I fully agree but don't understand the reason why you post this here in the vMix forum.

Newtek has a forum, I believe PTZO too (not sure though) but they have a FB group.

Guillaume

NDI PTZ Commands already have a speed control from zero to fast, and most PTZ controllers have variable sensitivity and speed joysticks.
It's perfectly possible to do a very smooth pan and ramp up to speed with NDI. In fact - the standard NDI PTZ behaviour appears to have soft start and end implemented by default.
A lot of the look of PTZ will come down to the experience and skill of the camera operator. There is nothing fundamental here.

You haven't looked at the Panasonic broadcast PTZ NDI cameras out there. While more expensive, cameras like their UN-70 or HN130 have better imaging and lens than the NewTek PTZ1, PTZ Optics or any other PTZ cameras in the sub $3K price range. I think the HN130 is the best PTZ camera on the market right now and it should be for $9K.

As for the motion, it comes down that there are two ways to control a PTZ camera.

You can recall a preset stored in the camera. This is what TriCaster and many other solution do. In these cases, the camera will move the way it is programmed to move, as the controller isn't doing anything more than saying 'go to preset 1'. Typically cameras are trying to move to the next preset as fast as possible to get the next shot setup.

The second way to do this is controlling all aspects of the camera completely. TriCaster used to do this, we would store the preset information of the camera and offered speed controls for moving the camera all in software. However, this ultimately wasn't a great solution. The problem is that every PTZ camera has a different 'world' in how much range it offers, its speed from slow to fast, the amount 'resolution' steps available as it rotates, it's zoom capability and zoom resolution as well. Trying to get a single set of controls to work with dozens and dozens of PTZ cameras was daunting. New versions of software would come out trying to make PTZ work better for one model, while in turn making it worse for another model. If you only wanted to limited set of PTZ cameras to work with, this method would be workable, but if you are trying to support as many as possible, this isn't the route to go.

Finally, on personal note. I find it interesting that, as soon as people get a PTZ camera, their workflow changes to 'I want jib type camera moves' in my events. However, a PTZ camera isn't a jib camera. I think that PTZ cameras are best being use the same way as cameras on a tripod. Setup the shots you want cut between them, now with central control of them instead of a camera person at each location. If you need to follow the action in your event, then you want a PTZ control surface and operator, which can cover multiple cameras from a single position.

Kane Peterson
NewTek