Sony DV Companion
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Guide to Sony Websites
compiled by Perry Mitchell
Sony Corporation is actually a web of different companies that often host their own websites and have very different policies as to how they release information to the public, i.e. to you and me. I recently compiled the following list of Sony websites for a UK magazine... perhaps you will find it of interest.
Here is a list of the global sites:
www.world.sony.com/CorporateInfo/GlobalSites/
If you are trying to get information about a new product, you have to be prepared to trawl around. Often the very first pictures of a hot new product will arrive on the company's corporate Site in Japan:
www.sony.co.jp/sd/CorporateCruise/Press/
...this is in Japanese but the product names are often in English. There is a domestic Japanese marketing site called Sony Drive:
...this is interesting to see what all the latest gizmos are. There is an English section of Sony Drive intended for tourists:
www.sony.co.jp/sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/Tourist/index.html
...the entries are refreshingly free of marketing BS, and include comprehensive specifications. Checkout for instance:
www.sony.co.jp/sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/Tourist/DCR-VX2000/index.html
Now, eventually you’ll need to come closer to home (The Companion notes: closer to Perry's home, that is... across the pond in the United Kingdom). Sony Europe has a central Web Site:
www.sony-europe.com/mcp/mahir.x
...this is intended for consumers but I find it all mouth and no trousers, or typically lots of flash graphics and little real information! Even closer:
We still have a site that is almost impossible to find what YOU want to know rather than what THEY want to tell you! Fortunately English is a pretty common language, so we can troll further afield. Australia is not only English speaking, but also has PAL television. Their site:
...is both easy to navigate and full of good information. It also refreshingly has the whole range of products from consumer to broadcast on the one site. Sony Canada is similar:
...they are of course NTSC so you have to be careful with the information, but Sony Canada put the corporate brochures online in .PDF format, which can be handy since they usually include information on the PAL version. They also have a special DVCAM site, so you can see both together here:
www.sony.ca/dvcam/brochures.htm
Back home, Sony Europe have a specialist Broadcast and Professional division with their own web site:
...where you will also find some "Micro-Sites" and also a site for "new media":
The professional sites are certainly easier to find information, but I find they are not kept fully up to date. And so let us finish by going over to the "Big Daddy" at SEL (Sony Electronics Ltd) which is Sony AV products in USA. There are also a mass of connected sites, but the main site is at:
...with a nice powerful search engine right up on the front page. This links right through all the product ranges so you may well find yourself directed to the professional site at:
...with an even more helpful search feature. Good luck, and good hunting!
Perry Mitchell
Video Facilities
www.perrybits.co.uk/Written by Perry Mitchell.
Thrown together by Chris Hurd
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