Sony recently invited CPM to the launch of its new Anycast Touch Live Content Producer, an all-in-one live production system. After taking a close look and even getting some hands-on time running the unit, I agree with Sony's belief that it could be an ideal fit for certain house-of-worship applications.
The new unit, model AWS750, is an evolution of Sony's Anycast AWS-G500, which was introduced back in 2004. By adding high-definition touchscreen interfaces, that replace the original's dedicated sliders, switches, and encoders, Sony has created a very intuitive and easy-to-use, portable unit for A/V control for live broadcast or webcast applications. The new model builds upon the original system with a user-friendly, portable, flexible, and scalable solution that can produce full HD (1,920x1,080) content with 10-bit processing to produce clear, highly detailed pictures either in SD, HD, or a mix of the two.
Looking—and sized—much like a laptop computer, the Anycast Touch unit combines the multiple tools of a live production system into a single unit. It is a video switcher, audio mixer, special effects and character generator, video recorder, image still store, clip player, remote camera controller, real-time streaming encoder, and scale converter. By going with the Anycast Touch system, users can eliminate additional hardware that is typically required for professional live streaming such as encoders, video recorders, audio mixers, titlers, and remote camera controllers. In addition to being a great portable solution, the Anycast Touch could easily be used in a permanent installation.
I was invited along with a number of other A/V press to attend a demonstration at Sony's New Jersey headquarters. After a brief run through of the Anycast Touch along with Sony's new NXL-IP55 IP Live Production Unit, which transmits up to four genlocked HD video streams on a LAN, we headed over to a nearby minor league baseball game for live event demonstration. At the ballpark, the Sony team had set up a system with the Anycast Touch and used the Sony NXL-IP55 as an IP transmission device, to tie into two PTZ cameras and the stadium's camera feed.
Rather than a simple demonstration, Sony handed over the controls to us. As press we aren't exactly everyone's first choice as A/V production crew, yet each of us in no time at all was seated at the Anycast Touch unit and controlling the cameras, cuts, etc for an inning. It was immediately apparent that the unit is easy to operate and we were quickly able to control the system with little help from the Sony techs.
Churches with small tech staffs, and those that rely on volunteers will appreciate the amazingly short learning curve and the fairly immediate ability to be hands-on and live in mere moments after set-up. Considering its size, capabilities and price, it's clear that the new Sony Anycast Touch is a very strong A/V production solution well worth serious consideration.
The Anycast Touch enables intuitive, easy operation, and eliminates the potentially cumbersome set-up and signal adjustment process typically required when connecting various devices. Users can also store the setup information of all attached video sources, such as the camera input, title data, and transition effects. Additionally, scene lists can be prepared beforehand, allowing users to simply switch scenes during an event with just a single tap.
It uses a sliding, dual touch-screen interface similar to a tablet computer with high-resolution displays and incorporates a tilt-screen function that allows the two dual screens—and upper and lower—to split video and audio controls. The unit can store scene settings in folders including titles, logos, and effects. Operators can recall the next video source by touching its thumbnail picture, and content can be easily streamed live over the Internet or a dedicated network. The unit measures 16.34x3.74x13.23 inches and weighs in at less than 14 lbs --- ideal for portable church operations.
The video switcher in the Anycast Touch allows for seamless video mixing between a number of video sources with six inputs; supporting HD/SD-SDI, HDMI, RGB, and/or Composite inputs. It has two HD-SDI program outputs and three types of program/aux sends, but our prearranged test drive did not allow us to test it in an IMAG situation with switched video signals going to several external screens. So testing the speed of the switcher will have to wait for a more in-depth evaluation.
The full-function audio mixer can deal with up to five inputs for a separate audio mix and can be controlled using the secondary touch panel. When dealing with real-time streaming, the Anycast Touch uses Flash H.264 codec for web streaming to an external streaming server or auxiliary output. The unit handles program recording with the ability to record a minimum of 10 hours of program output to the built-in solid-state drive (SSD) in high resolution.
The new AWS750 Anycast Touch Live Content Producer from Sony appears to be a strong contender in a growing all-in-one video switcher/streaming solution category. It looks like an immediate winner for its intended purpose: live broadcasting and webcasting, and its ease-of-use and reasonable price should put it on the radar of any church.
If you are in the market to put in a new A/V control system for your facility or need to upgrade your capabilities I would strongly suggest that you get a demonstration of Sony's new Anycast Touch.
The Sony Anycast Touch has a U.S. List Price of $19,995.00.
