After suffering through the disappointment of the Chrysler and Volkswagen ventures in Westmoreland County, few could have imagined the success that Sony Technology Center-Pittsburgh has had in the past decade. Since signing an agreement in 1990 to occupy a closed auto manufacturing plant in East Huntingdon Township and reopening the completely remodeled facility in July 1992, Sony has grown at a steady and sometimes burgeoning pace. Since Sony committed to locating in the region, the company has invested more than $600 million in its 3.5 million-square-foot technology center, which now includes three separate entities: Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Chemicals Corp. of America and American Video Glass Co. (a partnership between Sony Electronics and Corning Asahi). Meanwhile, the local work force - 70 percent of which lives in Westmoreland and Fayette counties - has grown from a few hundred in the early years to more than 3,300 during the past year. And that doesn't include the ancillary jobs Sony has generated in the region. It is unlikely employment at the local plants will continue to grow at the rate of the past nine years, said Sony spokesman Michael Koff. Even so, Sony plans to continue expanding its product line by investing about $70 million at the site in the upcoming year. At a recent consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, Sony announced that a production line will be redesigned to produce the picture tube and finished set for the largest direct-view television in the world, a 40-inch Wega Flat Display-Trinitron model. Officials said the project will be completed by the third quarter of this year. American Video Glass also will add a new line - to produce the front panel for a 36-inch picture tube that will go into the same size Wega Trinitron model. 'All this is geared ultimately ... that by 2003 this site will double its production capacity,' Koff said. 'We'll be adding people, as a result, but not at the levels we did several years ago.' Sony also will continue production of the 65-inch, high-definition, rear-projection television (HDTV), with smaller versions of the HDTV sets planned for the future. The popular large-screen, rear-projection Videoscope models in 43-, 48-, 53- and 61-inch models will continue to be assembled at the local plant. 'We have the No. 1 market share in each category for all products made at this facility,' Koff said. 'It shows we're where the market is, and we're turning out a product everyone wants.' Sony's presence is also felt outside Westmoreland County. Working in conjunction with the state-sponsored Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, Sony weeks ago opened a semiconductor design center that eventually will employ up to 50 engineers from some of the region's top universities. The center is housed in temporary quarters in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, but will be moving to a permanent home in Shadyside later this year. Initially the center will focus its efforts on security technologies for the Internet. Later, it will expand its work to include wireless network and broadband network technologies. Sony's visibility in the region got a big boost last year when Sony Electronics Inc. was awarded a $2.1 million contract to install a 24-by-42-foot Jumbotron video scoreboard and all the television monitors for the new PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Although the Jumbotron and monitors will not be produced at the local plant, Koff said the deal is important in showing Sony's commitment to the area.
Prediction
The television market is moving toward digital and high-definition televisions, said Sony Technology Center spokesman Michael Koff. 'Within five years all televisions will be digital,' Koff said, 'and this facility has been marked as Sony's production center for large-screen HDTVs.' Koff also pointed to a planned rail-truck transfer facility that is being built adjacent to the Sony center and the Westmoreland Distribution Park in East Huntingdon Township. Four hundred trucks a day are expected to go through the transfer facility just from Sony, and an additional 200 trucks daily are expected to come from United Parcel Service's massive sorting facility near New Stanton, Koff said. Although the facility is not owned by Sony, Koff said, 'This is a major regional asset for business. It will be huge for the region in terms of employment.'
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