Sony Anycast issues solved?

[Nicholi Brossia]

The Sony Anycast Station seems to be the perfect solution for a small, portable video production. Unfortunately, many of the reviews I've read say that the Anycast has major issues with streaming, firewire harddrive recording, and other advertised features. Most of the reviews, however, are dated a year ago, right after the system first became available, and state that Sony is working on a fix. Does anyone have information/experience with a more recent Anycast that works as advertised?

[Andy Simpson]

I've been working with an Anycast for the last year and have to say that the more I use it the less impressed I am. There have been two major firmware/software updates which were touted to cure all. Sadly they haven't managed to provide the facilities that I have been waiting on.

The main stumbling block is that I cannot get the Anycast to stream to an external server. The initial release of the software omitted this feature completely, only in V1.30 has it been "implemented". I have been in contact with Sony and several streaming companies with absolutely no luck. Sony can't tell us why it doesn't work and the streaming companies can't get the information from Sony to get it to work. This is a major drawback and it present is costing us in lost income and without any sign of the streaming working, there is very little to reccomend.

[Andy Simpson]

Thanks to some sterling work by Streaming Wizard - www.streamingwizard.com - I now have the Anycast able to stream to an external server. I have to say that this has been an issue for me for over 12 months and Sony themselves have been unable to tell me why it didn't work. Turns out is is something to do with the way the Anycast logs on to a server.

[Erich Lyttle]

Has anyone had experience connecting laptop to Anycast for graphics or video playback- we are not getting the I Book to talk to the Anycast switcher- and we need to import graphic files for our feeds to jumbotrons.

[Andy Simpson]

Originally Posted by Erich Lyttle

Has anyone had experience connecting laptop to Anycast for graphics or video playback- we are not getting the I Book to talk to the Anycast switcher- and we need to import graphic files for our feeds to jumbotrons.

I've connected a succesion of PCs and Laptops to the Anycast quite easily. To use a graphics file, you are better storing it on a memory stick and importing it onto the Anycast's internal storage.

[Marc Vanschoonbeek]

Anybody who knows if it's possible to set up multicast streaming wih an external streaming server connected to the anycast ? (I doubt that the internal server can do it, because it is not mentioned in the features/specs)

[Marc Vanschoonbeek]

We're close to achieve a Sony Anycast station to use it for live video production and videoconferencing in a hospital environment. But there still are some drawbacks mostly based on negative talks on this (great!) board.
One is about the external hdd recording. Can someone, who has worked with that feature on a new (or recently upgraded) station, tell me about his/her findings about that?
And last but mot least there is the video output quality. When the salesman did the demo, the only monitor we had around in that particular room didn't do it and no time to catch up another one, and so we had to believe his words that, instead of the video on the build-in screen (very nice but at a low frame rate): "the real output video is just perfect, with only a minor output lag time". Can someone here also give me an idea about that delay (the salesperson was very vague about it)