Sanako Study 1200 - good, bad, meh?

[pete]

MFL are looking at Sanako Study 1200 (and I have an evaluation downloading) for use in an MFL IT room.

 

A cursory search on edugeek reveals 6 "bad" for Sanako/Imperata, one "less rubbish than I expected" and one "good". But since I know we're all more likely to curse bad software than praise good stuff (catharis etc), what's it like? Does it play nicely? Is is sensible to buy when we already have Netsupport, which has much of the functionality, albeit not packaged in an MFL-friendly way.

 

Glancing quickly over the bumpf, it appears to be Netsupport school with an mfl-orientated frontend and content.

 

edit: and the frontend looks horrible.

Edited February 3, 2009 by pete

[ranj]

If you already have netsupport I personally wouldn't purchase it. Then again Sanako is good for things such as language labs as the teacher can play a clip and then teacher can direct the sound to an inidivudual pupil or a group of pupils. Sanako is good for that.

[srochford]

What do you want to do with it? If you're using it for MFL then I think it's good (the staff at my last place chose it and liked it) but if you're not using it for that then I'd guess it's not so good :-)

[rad]

We have it but not sure how often the teachers use it.

 

It is a pain if the teacher PC in the room "dies" as the teacher/admin software needs installing and reconfiguring.

 

I have seen it in use when I am testing stuff and it looks good for what it is.

[pete]

MFL are intending to use it for exams and teaching in classes. They don't really use the IT rooms enough to be familar with what Netsupport can do (it can be used to deliver the audio for the exams, for example).

 

As a MFL teaching aid, (aside from interface niggles) it looks rather useful. As a classroom control software I have reservations, especially if they'd like access to it in our other IT rooms - the potential for conflict with netsupport client components (vga and audio drivers) seems quite high.

[pete]

*resurrects thread*

 

I've just got hold of the pricing for this - would anyone mind sharing (via pm if necessary) what they paid for this? I'm currently seeing entry-mid level SAN type pricing for a software product I'm struggling to see how they've arrived at the costs.

[srochford]

Can't remember what we paid and I don't have access to that info any longer but it wasn't cheap.

 

Suspect the pricing is done with an Excel formula a bit like this: =RAND()*1000+10000

[Peter2803]

*resurrects thread*

 

I've just got hold of the pricing for this - would anyone mind sharing (via pm if necessary) what they paid for this? I'm currently seeing entry-mid level SAN type pricing for a software product I'm struggling to see how they've arrived at the costs.

 

 

I don't know if thsi will help but there is a new comparable product called Relanpro which I am responsible for in the UK . Sanako are a very good company but I believe that I may be able to get you a very good comparative deal as I have leeway to make case study discounts.

 

I have nothing untoward to say regarding the Sanko product I am merely able to offer you what I believe may be a better option at an aggressive price.

 

I can be contacted via this forum if you would like the option to assess something.

[cf23]

I don't know if thsi will help but there is a new comparable product called Relanpro which I am responsible for in the UK . Sanako are a very good company but I believe that I may be able to get you a very good comparative deal as I have leeway to make case study discounts.

 

I have nothing untoward to say regarding the Sanko product I am merely able to offer you what I believe may be a better option at an aggressive price.

 

I can be contacted via this forum if you would like the option to assess something.

 

I would like to know more about your product Relanpro.

 

Thanks

Carol

cf23

[cf23]

Hi Peter

 

How did you evaluation of the above go? Are/did you go ahead with the lab?

 

Thanks

 

Carol

[pete]

Hi Peter

 

How did you evaluation of the above go? Are/did you go ahead with the lab?

 

Thanks

 

Carol

 

We're still stuck at the "does the pricing of this product have any relation to the value for teaching and learning?" stage. Software costs alone are comparable to two well-loaded X4150s and a 7100 Amber Road unit.

 

It looks good/doable, but we're balking at the price and the opportunity cost - i.e. if we did X instead with the money, would that give greater benefit to MFL?

[cf23]

We're still stuck at the "does the pricing of this product have any relation to the value for teaching and learning?" stage. Software costs alone are comparable to two well-loaded X4150s and a 7100 Amber Road unit.

 

It looks good/doable, but we're balking at the price and the opportunity cost - i.e. if we did X instead with the money, would that give greater benefit to MFL?

 

Can't disagree with you on the cost front, Sony about 5-6k cheaper. All I can say is that we've the antiquated Tanberg sys about 12yrs old now -we've had our money's worth but need to come into the 21st century.

Thanks for your response.

[pete]

Can't disagree with you on the cost front, Sony about 5-6k cheaper. All I can say is that we've the antiquated Tanberg sys about 12yrs old now -we've had our money's worth but need to come into the 21st century.

Thanks for your response.

 

Who are you getting your sony pricing from? Connect-ed?

[Peter2803]

I would like to know more about your product Relanpro.

 

Thanks

Carol

cf23

 

I can be contacted at [email protected]. Drop me a mail and I will send you the product details and offer a demo.

[cf23]

Who are you getting your sony pricing from? Connect-ed?

 

Yes, but the faculty are more or less sold on Sanako, Sony was more of a costing exercise.

[NetSupportJames]

Hi, watch out for the new version of NetSupport School due towards end of the summer, this should be exactly what you are looking for.

 

James McMorn

UK Sales Account Manager

NetSupport Software LTD

[pete]

Any chance of a beta demo James?

[NetSupportJames]

Hi Pete,

 

We actually sent a mailer to all School customers last week which states that we aim for this release at the end of next month.

 

The new feature is 'Language Lab Mode'. Teachers can view all student screens in a classroom simultaneously, select any student thumbail to instantly listen to audio playing on their PC.

 

A Teacher can monitor a students microphone to listen to what they are saying, correct pronounciation, or simply engage with each student in the lesson's target language, without disruption.

 

Unfortunately, there is no BETA, however, keep any eye out end of July and if you are a fully maintained customer with us, you will be entitled to the upgrade free of charge.

 

Thanks Pete.

[pete]

No worries, what about sending audio to the student from a line-in on the teachers sound card?

[User3204]

We've got the Sanako Language Lab software (what I still think of as Divace). Which runs okay in those rooms, although with a few little annoying quirks, the worst being because it changes the MSGINA to their own one, we lose all those windows messages at bootup/logon/logoff, so staff / students can't tell what is happening.

 

For the rest of the school, we have decided that the (what used to be Imperata) Study (old version), is just junk. It doesn't really like XP, despite what they say. And unless they've changed things the upgrade costs are idiotic and there is no free upgrade / upgrade protection scheme.

We're going to have to replace Imperata with some other software, when I can afford it.

[pete]

We've got the Sanako Language Lab software (what I still think of as Divace). Which runs okay in those rooms, although with a few little annoying quirks, the worst being because it changes the MSGINA to their own one, we lose all those windows messages at bootup/logon/logoff, so staff / students can't tell what is happening.

 

Er.....that's not bloody on. I'm damned if I'm going to lose disks/have to reimage due to kids repeatedly rebooting stuff because it's not giving them feedback on what they're doing.