PTZ control

[ragaszto]

Hi! I would like to buy a PTZ camera and use it during video conferencing, so that the not present participants can control the pam, tilt and zoom functions of the camera. Can you help me in which cameras are compatible with this feature and how to install it into my Zoom client? Thanks, Arpad

[bstrelko · Accepted solution]

I don't believe that Zoom has a published list of compatible PTZ cameras for Client (they do have a Zoom Rooms Certified Hardware list); however, most PTZ cameras that use standard UVC protocol (most that use this include 'UVC' in their marketing) should work.

Guide for enabling far-end PTZ control:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203028599-Using-far-end-camera-control

Note that camera control appears to be far-end only (why no near-end control??), but this seems to fit your use case.

[ragaszto]

Thank you. We are on the fence about ordering this product: https://www.amazon.com/WAAWO-4K-PTZ-Auto-Frame-Streaming%EF%BC%8CWorks/dp/B0BL3LQJZP?th=1

Do you think this would be suitable to play some distant, virtual board games like Terraforming Mars?

Thank you,

Arpad

[bstrelko]

I have never used this camera and cannot recommend it. 

I also would not be personally interested in this product because it only has 3x digital zoom (no optical zoom), is from an off-brand, and isn't a great price for the feature set. '4K' doesn't buy you anything on a cheap tiny sensor being piped into Zoom either.

But again, I've never used this camera and cannot issue a recommendation either for or against it.

[ragaszto]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply. Following up on this issue, we have decided to pass on the PTZ camera project. Instead we have been "teleboardgaming" with Teams (sorry) and my phone (Samsung Fold 3).  The software is very not user friendly and I wouldn't even try to interface with it, so we want to advance the set working with Zoom. The idea is to somehow give access to the remote user/attendee to the phone's zoom and possibly a gimbal stand, which can pam and tilt it as well. As a first step it would just be great if we could locally use the controls on the gimbal stand, naturally the tilting, but more interestingly the zoom if necessary. Then we would try some API or whatever software integration of the gimbal into Zoom, but that would be next step.  So is there a recommended gimbal to integrate to Zoom and some software settings to implement within the Zoom app settings? I saw, that the DJI gimbals are quite advanced, but don't have any specifics yet. Thanks, Arpad

[ragaszto]

As another follow up I am most worried about zooming with the phone with the gimbal controls, so I would try to give direct access to Zoom over the phone's camera's zoom function. Is this possible or is there some API to interface with? How can this be done? The gimbal's controls would be used locally to tilt the phone if and when necessary. 

Thanks for any help in advance. 

[bstrelko]

This would be considered Far-End Camera Control: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0066662

If your phone supports PTZ functionality within Zoom, this should be as easy as ticking the correct settings.

[ClayHerman]

Thank you for the link, you made my day.

[Frank_TB]

Hello,

Far-end camera control requires the host zoom client to be on a computer and wont work on a mobile (phone) based  meeting.

I do not know of any way to make a phone gimbal work with Zoom.

Regards

If my reply helped, don't forget to click the accept as solution button!

[Julianan3423]

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@ragaszto wrote:

Hi! I would like to buy a PTZ camera and use it during video conferencing, so that the not present participants can control the pam, tilt and zoom functions of the camera. Can you help me in which cameras are compatible with this feature and how to install it into my Zoom client? Thanks, Arpad

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Some reputable brands for PTZ cameras include Logitech, HuddleCamHD, and PTZOptics. Check the specifications and compatibility of specific models.