motionflow 200Hz."

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.