Remote Control Video Camera Recommendations

[mm289]

Hi,

 

    we are purchasing a remote control video camera for use in our church so we can send a live feed to other parts of the building and also use to zoom in on events on stage for presentation on the main screen, e.g. weddings etc where people at the back might struggle to see the happy smiling faces of participants :P

 

    The intention is to mount at the back of the church and operate via remote control from our media position rather than have to have someone manning a video camera. 

 

   Operating range will be up to 13m then sent through a video mixer and switcher scaler to our big screen.

 

   Currently looking at a Sony EVID 70, any thoughts, recommendations or other suggestions gratefully recieved.

 

Cheers,

[paulears]

They're quite neat, but not exceptional picture quality. The other snag is that using them from the rear of the room means using them zoomed in for most of the time - when vibration from the structure might be evident unless on something solid, and focus can be tricky, working with the lens wide open and on a long focal length. If possible, I'd go closer to the performing area, so that on wide angle, it gives the full stage, then you can get decent close ups, and using it with pan and tilt 'live' - it won't be so jerky. Remote fro the rear always looks security camera - abrupt starts and stops - unpleasant to look at.

[mm289]

Thanks for that, useful thoughts.

 

The mounting is onto a very solid structure so vibration won't be a problem, but I am concerned about picture quality, as we may take the signal and through it onto our main 12' x 9' screen. I see Sony also do an HD version camera so may have a look at this.

 

I have also laid in stage mounted video input boxes so I can rig a video camera on stage for close ups with or without an operator so that might get me over my zoom issue, and then use the remote camera for audience shots and a feed of the overall venue to remote locations.

 

Any idea what sort of resolution would be needed for decent zoom work, is it worth going for HD spec camera?

 

Cheers,

[nickjones]

PTZ is rather expensive in comparison to normal cameras, do you currently use HD or will you be using HD in the future? Would it be worth your while just buying a camera with really good zoom and having a person operate it? On the surface, a PTZ camera does everything a human does, without the need to have a human there, but in fact, you do need a human in order to control the cameras.

 

In my experience one can pick up a 1080p camera with decent zoom for a fraction of the price of a HD PTZ camera, and if your PTZ camera is only going to be moving from say; a lectern to a wide shot of the stage, then it's a lot cheaper to just to get 2 HD cameras that don't have PTZ.

 

One must also factor in the price of a surface to control the camera from, however if you are looking at getting several PTZ cameras in the near future, that may not be so much of an issue.

 

Apollo Right Arms cost about 800 pounds, and this gets you over your issue of control, and allows you to pre-set positions for the camera, as for the zoom, standard of the shelf cameras almost always have remotes. They normally come in one of two variations:

• Infra-Red remote (with zoom)
  
• Plug-in Mic with remote in it (With Zoom)
  

Both can work, the plug in Mic would work better, as most run of standard TTRS connectors that you can buy from electronics shops. The upside to this is it's more reliable. The downside is that some use the same port for video out as they do remote, however if you are going HD, most have a dedicated HDMI output that is used only for that purpose.

 

The IR remote is more convenient, however it's less reliable and if you buy another camera of the same type, brand or even just another camera, your remote may end up controlling that too unintentionally.

 

Sorry this is such a long post, but I hope I got some valuable info in their.

Apologies for dyslexic spelling thought my posts :P

[sleepytom]

Apollo Right Arms cost about 800 pounds, and this gets you over your issue of control, and allows you to pre-set positions for the camera, as for the zoom, standard of the shelf cameras almost always have remotes. They normally come in one of two variations:

• Infra-Red remote (with zoom)
  
• Plug-in Mic with remote in it (With Zoom)
  

Both can work, the plug in Mic would work better, as most run of standard TTRS connectors that you can buy from electronics shops. The upside to this is it's more reliable. The downside is that some use the same port for video out as they do remote, however if you are going HD, most have a dedicated HDMI output that is used only for that purpose.

 

The IR remote is more convenient, however it's less reliable and if you buy another camera of the same type, brand or even just another camera, your remote may end up controlling that too unintentionally.

Plug in mic with remote control??? umm what?

 

The standard for wired remotes on domestic cameras is LANC - this is a shared protocol between sony and JVC (iirc) Panasonic have a similar control system called something else. These give access to focus / zoom as well as record stop start and some other things (timecode - not so useful really)

 

But using an Apollo right arm give only very limited control with jerky movement not suited to inshot moves. Dedicated camera systems will work better (look at the varrizoom products - decent quality at the low end of the market)

 

But a proper PTZ camera system will be much easier to operate than a conventional camera on a moving head. This is largely because an integrated PTZ system has presets allowing to to save and recall camera positions. These presets are the key to getting good results from a single operator using multiple cameras, without presets you pretty much need one operator per camera, with presets a good operator can control many cameras at once.

 

The sony system is not the best really, I've found the mid range panasonic CCTV system to offer better control with similar image quality to the sony system. Canon have some interesting midrange PTZ cameras which I've not used but they look like the best lower budget option. The best systems are the remote heads using broadcast systems cameras - these are expensive, ranging from about 50k upto close to a million quid (if you want gyro stabilised wireless full uncompressed broadcast HD)

[johnhogg]

I have used a pan/tilt arm controlled via DMX with a Sony A1E. It was just a video signal so picture quality wasnt great. We had pre-programmed positions along with the lighting cues on a pearl so it was quite easy to time the camera movements exactly. We used the footage on screen and it didn't seem jerky at all. I was operating another camera, but I guess movement would be down to the resoution of the pan/tilt arm. 16bt would provide smooth movement just as it would with a moving head.

As for the remote, this was a mini-jack converted to XLR with the additional remote purchased for the camera. This allowed us to run the remote down an standard XLR lead.

 

If you're interested in this then I should be able to find out exact details. Some of the mounts/cables were custom made.

 

JPHogg

[Ian H]

Reading the BR backstage in Miami.

 

We have a Sony H700 camera mounted up high in the catwalk FOH with a RM BR300 back stage at video control....

 

HDSDI signal sent over 1000ft ST fiber....

 

its rather useful......preset focus of all my screens and acting areas....

 

can also read the Ques on the FOH desks...... and the follow spots had no clue we were watching their choice of web sites (Plenty of Fish).

 

certainly don't know how we used to cope now just need to work out how to replace the cat5 control over fiber.

 

Ian H