Andrzej's monthly column #1

Column

Column: How have Sony managed to lose our trust and admiration?

As a kid, Sony was always the brand I aspired to and I can still remember the sense of happiness I felt when I bought a 28" WEGA 100Hz Wide Screen with DAV550 Home Theatre System and a TRV-25 Camcorder. These days, I would never buy Sony again, unless I was forced into it. But why? There are a number of reasons - and all of them are clearly Sony's fault.

When Mark Russinovich exposed Sony's attempt to install ‘DRM-related spyware', suddenly loyal customers across the world saw Sony in a different light. Especially when Sony promised that their uninstaller worked - but they were not 100% honest. People can forgive companies for shipping exploding batteries, because we all understand that manufacturing errors can occur. The number of Sony batteries affected was relatively small and that no one died. But ‘spying on people' is a big no-no... just ask Richard Nixon.

Sony are now under the spotlight and everything they do (and have done) is seen from at least 2 angles. Think about everytime you (or a friend) had to buy a connector/cable and realised that Sony had a proprietary format that cost double what everyone else was charging. Remember the home theatre system I bought? Well that developed a problem. The speakers (now embedded in my walls!) are fine, but the DVD motor keeps failing. Can I buy a replacement unit on its own? No. Why not? Because Sony deliberately keep changing the connection system so that the old speakers are no longer compatible. Perfect.

My latest experience has been the most ridiculous. After almost 4 years with ATI, I am now developing Cyber Theme Parks with an organisation called Omega Sektor. I needed to buy a High-Definition camcorder to interview our sponsors. Having had a great experience with my TRV-25, I decide to check out the latest offerings in my local Sony Centre. There I was immediately offered the HDR-SR1, which is capable of capturing High-Definition directly to a built-in hard drive. Great ! No more ingestion !

I was very happy - but made one final check before buying. Me: "What format does the camera use to capture high definition?" Manager: "MPEG" Me: "Perfect. I will take it!"

After shooting a bunch of interviews, I then had to edit them. After booting my PC, I plugged the camera in on the supplied USB2 cabled and waited for my PC to ‘see' the camera. It is a hard drive - right? No chance.

Quick read of the manual (which I never do!!!), tells me that I have to install the camera first. OK. No problem. After completing the installation, I re-attach the camera and the PC sees it. However, the HDD is still not in ‘My Computer'. Reading more in the manual you find that you can ONLY use Sony's proprietary software to make this attachment (wonder if I have installed more root kits?).

When I eventually get the files onto my PC, they have the M2TS extension, which I cannot use. After checking with Premiere, Ulead, Movie Maker and Avid - I finally download and install Sony's own Vegas 7 High-Definition video editing package and...

...that does not recognise M2TS either. I spent two days researching the subject to discover that Sony have launched a camera that uses a proprietary AVC/H.264 system which CANNOT be edited by any of the regular packages - INCLUDING SONY's OWN EDITING SUITE !!! In fact, the major companies like Adobe only signed up to look at Sony's proprietary AVC/H.264 technology at the start of December - so most of them will not be able to edit Sony captured video in the first 12 months after the camera launched. That is just horrible! Imagine spending almost €2,000 on a camera that gives you files you cannot edit.

The question is, were Sony aware of just how bad a problem this is? I suspect the answer is yes. If you look at their web site descriptions for this camera, you can clearly see that they AVOID any mention of video editing. So they knew it was a problem and they chose NOT to tell the public. They also FAILED to adequately train their shop staff to know that the camera is fundamentally flawed.

Even Sony do not know M2TS...

I spent days ringing many people within their organisation, including Emma, Tory and Aimee who run PR for Sony in the UK - but most of the time they were too busy with office parties and snowboarding holidays to help. I tried the Sony dedicated support line at 17:10 in the evening - but it shuts at 17:00 (although the web site clearly states 18:00). Eventually, I rang around a bunch of Sony Centres to see what the people in the store through the situation was regarding being able to edit video from the HDR-SR1. ALL of the people I spoke with thought that the disk supplied would have video editing software on it - and none of them realised that Sony's proprietary AVC/H.264 technology was (effectively) useless until much later in 2007.

How have Sony managed to lose our trust and admiration? Simple. They have not been open and honest with customers about their business practices.

When I spoke with the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK about Sony's HDR-SR1, they told me that it's inability to create High-Definition video that can be edited was such a serious issue that the government's Trading Standards unit would want to hear about it.

With such a clear issue that would impact EVERYONE who bought the product with the intention of editing footage... why no sticker on the box telling us about the limitations? Simple. Because Sony now put profit above all else and the customer care reputation that they built up since 1946 has been shattered. It will take a long time (possibly forever) for Sony to rebuild their badly damaged brand and - in the meantime - there are TONS of competitors queuing up to take their market share away.

Enough said.

Andrzej Bania is Marketing Director for OMEGA SEKTOR which is a Cyber Theme Park with almost 600 PCs and Consoles. Previously, he ran PR & Marketing for ATI in Northern Europe and, before that, helped run the UK's number 1 award winning PC manufacturer.