Sony Virtuoso

[mappy24]

Does anyone have Sony Virtuoso? Our languages department has put in a request for it plus 25 Intel Atom N455 based Netbooks for the kids to use it on.

The question I have is, is a single core Intel Atom and 1Gb of RAM up to the task of running the Virtuoso client?

Another concern for me is that we don't yet have a managed wireless network, just a single access point in Modern Languages that would need to provide network connectivity for the 25 netbooks, would network bandwidth be an issue?

Any input gratefully received!

[Steve21]

Although I've never used it, looking at the netbooks vs specs

(those N455 are 1.6ghz right?)

•Pentium 4 class processor running at 2.6GHz or higher
•256 MB RAM (stand alone) / 512 MB RAM (used with Virtuoso)

Seems too slow CPU, and combined with OS ram could be issue depending what you're running on netbooks?

Not to mention comments about physical cards etc, Technical Specification | connectED might be worth a read.

Steve

[mappy24]

Thanks for the link, I don't think netbooks are the way to go for Virtuoso....

[jtotheb]

Another concern for me is that we don't yet have a managed wireless network, just a single access point in Modern Languages that would need to provide network connectivity for the 25 netbooks, would network bandwidth be an issue?

I think the networking would be as much of an issue as the spec of the machines. We use it in our language lab quite happily, but they are all cabled in at 1gbps. The main plus point of the Soloist/Virtusoso combo is being able to pair people/groups for real-time conversations. I can't see that working well in that scenario, and I don't know that they would even support it. Whilst you don't need the specific audio cabling of a "traditional" language lab, I'd say a cabled network is a prerequisite.

If you go for their USB headphones the soundcard in the PC isn't really important, but it can add to the package cost quite significantly if you're buying one for every machine.

[connectED]

The spec of any notebook is upto to the task of running the Virtuoso for the student side of things. But like other apps the better the spec the beter the perfomance. The teacher PC needs to be more substancial in screen size and I would recommend min 2, preferably 4GB ram if using videos with Virtuoso.
We have a small number of clients using notebooks. The hardware is not so much of an issue but using on a wireless network has proven extremely difficult when using the VOIP functions regardless of how good the wireless network may be. We have never supported issues that are a result of network limitations and this only arises with wireless networks. If you want further info ConnectED technical team can provide it.