Sony or Tandberg?

[Andy Butterbrodt]

Hi,

I have been tasked to research a video conferencing system. The client is looking to have the system at 4 sites and one head end. I was looking at the Sony PCS-1 and the Tandberg 880 MXP. The client for now just wants to be able to use voice and video, but may want to use graphics in the future? What are the advantages and disadvantages to these systems? Also is there a cheaper route that will meet the client's needs of good quality audio and video. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Andy

[emello]

For me it would be no question that I would go with the Tandberg. I demo'd the Sony and wasn't impressed with it's IP quality, and it doesn't talk well with other systems. I work in a Sony house for video production equipment, but they're not the first ones who come to mind when someone says video conferencing. ;)

I have a few 880's here and they've all been trouble free in self service installations where the client rarely calls for help with it. If you need a lower pricepoint, you could go with a 550 or something like that, and still have a good, stable unit.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll hear more from others here as well.

[Skylark]

I would allso go for the Tanberg because I hate the Sony remotecontrol.

But may I ask why not Polycom VSX7000 8)

[Morgan81]

One of the things I've (and my clients) have always enjoyed about the Tandberg line is that you pick up the remote, type the number, and hit connect. The ease of use has always been better than anything anyone else has had. I took a look at a PCS-TL50 today, and although it looks are better than the Tandberg 1500 and VSX 3000, I wasn't too impressed by it's performance but, the Sony website says it's price is $5k.... which is a head-turner. Anyone get a chance to use this?

[MACC the AVCOtek]

the Sony website says it's price is $5k.... which is a head-turner. Anyone get a chance to use this?

I've used it and I like it. It takes some getting used to though. And the remote, as Skylark laments above, needs some help but is definitely better than the PCS-1 remote. The image quality on the TL50 is pretty good and I really like that you can use it as your PC monitor as well. When you're working on your PC and a video call comes in, the codec auto-answers and puts the call in a P-i-P so you don't even have to stop working! To actually send your PC data to the far-end though you still need a DSB (which doesn't have an audio input by the way.) And, yes, the price point is inexpensive. But the codec is a quality codec.

I haven't seen any poor quality video on Sony via IP. In fact, I am very impressed with the packet recovery algorithms. I was on an IP call to Connecticut and had several packet loss messages but never once dropped any video or audio.