FRAMOS, a leading imaging company, is excited to announce a new interview that gives an insight into the long-term partnership with Sony in sensor distribution.
As the heart of every vision system is the image sensor, it is crucial to have access to the latest sensors and the broad sensor portfolio to support customers in the development of their vision projects.
As a long-standing distribution partner for Sony for image sensors, block cameras, and OLED micro displays in North America and Europe, FRAMOS can fulfill all market requirements.
In an interview with Darren Bessette, FRAMOS Senior Partner Manager for Sony, who represents key suppliers within the organization while providing feedback about FRAMOS and its customers, you can find out more about this valuable partnership.
His more than twenty-five years of experience in various roles, from software development, system design, FAE, and sales engineering to product and line management, enable him to fully understand the application, product, and business requirements of our customers to ensure that the best advice is offered for each challenging situation.
FRAMOS: Can you please provide an overview of FRAMOS’ partnership with Sony in distributing image sensors?
Darren: FRAMOS has been a long-term Sony partner for more than 40 years in Europe, and for the last 10 years has expanded to the Americas. This partnership has been very successful in not only providing sensors to our customers but also in supporting them to quickly implement them into their vision systems and camera products.
FRAMOS: What sets Sony image sensors apart from others in the market, and how does FRAMOS leverage these advantages?
Darren: The quality of Sony image sensors sets them apart from all others on the market. They provide better image quality with low noise, which is sought after by many. They listen to their customers and create specific sensors that include unique features that target specific applications like security and surveillance, machine vision, and factory automation markets, just to name a few.
FRAMOS: What specific benefits does FRAMOS gain as the official distributor of Sony image sensors?
Darren: FRAMOS gains inside access to the greatest and latest sensors ahead of many others, while receiving more in-depth knowledge on how they work, directly from the Sony engineers who designed them. One of the privileges we get is that we hear about and gain access to the latest sensors to hit the market along with being provided with a rich portfolio of products that include imagers found in their industrial, automotive, consumer, and security divisions.
This allows us to be more flexible in how we solve our customers’ vision needs and requirements by using devices that were designed for other markets which may not be suggested directly by Sony or other distributors.
FRAMOS: How does the partnership with Sony enhance FRAMOS’ customers in increasing their competitiveness in the market?
Darren: We are sensor experts so we can understand our customers’ needs and make suggestions on the best combination of products to address their requirements during their design stage. As they progress into production, we provide the best prices that leverage our full buying power from Sony.
Our large warehouses are strategically located around the world and are leveraged to keep lead times short. They are also Sony certified meaning that they successfully passed Distribution Quality Audit based on Requirements for Semiconductor Products performed yearly by Sony.
We can store, repack, dropship, and/or adjust deliveries to match our customer production needs.
FRAMOS: Can you share any examples that highlight the impact of Sony image sensors on FRAMOS’ clients and their projects?
Darren: Because of our Sony partnership, we provide the best sensors in the world to our customers, and we get the best images out of them by leveraging our broad knowledge of camera design and image processing. We know how to combine the best sensors with the right lenses, lighting, filters, and back-end processing algorithms to achieve the best image output for every application.
FRAMOS: How does FRAMOS ensure the availability and accessibility of Sony image sensors to its customers?
Darren: The way we achieve availability and accessibility is through very accurate forecasting and planning for the sometimes unknown or unforeseen demands of our broad customer portfolio. Also, our multiple warehouses allow us to store a large supply of sensors to manage the ebbs and flows of the ever-changing customer demands across various geographical locations.
FRAMOS: In what ways does FRAMOS support its customers in integrating and utilizing Sony image sensors effectively?
Darren: We do this by providing the best sensor selection for our customers’ applications and then matching them with the best peripherals. We have extensive knowledge in camera design and development and use it to ensure our customers finish with a successful product. And lastly, we are very flexible with managing our inventory stock levels to work within their ever-changing production cycles and delivery times throughout our customers’ product life cycles.
FRAMOS: How does FRAMOS collaborate with Sony to improve and provide new technologies and developments in image sensors?
Darren: We are constantly providing market feedback, customer feedback, and suggestions for adding new features and technologies as imaging marketing evolves over time. The input we give today will drive the sensor designs of tomorrow. The most important part that I want to emphasize is that we are always trying to anticipate what our customers will want before they realize it to ensure that the products become available when they need them.
FRAMOS: What kind of technical support or resources does FRAMOS provide to customers who are using Sony image sensors?
Darren: As a sensor expert, we understand our customers’ needs and suggest the best products to fulfill them. Our partnership with Sony provides us early access to the best and most advanced sensors being made in the world which we share with our customers early on. Our teams not only support our customers by answering their technical questions but can also help design, develop, and manufacture their imaging products. Finally, we can adapt to their changing production needs by storing, packing, or drop shipping products to anywhere in the world.
FRAMOS: Looking ahead, what are the prospects and goals for FRAMOS’ partnership with Sony in image sensor distribution and innovation?
Darren: Being able to provide more manufacturing and brand solutions to our customers. By using our imaging experts, we can work with customers to review their imaging designs and ensure that they are manufactured with the highest quality and yields. We can quickly identify manufacturing issues and address them rapidly with our in-house engineering teams to keep the production lines moving. As we gain access to more Sony sensors from other divisions, we can provide a broader portfolio of products and options to our customers. This is not something provided by generic low-cost contract manufacturers who may only have a limited breadth of products.
