The visionaries at Sony Interactive Entertainment have always been a step ahead. Among a long series of firsts introduced for PlayStation, Sony incorporated serious audio capabilities into its gaming platform from the very start. That was why they contacted us. Our ability to deliver innovative audio solutions marked the beginning of a relationship that has flourished for more than two decades.

It was sometime around 2003 that the Sony team asked Bug ID founder Matt Lavine and an outside acoustician to build out 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound studios for sound mixing and production for the upcoming PlayStation 3. At the time, these were used primarily in film post-production and high-end music production. 5.1 had certainly found its way into gaming design by the early part of the new millennium, but few companies had truly leveled up their approach to harness its full potential to immerse players. By contrast, 7.1 Surround Sound was very rare in the gaming world.

Our first assignment involved the design and integration of audio mixing facilities for Sony Interactive Entertainment facilities in San Mateo and San Diego, California. These installations included recording stages, Foley stages, individual sound design rooms we called “pods,” and more. In the end, Bug ID built out a total of 25 sound design mixing rooms, sound design rooms, and mixing stages, all designed around Pro Tools.

Today this may seem like standard gear, but back then, it was truly uncharted territory for game designers and integrators alike. Our acoustician partner actually designed custom speakers for the rooms. It was bespoke before anyone knew what the word meant.

Bug ID’s brief was to design a comprehensive, scalable solution that could be enhanced as needed and replicated without needing to respawn from scratch. This was a major reason we chose – in a first for us – the THX standard, despite some of the physical and technical challenges it posed at the time. THX was integral in our efforts to standardize all the rooms and to clear some pesky legal hurdles around audio and video distribution over distances.

Vote (After Vote) of Confidence

We asked if they were happy with our work and their response was akin to a high-score on the leaderboard. Bug ID was awarded more projects – including hundreds of conference rooms across multiple locations.

Like our studio work for Sony Interactive Entertainment, the conferencing facilities posed challenges of their own, one of which owed to the company’s reliance on Sony Video Conferencing, a platform few organizations used at the time. Our mandate was to enable geographically dispersed teams to share the highest resolution video available from a gaming console to their collaboration facilities. Bug ID’s audio solution also supported 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound. Even today very few conference rooms invest in that caliber of audio.

In the years that followed, Sony’s needs evolved, and so did the solutions we provided to meet them.

Fast Forward to 2025

Our most recent work involves the creation of all-hands spaces at multiple facilities, including Sony Interactive’s headquarters, where we’re building out a space that can be used for everything from massive townhalls, to network-quality corporate broadcast production, to something as simple as an impromptu Teams call.

Bug ID designed a dual system that gives Sony a flexible-use presentation and collaboration space, as well as everything necessary for high-level broadcast and streaming. The centerpiece? A 32 ft x 7 ft Sony Crystal LED video wall, which delivers stunning brightness, color and contrast, with sparkling highlights and deep blacks. A network of Sony PTZ cameras captures everything for broadcast production, while a second QSC camera and switcher solution handles Teams meetings. We’re also doing infrastructure configuration, all technology design including zoned audio, and overseeing stage and ambient lighting design to create the perfect experience.

Concurrently, Sony Interactive Entertainment has partnered with Bug ID to create usability labs and focused testing spaces at five locations across North America. A typical facility will feature multiple cubicle rooms alongside lounge-like environments similar to users’ living rooms. Carefully placed PTZ cameras record everything down to facial expressions and subtle hand movements. Microphones, of course, are everywhere, ensuring no vocal reaction goes unnoticed. Observation rooms with one-way glass enable researchers to watch the action live but are also outfitted with an array of monitors that allow staff to focus on players specific movements and behavioral cues.

A Partnership Proven Over Time

It’s a privilege to have a client like Sony Interactive Entertainment. For twenty years, the gaming giant has allowed Bug ID to apply our knowledge in environments as diverse as studio spaces, useability labs, and conference and boardrooms.

The diversity of projects we’ve tackled doesn’t just keep us on our toes, it unlocks Bug ID’s greatest strength: our ability to weave our expertise across the breadth of an organization to realize our clients’ most ambitious visions. Sony Interactive Entertainment has repeatedly empowered us to deploy the latest technology in ways that unlock innovation across a spectrum of applications. Because in the gaming and technology world it’s not enough to keep up. It’s about grabbing the lead – and never relinquishing it.