Sony PCS-G50P group system
 This month we cast “The Eye” over Sony’s beautifully crafted PCS-G50P group videoconferencing system. This powerful multipurpose codec has pride of place amongst C Hear’s demonstration equipment and we felt it time to review the product properly.
As is the case with most things, first impressions count, and the Sony certainly delivers! Sony is renowned for manufacturing stunning looking equipment, and the PCS-G50P is no exception. The 1U high codec has the look of a Playstation games console, shiny, glossy and well proportioned and the camera unit oozes cool from every angle. When it comes to video conferencing, Sony has traditionally been guilty of style over content, however Sony have made great strides in this area, and the PCS-G50P has some serious horse power under the bonnet.
Like the Polycom systems, the front screen user interface of the Sony can be customised. This customisation is heightened by the ability to upload a still image (jpeg) to frame the associated contact/location one wishes to contact. This could be a picture of the individual or a famous landmark in the city the office is based. This visual representation certainly draws the user in!
In a video call, the system does not disappoint. Utilising the H264 video standard the clarity, even at a low bandwidth of 256kbps, is very impressive. Numerous calls were made to other Sony equipment, as well as Polycom endpoints. This variable did not affect the quality of the video and audio.
The data presentation feature was also very crisp, again not providing any interoperability issues between manufacturers. Quality and reliability used to be inconsistent, when sending data to a non-Sony product. However, we can gladly say that this is a thing of the past!
The stand out, jaw dropping feature of the Sony PCS-G50P (in fact common to the current Sony PCS range) is the memory stick function. You can create your own private phonebook, record your meetings, save and load profiles, and most impressively configure the memory stick to automatically make a call once inserted into the system. How easy is that?
All in all the Sony PCS-G50P is a first class system, a real match for the Polycom VSX7000 range. The Sony looks good, feels good and performs. The memory stick feature is definitely an ace up its sleeve, and importantly Sony hasn’t priced themselves out the market. We fully expect to see an increase in the number of units being deployed in the marketplace.
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