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sinc747  
#1 Posted : Saturday, June 25, 2016 5:18:46 PM(UTC)
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I am in love with the new PTZ Camera Control in vMix 17. It is great cost-cutting feature for churches who want a single-camera PTZ option that doesn't need a pricey capture card. But...

For a single camera operation, obviously, you will be making a variety of camera shots available by using the feature Create an input at this position. So far, so good. But, in the actual operation of "switching" cameras (PTZ Optics 12XSDI Gen1), the PTZ cam does not move smoothly from one position to the next. My observation is that it moves horizontally and then vertically. And fairly quickly.

It looks like I can manually control the Pan, Tilt and Zoom and adjust the speed at which these happen by adjusting the sliders. But this does not transfer to the Created Inputs.

Can the PTZ control be changed to record the P, T, & Z speed settings when a Create an input at this position command is issued?

Thank you for your consideration.

- Tom
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PTZOptics on 6/7/2017(UTC)
DVE  
#2 Posted : Friday, August 19, 2016 7:33:23 PM(UTC)
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sinc747 wrote:
I am in love with the new PTZ Camera Control in vMix 17. It is great cost-cutting feature for churches who want a single-camera PTZ option

- Tom


I totally agree, Tom! I would love to have the ability to control the speed between presets/inputs and even have macros that would run through several presets/inputs. That would essentially give you multi-position programmable moves.
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PTZOptics on 6/7/2017(UTC)
Speegs  
#3 Posted : Saturday, August 20, 2016 6:02:23 AM(UTC)
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+1 would be almost worth giving up my joystick control if could do speed controlled sweep presets
wwdv  
#4 Posted : Saturday, August 20, 2016 11:10:39 AM(UTC)
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It's a pity that the SD version doesn't support PTZ control.
Churches with older (Sony SNC) PTZ camera's with composite output will love this functionality (showing the last camera image of a preset is great!).

But there are of course a lot of investments done for this feature, so maybe in a later version of vMix :)
admin  
#5 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 2:47:08 AM(UTC)
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There are four main commands available from PTZ cameras such as from PTZ Optics that vMix has access to:

1. Pan/Tilt Absolute Position Command
Using this command we can tell a camera to move to an absolute position and optionally at a certain speed.

2. Zoom Absolute Position Command
We tell the camera to move the zoom into a specific position and optionally at a certain speed.

3. Pan/Tilt Movement Command
Using this command we can tell a camera to start moving up,down,left or right at a certain speed. After some time we then need to send
a second command to tell it to stop moving.

4. Zoom Movement Command
We can tell the camera to start zooming in or out and then after a period of time tell it to stop.

Commands 1 and 2 are what vMix uses to tell the camera to go to an exact position when you create a Input Position preset.
As you can see we have no control over how the camera gets there, and most cameras will only accept one command at a time, so they will pan/tilt into position
and then after that zoom into position.

3 and 4 provide movement controls without any precision, so while you could theoretically time the movements, any latency on the network, or changes in response time
from the camera would result in the camera moving into a position way off from what was intended.

All this is to say that simultaneous pan/tilt/zoom smooth movement from A to B is something that would need to be supported by the camera itself.
If such a command was made available we would certainly add it to vMix!

Regards,

Martin
vMix
Mathijs  
#6 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 4:12:04 AM(UTC)
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The problem is a PTZ camera does knows it's position and the software does not. But if it is only controlled from vMix, the software would know the position all the time. Instead of sending the camera to go to a absolute position itself, it can also be done with pan/tilt movement command together with zoom. We use PTZ camera's all the time and control them live with a vaddio controller. We never use presets, mainly because they also save iris, colour, gain etc.
If it is possible to move them to a position smoothly by hand, it should also be possible with software calculating the most smooth way to get from A to B instead of the dumb go to absolute position function within the camera.

Please add more controls for the PTZ camera's. Focus, iris, gain and color are on top of the list. Now a separate controller is still needed.
admin  
#7 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 5:35:53 AM(UTC)
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Mathijs wrote:
The problem is a PTZ camera does knows it's position and the software does not. But if it is only controlled from vMix, the software would know the position all the time. Instead of sending the camera to go to a absolute position itself, it can also be done with pan/tilt movement command together with zoom.


This is not entirely correct. The commands we have for manual movement have no position information available and can't be moved in small enough increments
to get them into the exact position we want. The only command we have is for absolute positioning, so it would need extra parameters, provided by the camera
to say how it gets to that position, i.e speed, smoothness etc.
wwdv  
#8 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 7:40:48 AM(UTC)
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If vMix does not know the camera's actual PTZ location, how does it make an input of the present PTZ location?
Is it using the camera's own presets?



admin  
#9 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 10:33:44 AM(UTC)
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wwdv wrote:
If vMix does not know the camera's actual PTZ location, how does it make an input of the present PTZ location?
Is it using the camera's own presets?


vMix can retrieve the coordinates while the camera is not moving.
However, this doesn't help with the manual controls very much as while you could move the camera towards the coordinates
the timing isn't exact so you will either end up under or over the intended position by a significant distance.

Mathijs  
#10 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 5:49:48 PM(UTC)
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So it is up to the PTZ camera manufacturers to stand out from the rest and make them go to target coordinates with pan zoom and tilt in a smooth motion at the same time instead of after each other.
sinc747  
#11 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 5:57:07 PM(UTC)
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Mathijs wrote:
So it is up to the PTZ camera manufacturers to stand out from the rest and make them go to target coordinates with pan zoom and tilt in a smooth motion at the same time instead of after each other.


That is not what a PTZ Optics engineer told me today...

He said and I quote: "I just tested my G2 12x USB and when I use the remote control, it does PTZ all at the same time and the focus seems to follow the Zoom. This is what it looks like when using the remote control to call presets."

So, there is a disconnect somewhere in communication.

- Tom


Mathijs  
#12 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 8:27:07 PM(UTC)
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So you get live usable smooth movement from preset to preset? Then PTZ Optics did their job to stand out already. Are you going to show this on Streaming Idiots?
sinc747  
#13 Posted : Tuesday, August 30, 2016 10:46:20 PM(UTC)
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Mathijs wrote:
So you get live usable smooth movement from preset to preset? Then PTZ Optics did their job to stand out already. Are you going to show this on Streaming Idiots?


At this point I'd like to see it. I have not been able to make it P/T/Z smoothly. But when I do, you will see it on Streaming Idiots!

- Tom
wwdv  
#14 Posted : Wednesday, August 31, 2016 3:42:09 AM(UTC)
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I like to test the PTZ feature with my Sony SNC-RZ25/30/50 camera's, but I don't get it working.
Are these cameras not supported?

sinc747  
#15 Posted : Wednesday, August 31, 2016 7:03:41 PM(UTC)
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wwdv wrote:
I like to test the PTZ feature with my Sony SNC-RZ25/30/50 camera's, but I don't get it working.
Are these cameras not supported?


Per vMix17 help...

Selecting the PTZ camera Device Type

Select the device type that matches your camera from the Device Type dropdown box.
vMix currently supports the following types of PTZ cameras:

PTZ Optics cameras and and other cameras that support the VISCA over UDP protocol such as ValueHD.
Panasonic PTZ cameras that support CGI control over Ethernet including the AW-HE40, 50, 60, 65, 70, 120 and 130 series
Sony PTZ cameras that support CGI control other Ethernet including the SRG-300 series.

It is important to note that for simplicity and ease of use, only PTZ cameras that support network control are supported.
Cameras that only have serial control such as via the VISCA or Pelco RS-422 or RS-232 protocols are not currently supported.


Does you Sony have CGI control over Ethernet?

- Tom
wwdv  
#16 Posted : Thursday, September 1, 2016 4:32:59 AM(UTC)
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Yes it does, I've built a html script that sends CGI commands using the numeric arrow, +/- and F-keys (presets).

When I enter the address of my camera and press connect I've got this error: '401 unauthorized'.
So it sees my camera as a device, but can't access it.

Somehow I have to integrate the username, password and port number into the url.

The Sony syntax is: http://user:password@ip-address:port, but that doesn't work.

michaelholt  
#17 Posted : Friday, June 2, 2017 10:00:41 PM(UTC)
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I was able to add PTZ move shortcuts to a regular keyboard for at PTZOptics 2nd Gen 20x SDI camera. The camera will absolutely move and zoom simultaneously. I expect after a few uses, the operators will become very proficient in moving the camera.

I setup the shortcuts to be and speed "0." The operators all LOVE this functionality. The only thing missing is to be able to speed up the movement/zoom on the fly.

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PTZOptics on 6/7/2017(UTC), boris9831 on 6/12/2017(UTC)
PTZOptics  
#18 Posted : Wednesday, June 7, 2017 8:00:48 PM(UTC)
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+1 for sure!

I would add an additional feature request once this one has been added. Perhaps, you could add "Far End Camera" control for select cameras via vMix call. Personally, I think this feature request may deserve it's own thread :) Other programs like Zoom Video Conferencing do offer "far end camera control" as a feature but not sure how important that would be to vMix users... Technically your camera operators could be anywhere in the world with PTZ control and vMix Call functionality combined...
boris9831  
#19 Posted : Monday, June 12, 2017 5:43:24 PM(UTC)
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michaelholt wrote:
I was able to add PTZ move shortcuts to a regular keyboard for at PTZOptics 2nd Gen 20x SDI camera. The camera will absolutely move and zoom simultaneously. I expect after a few uses, the operators will become very proficient in moving the camera.

I setup the shortcuts to be and speed "0." The operators all LOVE this functionality. The only thing missing is to be able to speed up the movement/zoom on the fly.



Will you share your shortcuts, please?
marknotts  
#20 Posted : Saturday, December 21, 2019 7:49:46 AM(UTC)
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+1 Need far more control if possible.
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