Sony’s new solution Vision Exchange™ brings active learning and corporate meetings alive

Asia Pacific, 16 August 2017 – Sony today introduces Vision Exchange, the intuitive new collaboration solution for education and corporate users. Uniquely flexible and cost-effective, the solution is definitely the go-to option that suits a wide range of teaching spaces and meeting areas.

Increasingly, many are using their personal devices – tablets, laptops and smartphones – in the learning and working spaces. Realising that BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is making significant inroads, Vision Exchange stimulates lectures and presentations by connecting participants’ devices¹ to the main collaboration system unit (PEQ-C100² or PEQ-C130³), bringing everyone together in a dynamic workgroup-based environment that encourages creative discussion and knowledge exchange.
“There are various collaborative tools out there, reflecting a major shift from passive to active learning that’s become increasingly prevalent over the last decade”, said Riki Nishimura, General Manager, Business & Industrial Solutions Marketing Division, Professional Solutions Company (PSAP), Sony Electronics Asia Pacific. “But until now, this fast-growing market hasn’t been offered a workgroup-focused solution for today’s BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environments with the power, flexibility and intuitive appeal of Vision Exchange.”

Ideal for universities, colleges of higher education and corporate conference rooms, Vision Exchange is easy-to-configure and reduces the overall operation costs due to lesser physical equipment and AV operating issues. The collaborative solution provides a bird’s-eye view through a shared screen, allowing students to effortlessly communicate their views and present their work for review by peers and lecturers through their own devices. Steadily replacing traditional ‘one-way’ lectures with interactive methods, the solution encourages engagement and better understanding.

Presenters can switch between traditional HDMI AV sources to any BYOD alongside screen mirroring function and share their materials with ease. Instant feedback on multimedia content is possible with the simple drag-and-drop control as well as the annotation or whiteboard function. To aid retention of information, Vision Exchange is equipped with the snap-and-download function. Presenter can take a screenshot of the content and participants will be able to access them with their personal devices using the Vision Exchange App.

Apart from the basic capabilities that boost efficiency, easy sharing and take home deliverables, Vision Exchange also offers paid licenses:

Active Learning (PEQA-C10)

Vision Exchange with PEQA-C10 utilises a simple Pod PC structure. It is easy to configure, scalable, and capable of supporting up to 10 groups of BYOD. For independent group discussions, students can share content locally within the group by establishing a Pod with a Mini PC and installing the Pod PC software (PES-C10) for their devices. With simple mirroring, each student can easily show what they know, what they have worked on, or their findings from other sources. Learning from each other is a breeze as they can brainstorm and work collaboratively.
On the other hand, facilitators or lecturers, acting as master administrator of the system, can easily share materials to all screens. They are also capable of monitoring each group’s progress and quickly provide assistance while moving around the room. Further, they can select any group’s presentation to display on either the main shared screen or the Pod screens of all groups for review or discussion alongside annotation function.

Remote Communication (PEQA-C20)

Today, most meeting rooms are based around a cabled single content source and a single display, plus a dedicated AV system with switchers, video conferencing systems and other hardware. This complex set-up is frequently a cause of wasted time and frustration, as presenters struggle with awkward wiring instead of focusing on the meeting itself. Vision Exchange eliminates these operational headaches, allowing participants to focus on the meeting with improved communication.

The PEQA-C20 allows workgroups to connect remotely with other sites using standards-based videoconferencing systems such as Sony’s SRG-120DU PTZ camera and PCS-A1 omnidirectional microphone. Participants can share not only content from their own devices but annotations overlaid on images or whiteboard description in real-time.
Streaming Output (PEQA-C30)

Utilising a separate recording server, Vision Exchange together with the PEQA-C30 option allows users to stream the discussion or lectures that were displayed on the shared screen to another location or devices using either multicast or unicast with RTP (H.264/AAC). This allows the session to be recorded, followed from a remote location via Lecture Capture or archive for future distribution purposes.

The new Vision Exchange active learning solution for higher education and corporate use will be available in Asia Pacific from December 2017 onwards.
_{¹Up to 6 devices can be connected, depending on network connectivity strength
²HDMI X 2 inputs
³HDMI X 4 inputs}