Looking for PTZ camera recommendations

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searing

New Member
We've been using two Marshall CV610-UB cameras, which recently stopped being controllable. (This was posted to another thread, but the long and short of it is that the factory reset can only be accessed through the remote and the cameras stopped responding to the remote commands.) So I'm looking to replace the cameras. We're using OBS on a Macbook Pro to cut between the cameras, preview cameras and control the PTZ, and send the result out to Zoom. When working well, the Marshall cameras were fine. But the VISCA over USB would pop up on different cu port numbers and the cameras weren't always found. So it often took some fiddling and restarting OBS to get things going. I'm hoping that using IP cameras will get around these issues. So I'm looking for something similar (e.g. HD, PTZ with presets, indoor use only, roughly covering 6 to 60 degree horizontal field of view) but with video over ethernet, VISCA over IP, and PoE (to simplify cabling).

Will NDI will be helpful in this situation?
Are there cameras you'd like to recommend that cover this need?

The following are ones that seem to show the spectrum of price points I'm considering ($400 to $1200):

www.sweetwater.com

JVC HD PZ200N NDI Remote Streaming Camera with 20x Optical Zoom

NDI-ready Remote-control 1080P PTZ Streaming Camera with 20x Zoom, PoE, 3.5mm Audio I/O, Presets, and IP Output
www.sweetwater.com www.sweetwater.com
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803905131183.html

I plan on individual PoE power inserters for each camera that would be powered with the rest of the system (which includes a Behringer X32 Compact audio mixer). A small existing Netgear gigabit ethernet switch would also be used.

Thanks!
 
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AaronD said:
Are you sure it's not just a dead battery in the remote? They last a long time, but they do eventually run out...
Click to expand...
Yes. I tried three different remotes, a couple with fresh batteries. The camera does pass on commands when the remote is set to a different camera number than the camera is set to. These are consistent and show up on both the DIN serial port and the USB virtual serial port. So it shows that the IR receiver is getting something. I supplied Marshall with lots of information about the commands coming through, in case that is a clue. But I don't know as it was considered when they told me to RMA the units. At the same time, the cameras also stopped taking commands from OBS through USB. And they would not take commands from the DIN serial port (I tried VISCA, Pelco-D, and Pelco-P).
Further discussion of this would be better on the other thread: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...ading-to-sonoma-14-1-1-and-obs-30-0-0.171488/
 
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Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Like cameras, there is a level of 'you get what you pay for'. Quality optics and motors aren't cheap
Cheaper NDI PTZ cameras tend to have movement control motors that are less refined (ie jerky, unable to move in a diagonal direction, not as smooth coordination of Pan Tilt and Zoom when moving between presets, etc.) and not as good optics (poor low-light capture, noise, slow auto-focus, color accuracy, etc)

Oh, and, yes, I'm a strong advocate for NDI (even if there are some extra hoops to get that to work with OBS Studio due to NewTek's licensing for NDI). The nice part for me, is that Panasonic provides a Virtual USB driver that takes NDI feed (from many cameras, if applicable) and makes the video appear to Operating System as locally attached USB.... meaning I don't need to deal with NDI plugin for OBS, or similar. Other vendors may have similar (I haven't looked). Considering some of the challenges others had had with OBS Studio and NDI, I'd say paying a little extra for a vendor with a similar device driver would be well worth it [I'm of the keep it simple, ... by avoiding another plugin, + separate NDI s/w, my troubleshooting process becomes a single phone call ... priceless.

When I was shopping a couple of years ago for a large room NDI PTZ camera, Sony and Panasonic were among the top tier for image quality. There were some serious premium bransds and models, with features I didn't need (ex Genloc). JVC, PTZ Optics, and a few others in middle, and lots of no-name, no-support knock-off brands. Canon has since released some nice PTZ cameras.
Just over 3 years ago, I paid a little over US$2K for a 1080p 22x optical image-stabilized NDI PoE PTZ camera. That same camera can be had now for closer to $1K (new). In part because the market has largely moved to 4K cameras.
- As top tier cameras should last MANY years (with clean power provided, hence my using a PoE switch backed up by an auto-voltage regulating battery backup(UPS)), you should ask yourself if venue is ok sticking with 1080p for now?
- or, spend a bit more now for 4K, but (if all goes well) not touch it for many years?

My perspective... our next PTZ camera will be 4K, and I'll move the 1080p camera to a secondary position. Assuming a 10 year camera life (which isn't unreasonable for quality cameras) I can't see us still be on 1080p for anywhere near that long so buying 4K next makes sense.

As for the Marshall cameras... there isn't a physical reset button on the device? like a press and hold for 5,10+ seconds type thing? piss poor UI & basic design to require using remote control ... amateurs.
- Lesson hopefully learned to avoid the cheap stuff ;^)
 
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Lawrence_SoCal said:
Like cameras, there is a level of 'you get what you pay for'. Quality optics and motors aren't cheap
Cheaper NDI PTZ cameras tend to have movement control motors that are less refined (ie jerky, unable to move in a diagonal direction, not as smooth coordination of Pan Tilt and Zoom when moving between presets, etc.) and not as good optics (poor low-light capture, noise, slow auto-focus, color accuracy, etc)

Oh, and, yes, I'm a strong advocate for NDI (even if there are some extra hoops to get that to work with OBS Studio due to NewTek's licensing for NDI). The nice part for me, is that Panasonic provides a Virtual USB driver that takes NDI feed (from many cameras, if applicable) and makes the video appear to Operating System as locally attached USB.... meaning I don't need to deal with NDI plugin for OBS, or similar. Other vendors may have similar (I haven't looked). Considering some of the challenges others had had with OBS Studio and NDI, I'd say paying a little extra for a vendor with a similar device driver would be well worth it [I'm of the keep it simple, ... by avoiding another plugin, + separate NDI s/w, my troubleshooting process becomes a single phone call ... priceless.

When I was shopping a couple of years ago for a large room NDI PTZ camera, Sony and Panasonic were among the top tier for image quality. There were some serious premium bransds and models, with features I didn't need (ex Genloc). JVC, PTZ Optics, and a few others in middle, and lots of no-name, no-support knock-off brands. Canon has since released some nice PTZ cameras.
Just over 3 years ago, I paid a little over US$2K for a 1080p 22x optical image-stabilized NDI PoE PTZ camera. That same camera can be had now for closer to $1K (new). In part because the market has largely moved to 4K cameras.
- As top tier cameras should last MANY years (with clean power provided, hence my using a PoE switch backed up by an auto-voltage regulating battery backup(UPS)), you should ask yourself if venue is ok sticking with 1080p for now?
- or, spend a bit more now for 4K, but (if all goes well) not touch it for many years?

My perspective... our next PTZ camera will be 4K, and I'll move the 1080p camera to a secondary position. Assuming a 10 year camera life (which isn't unreasonable for quality cameras) I can't see us still be on 1080p for anywhere near that long so buying 4K next makes sense.

As for the Marshall cameras... there isn't a physical reset button on the device? like a press and hold for 5,10+ seconds type thing? piss poor UI & basic design to require using remote control ... amateurs.
- Lesson hopefully learned to avoid the cheap stuff ;^)
Click to expand...
> As for the Marshall cameras... there isn't a physical reset button on the device?
No button, no paperclip hole, and Marshall support says there is no way to reset it without the remote.
 
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