Pan Tilt Zoom Camera control

Pan/Tilt/Camera control

A camera remote control system is operated through some kind of panel, which can control one or more cameras. Cameras are placed on a pan-tilt head to enable horizontal and vertical movement. Besides this, zoom and other camera functins may be controlled remotely.
Caused by the improving popularity of webcasting, there is a growing demand for remote controlled cameras. High-end broadcast solutions often are too expensive, CCTV cameras are cheap but don't have the necessary image quality. Besides this, they are more and more IP-based. Many consumer, prosumer and professional videocameras do have connections for external control. By combining such a camera with a pan/tilt head, you get an affordable solution which has a good quality. Most often not all high-end functionality is available, but what suits the needs.

What are the questions to ask when choosing a pan/tilt/camera control system?

- speed of pan and tilt
- smooth movement
- accuracy
- max load of the head (= camera weight)
- max angles of pan and tilt
- pan/tilt presets?
- presets camera (zoom, focus, iris)?
- interface camera: what kind?
- interface camera: what cam be controlled?
- variable speed of pan, tilt, zoom?
- cost of the systeem
- can I use the cameras I own?

ArtiVisuals has developed a number of interfaces to enable simple and affordable remote camera solutions. The protocol of choice is Pelco-D, for which there are loads of affordable controllers available. Max distance from controller to camera is 1 km. The interfaces translate the Pelco protocol into signals required by the camera, e.g. infrared, lanc, resistor or others. The units are addressable, so that a maximum of 16 can be controlled by 1 control panel.
As an option, you can use converters to send y/c (svhs) or composite video as wel as the control signal over a single UTP-cable to make use of the existing building infrastructure.

Camera interfaces supported:

Infrared
Many consumer cameras can be controlled with an Infrared remote (at least zoom). Next to zoom, often also menu-settings can be made this way.

Panasonic-remote
The new generation of pro Panasonic cameras (DVX100B, HMC41, HMC171 and others) are equiped with a socket for remote control of focus and iris. Other functions (zoom etc) are controlled via IR.

Lanc
Most Sony cameras can be controlled via their Lanc-connection (2.5mm minijack or 10-pin AV connector). Zoom and focus are adjustable, often menu settings can be made. Some Canon cameras are also equiped with Lanc.

AW-HE100
The Panasonic HE100 is a 3 chip HD camera with integrated pan and tilt. Our interface controls all camera functions via IR (zoom, focus, iris, pan, tilt, presets)

MP-101
This is a good quality, affordable and quiet pan and tilt head for cameras up to 2.7 kg. Presets are not avialable, but there is limited variable speed pan and tilt. Our interfaces can control this unit together with a camera. The interface is mounted on the pan/tilt head.
Vertical Tilt Angle : ± 15 ° Maximum
Horizontal Panning Angle : ± 90 ° Maximum
Speed-Vertical : 1.2 - 2.4 ° / sec
Maximum Speed-Horizontal : 4 - 8 ° / sec
Maximum Camera Weight : 2.7 kg

Multi controller
The multi controller is a comfortable way to control up to 16 cameras. The adres of the interfaces is set with dip-switches..

We also developed a software controller, that uses a usb to rs485 converter to control the cameras.

Joystick controller
This is a controller for a single camera. By buidling a microcontroller into a standard joystick, pan, tilt, zoom and focus can be controlled remotely. This unit is dedicated to Lanc cameras and the MP101 pan/tilt head. Length of the control cable is 10m, max length is 90m.

Eagle protocol
Eagle supplies pan/tilt systems for Hitachi box cameras. These heads use presets, and have been developed for broadcast purposes. We developed an interface to use Lanc-equiped cameras with Eagle controllers and pan/tilt heads.

Pricing: on request
Interested? Please contact us:

www.artivisuals.nl