Posted on March 2, 2022 By Jennifer Mash
In this article sponsored by Sony, we are going to explore Sony’s full breadth of equipment solutions that make them an ideal technology partner. As you might expect here at Projector Reviews, we review a lot of Sony projectors. Sony projectors offer both outstanding image quality and convenient installation flexibility.
However, as much as we love projectors, we understand that very few customers are only shopping for a single projector. Sony’s product portfolio includes a massive range of professional products far beyond projectors, including professional cameras, broadcast/production, archiving/content management, premium audio, and professional displays. Due to its vast product assortment and deep technical expertise, Sony can offer complete professional solutions for every space.
Before Covid-19 disrupted the tradeshow industry, you might have noticed that Sony had a large, gorgeous booth at all the biggest tradeshows. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas? Sony had an enormous booth, dominating the projector, TV, digital imaging, and audio consumer space. IFA Berlin – one of the world’s leading trade shows for consumer electronics and home appliances? Yep, Sony was there too.
While you might expect to see Sony well-placed at events showcasing electronics for consumers, they also come out swinging at the biggest shows geared toward the professional side. The National Association of Broadcasters which champions key content creators and professional broadcasting – Sony’s there. What about a home automation tradeshow like CEDIA? Yep, that one too! And don’t forget about InfoComm which celebrates the creators of integrated audiovisual experiences. Video, audio, imaging…products for regular consumers and gear for pros – Sony is one of the rare manufacturers that does it all and does it all very well.
Just imagine if you are helping a customer create an outstanding AV solution for a church. A single projector won’t get the job done. This customer will need a small classroom projector for Sunday school, a mega, ultra-bright projector for the hall, not to mention crisp, professional displays for the lobby to let people know the details of the day’s service. And don’t forget audio! A thumping sound system to inspire and motivate the congregation. Microphone arrays to record the preacher…and broadcast cameras, archival mixers, content archival to capture the service and broadcast it at later date. This customer will need a complete solution.
Sony can provide all the products you need for any professional solution – you can get everything on a single ticket and you know all the products will work together seamlessly. Besides a full range of products, what else sets Sony apart? Sony brings award-winning expertise from the broadcast, music, gaming, movie production, and digital cinema industries to pro AV. Sony is the only manufacturer that develops multiple display formats, multiple camera options, audio solutions, and leverages AI-production tools.
While Sony products can be used in a wide variety of professional applications, including broadcast, medical, and faith, in this article we will focus on higher education and corporate applications.
While the Covid-19 global pandemic has shifted so much of our normal everyday life, from shopping to movies to visiting distant loved ones, we have definitely seen the impact in the fast transition from in-person school to remote or hybrid learning. As the best practices in higher education continue to evolve, Sony is uniquely positioned to provide the latest audio and video advancements to keep both students and educators thriving and engaged. Sony solutions can cover every aspect of higher education learning environments from “huddle spaces” to large classrooms and auditoriums.
The America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) includes $40 billion in aid for Higher Education Emergency Relief and schools have until 2024 to purchase and install technology solutions to effectively modernize education. Schools aren’t limited to improving the classroom experience, the funding can be used to create a “positive learning experience.” You may have the opportunity to suggest better AV solutions, tracking cameras, better displays, and other audio solutions to your higher education customers in the next 2-3 years.
Let’s say you are an educator and you need a modern solution for a hybrid distance learning solution in your classroom. In a lot of classrooms, the existing displays are 65” or smaller so students and instructors have to sit very close together. You could get a projector so everyone can see the people/presenter, but a 100” BRAVIA display with a wide viewing angle would also let students sit at a safer distance and still see the content clearly. You’re also going to need a microphone so your remote learners can hear the lesson distinctly, and you’re going to need a spiffy remote camera too.
Schools also need to communicate effectively outside of a classroom situation. You may help your higher education customers with display technology for lobbies and common areas, alumni centers, dining areas, athletic stadiums, or any other education space. While in the past schools often got by with mismatched LCD panels mounted in hallways and lobbies, modern dynamic digital signage is key to showcase sports or entertainment events or even emergency announcements in real-time. University tech managers need robust, AV/IT integrated signage solutions that are as easy to manage as they are to deploy. Sony is able to provide an ideal solution – secure, SoC-enabled (system on a chip) displays that run on an Android platform.
BRAVIA Professional Displays range from 32-inch to 100-inch models with sharp images and vivid color. Powerful features include a robust Android SoC platform, simple touch-less control, Wi-Fi 5Gz, and built-in content mirroring using Apple AirPlay or Chromecast built-in.
Crystal LED Video Walls can be used for large-screen messaging on campuses. Sony’s direct-view microLED technology series creates a completely immersive visual experience with stunning brightness and contrast in any ambient light conditions.
Remote Cameras let educators capture, stream, and record presentations with up-to-4K resolution image quality, high sensitivity, and powerful zoom in classroom application, including hybrid and hyflex (instructional approach that combines face-to-face and online) learning.
Edge Video Analytics coupled with Sony’s remote cameras enhances presentations in hybrid and hyflex classrooms, with PTZ auto-tracking, focus area cropping, handwriting extraction, and chromakey-less CG overlay to keep students engaged.
Beamforming Ceiling Microphones deliver clear sound for both in-class and remote participants, with hands-free speech reinforcement and clear sound recording technologies for better audio intelligibility.
Like the education space, Covid-19 has spurred a rapid evolution in AV technology for the business world. Limited travel and remote work have created an increasingly digital workforce – it’s critical that your business customers fully support their remote workers and transition to the best tools available to help any workers in the office achieve their highest levels of productivity.
For a successful business implementation, you need world class technologies and display and imaging solution flexibility. Leading design consultants and AV/IT tech managers are curating advanced technologies to improve every aspect of corporate communication, from robust remote collaboration to effective in-office systems. Just like we wrote about in the previous Higher Education section, Sony also brings their unique market strengths to the business world. Along with a powerful laser projector lineup, Sony offers stunning digital displays and video walls, auto tracking cameras, beamforming microphones, digital signage, and cutting-edge AI-driven video analytics.
As anyone who has sat through hours corporate presentations can tell you, business charts, graphics, and video are more effective and impactful on a powerful display. A 4K resolution LCD panel (3840 x 2160 pixels) ensures incredible color, contrast and realism, with four times the detail of Full HD. All Sony models are HDR compatible, displaying a wider range of brightness levels and realism. For extra ease of collaboration, employees and corporate visitors can easily cast content to Sony Pro BRAVIA displays from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Sony Pro BRAVIA is the only display that supports both Google Chromecast™ and Apple Airplay™ 2, providing a simple, quick and seamless connection from a user’s device. With AirPlay 2, users can stream, control, and share their favorite content directly from their iPhone, iPad or Mac to the display.
If your business customer is interested in impactful video content that can be displayed live or recorded, let them know about Sony’s Edge Analytics Appliance. This lightweight and compact unit acts as the smart hub of a connected AV setup, generating compelling video content in real time.
Businesses often need to communicate with workers when they aren’t in meeting rooms, boardrooms, or at their desks. To effectively communicate, businesses need to show messages where employees and visitors enter the building, walk around, and even eat. Sony offers new display technologies to bring better communication to everyone in the building, no matter where they are. Sony makes it easy to implement and easy to install. It’s a cost effective, easy to manage network with as many screens as needed.
Crystal LED Video Walls create visually stunning, large-scale digital palettes for a range of corporate applications. An LED video wall solution is an immersive visual experience for visitors in any lobby, or for maximizing presentations in large meeting spaces.
BRAVIA Professional Displays range from 32-inch to 100-inch models with sharp images and vivid color. High brightness, 24/7 operation, and IP control allows easy communication via digital signage.
Remote Cameras are compatible with WebEx, Zoom, and Teams. As a leader in digital imaging, Sony offers remote cameras that offer superior image quality, high sensitivity, and powerful zoom and tilt. The new Exmor R CMOS Sensor in all Sony cameras ensures high quality 4K images with less noise. Your customer will appreciate these better cameras for better distance business collaboration, capturing the whole scene, auto-tracking presenters, and increasing engagement with remote control PTZ, POV, and BOX cameras.
Clear Audio for Hands-free Presentations. Lavalier or handheld mics can be cumbersome and can restrict the movement of the presenter. Beamforming ceiling microphones provide a hands-free experience, plus speech reinforcement and recording capability – allowing presenters to focus on delivering their message.
© 2021 Projector Reviews
