Panasonic AW-PH350 Pan/Tilt head - video output

[Solstace]

Slightly obscure issue found here, and it's now easier to ask around on forums than to get an answer from Panasonic given that their phone systems no longer have "professional" options, and the "contact us" forms submitted on the website invariably get delivered to a black hole. Perhaps they all get forwarded to Frank? (In-joke from the Blaming Others thread elsewhere on this forum)

 

Anyways - we're using the Panasonic AW-PH350 pan-tilt heads with Panasonic AW-350-E convertible cameras for in-house CCTV links. Currently we feed composite video from each camera to a switcher unit, fed from the composite outputs on the back of the cameras themselves. This means there's another cable dragging on the back of the camera when it moves. While fixing another problem this week, I noticed a Video / Y output labelled on the base of the pan-tilt head. Thinking it would make more sense to have video fed from the static side of the head than from the bits that move, I thought to try it...

 

Using the Video Out connector on the pan-tilt unit, the video signal is present but without the C(hroma) part of the signal. The C signal is available as a separate output, which begins to make sense for a (semi) pro install, but the manual suggests that the output here should be composite.

 

What the manual doesn't give is a clue as to how to make sure the video-out post is actually sending composite, nor what equipment conditions might negate it. I've looked at the camera menu settings to see if I can change the output format, but the only choices I get are Y/C, Y/Pb/Pr (component), or R/G/B. In all these modes the Video Out on the back of the camera remains composite, while the modes of the outputs on the pan/tilt head change according to the chosen setting - but never to composite.

 

I'd really like to switch the video feed to the static side of the base if I can, partly so that the cable doesn't get overflexed over time, and partly to smooth out the motion of the cameras. I realise Y/C can be adapted to composite quite easily, but I'd rather leave further adaptors out of the signal chain to help ensure maximum reliability and quality.

[jason5d]

If you can't come up with another solution use sdi with an adapter at the other end.

If you can't afford a new sdi card there are some used on ebay:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Panasonic-SDI-CARD-AW-PB860GY01-AW-PB504-AW-E350-E650-E655-E750-E860-/321074868473?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D6132604508556598957%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D321074868473%26

[jason5d]

I've just though you can run composite video from the base, that's if you are using the camera I/r multi pin cable from the camera to the pan tilt unit

[Solstace]

Thanks for the input! :)

 

Would rather not use an adaptor to convert SDI, as spending real money on this is a no-go given it'll be replaced "soon".

 

As for running composite from the base (rather than the head), that's exactly what I'm trying to figure out how to do, again without making/buying an adaptor to combine the separate Y/C outs that I'm seeing right now...

[jason5d]

We have one of these heads and it has composite bnc out on

the base, it's marked y/video.

 

If it doesn't output video, you need to tell the camera

to output composite video in it's menu.

[Solstace]

Ah. And that's where I'm getting stuck - the camera simply doesn't offer Composite as a menu option...