In the post show, we discuss accessing PTZ camera controls from anywhere in the world and provide a live demo with our outdoor camera on an outside IP address. Many of our viewers in the live show chat room were interested in controlling PTZOptics camera from around the world and from remote locations. The iOS iPhone/iPad app proved to be a great solution for far end remote PTZ controls over the WAN (Wide Area Network) and we talk about a few different ways to achieve pan, tilt and zoom controls over the public internet.

PTZ Camera Controls Outside IP Address

Ways to access far end PTZ camera controls

Our first question regarded “tunneling into a Local Area Network to control PTZ cameras from an off-site location”. We discuss three different ways to accomplish PTZ control of remotely located cameras plus we jump into a live demo as you can see above. The above camera is located outside our building in Pennsylvania plus we have the PTZOptics 12X-SDI Gen 2 camera on an outside IP address on it’s own network for security. As you can see if we type the IP address into the iOS iPhone app we can take control of a camera through the public internet to an outside IP address. The engineers were actually surprised how easy it is to take pan, tilt and zoom controls of a PTZOptics camera through an outside IP address.

PTZ Camera Settings on IP Addresses

Four ways to control a PTZ Camera from off-site

1. Outside IP address – As long as your iPhone or iOS device can access the IP address of your PTZOptics camera it will work. Therefore if you set up your camera on an outside IP address available to the public internet your iOS device would only need access to the internet and it would be able to control the camera.
2. VPN – A VPN is a (Virtual Private Network) which creates a secure connection from your computer or device to a LAN (Local Area Network) that you have your camera on. So, therefore, your PTZ camera is connected to the LAN (Local Area Network) and your device now has a virtual tunnel into that network securely. When you type in the IP address of your pan, tilt and zoom camera you will be able to access that camera. iOS devices can have VPN applications installed which would be ideal for this PTZ control method.
3. LAN – Many people do not realize that Local Area Networks can span the globe. Similar to a VPN if you have access to the cameras on your Local Area Network you will have access to remotely Pan, Tilt and Zoom the cameras from any location on that Local Area Network.
4. Port Forwarding – You can use port forwarding on your router to allow outside access to devices inside your local area network. While this can be easy to do on consumer grade routers we highly suggest using a VPN because it allows for an extra layer of security and authentication. You may not want to allow anyone access to your PTZ camera and your network.

PanTiltZoom App for PTZOptics

PanTiltZoom App for PTZOptics

PanTiltZoom is an iOS app that can simultaneously controls up to four cameras (with 10 different settings for each camera), with multi-touch interface. With its variable touch control speed, you can easily pan, tilt and zoom, and as well as transition back and forth between saved preset positions. The developer of this app really makes it an app for everyone. With its strong features, it is best fit for almost every activity, both live streaming and security operations.  Also, the price makes it a best bet for all. Talking about its setup and use, PanTilZoom has proven to be the best for both tech savvy and those that have little knowledge of technology. There are great things to talk about this PanTiltZoom, and it would be great that we discuss some of this features.

Easy and Simple Set Up

Actually, the developer, Justin Brown, of PanTiltZoom has everybody in mind – especially those that are not tech savvy. Yes, if you check around, you don’t always see people that are that tech savvy to run stuff like this, “Yes, you know we don’t always have tech people running stuff now and we are trying to keep the cost down and have that control capability, and keep everything in an easy form factor. We did all the preset, and we set it where you can easily move things around”, said Justin Brown.

All the presets were done and set where the user can easily move things around, with menu control, the user can easily move it around and keep it simple. Another improved capability of PanTiltZoom is that, when the user is trying to save the presets, he or she can exactly get the preset where he/she wants it. Then he can take it and name it whatever he wants. From there he can then move it back and forth between different presets, and it does a nice smooth transition for the most of the parts. So if the user gets a single camera he can get a nice control there.

Easy Preset Setup After Zooming

Easy Pan Tilt and Zoom from iPhone

Some people might be complaining why it is always difficult to get a preset on the right spot when it is zoomed in, or probably some people might have not noticed it so far. Yes, this is true but at the same time it is easier to set a preset position even when zoomed in. How do you go about that if you encounter same difficulty? Here is what Just Brown has to say about it, “One of the features we added, I don’t know if a lot of people noticed, is that if you try to set up the shot when you zoom in a lot and you are trying to move things around, getting exactly where you want to save it isn’t easy. So if you tap the edges of the ring you will get it exactly where you want it.  Then you have the capabilities of saving up to four cameras”, said Justin Brown.

Different Settings for Different Cameras

One thing every user needs to notice about PanTiltZoom is that you can easily control the speed individually per camera. If you click the settings, you can have different settings per camera. With this you have the capabilities of saving up to four cameras in your PanTiltZoom. I believe this feature is one of the things the developer did, which seems to be a necessity in the App because of the way it is used.

App-Specific

Another thing is that the presets in the app are app-specific, so that you can switch between the different cameras, and all the presets that are there. Even though it is the same camera, you can set up multiple preset tabs for the same camera. This means that you can have your presets stored in different positions for the same camera. So that way, if you are moving the camera and someone can also use it for specific purpose. Since the presets are app-specific, you can set up different spots without overwriting what’s on the camera. That allows you, if you have a lot of preset, you can set multiple cameras to essentially point at the same camera.

One may ask how that would be possible because the general notion is that you will have single IP address per camera. Yes, that may be true but from what Justin Brown said, we can categorically state that one can control multiple cameras from one IP address, “It is a single IP address, but when you go to the settings and tell it to use the same IP address for both, it doesn’t stop you from all of them pointing to the same camera. It allows you to do different things there”.

Multiple Users

How many multiple users can control a camera simultaneously? Actually, this has not been ascertained so far. But from experience, you can say that the app can accommodate unlimited users. This is so because, one user may be tilting on the app while another user is zooming. And the result comes out perfectly well if carefully managed well. Though it can accommodate multiple users but if not used carefully, it proves challenging because one user can certainly stop the other in the operation, “I haven’t found the limit yet because you can definitely stop each other”, said Justin Brown.

10 Presets Per camera

From the interface, one may think that the preset is limited to 9. But that’s not the case in this app. PanTiltZoom allows up to 10 presets per camera. To get it right you need to count from 0 – 9, and not from 1 – 9. This is true because even though the 0 is the default which is on the home position, you can easily overwrite it on the app. “No 10, if you count zero. The default is zero which is on the home position but you can overwrite it on the app”, reported Justin. This apparently means that you can have a maximum of 40 presets on your PanTiltZoom.

iphone camera control PTZ

Could there be future update where the app can control more than 4 cameras at the same time? One may ask. If you look at app and the interface, one would agree with me that it is very much possible to have more than 4 cameras controlled by the app. But if you think of it the other way round, you can notice straight away that the app will look overcrowded with more cameras, especially, on the iPhone due to its small layout.

Interesting Manual Setups

Some people may be asking if the preset speed control actually works. Sure, the speed control works perfectly well like every other app out there. In PanTiltZoom, you have that capability of setting different preset speeds for different presets, even with different speed for panning, different speed for tilting and different speed for zooming. In this app, you have up to 20 options, which literally mean that you can have up to 20 different speeds for panning, 20 different speeds for tilting and also, 20 different speeds for zooming. And these options are there for you when you are working on each of the presets, “So you got 0-20 for your pan, and 0-20 for your tilt, and 0-20 for your zoom”, he said.

But one feature that needs to be added to PanTiltZoom is synchronized panning and tilting. You don’t easily get that synchronized movement when you are trying to pan and tilt simultaneously, because you don’t know the correct speed for panning or tilting that will enable you to arrive at a point at the same time.

Manual Focusing

Users really want the ability to zoom, and the ability to focus at the same time. Of course PanTiltZoom allows you to do some manual focusing and also zooming. This enables you to output a high quality background, even when you zoom. Brown reported that what some people are really requesting is the ability to store the focus and put it on menu, so that you can have series of focus from different positions, “Yes, you can do some manual focusing. What some people want is to store the focus and the preset as well so that you can go to put it on menu, and you can keep the camera on different position and rack your focus from different position. The one I’m working on now is the ability to record a macro”, he reported.

Wireless Control

With PanTiltZoom, you don’t need a cable for your connections. It is an app that is controlled over a wireless connection. All you need is the IP of your camera, and then you are ready to go. One interesting thing about PanTiltZoom is that you can control your connected cameras from an off-site location. Yes, as long as your device has VPN capabilities and outbound access to the internet, PanTiltZoom allows you to remotely turn in from off-sites to control different cameras. This means that the functionality is also used for multiple conference locations where the conference presenter could PTZ into remotely located individuals.

So if you were to remotely control a camera from another destination, it will have to have an outside IP address and the network you are on will be able to let that connection through with no firewall blocking the access to that IP address? One may wonder. Definitely, PanTiltZoom has that capability. Let’s check what Justin said about this, “As long as you have outbound access to the internet and you are connected to your local network wherever you are, if can reach your IP address then you can control it”, said Justin.

There are two possible ways to connect to your cameras from off-site location, or you can say outside world.

• By using VPN on your computer, in order to make your computer behave as if it is operating within Local Area Network (LAN).

• By replacing the IP address of your camera with an external IP address. That is changing the IP address of your camera with an IP address from outside world. This enables you to control the camera from the outside world, even without using VPN on your computer.

The first one may look cool but too risky. This is because, if you create a hole on the fire wall of your computer for the IP and allow everything to have access to your computer, it can easily found and used to control your camera as well. “The first one being, may be easier because it allows you to have that extra altercation before you can connect, otherwise if you just punch a hole on your fire wall for that port, for that IP and allow everything. Anyone can find it and can also control your camera too”, said Justin Brown. But this can be done if you have a means of securing your computer, like using password or any other security means.

Another interesting question one may ask is if there is anything like VPN for iOS devices. Yes, as we have a lot of VPN for android devices, we also have a lot of VPN for iOS devices.

PantiltZoom can virtually work on any standard protocol, but there are different ways and different control to interpret that. This is has been proved right as PanTiltZoom has been used on different cameras with different IP address that based on different protocols. What I are we saying here? With PanTiltZoom, you can work on cameras with VISCO Over IP protocol, ONVIF IP protocol, etc. Why we are saying this, is that someone out there might be wondering whether PantiltZoom supports cameras with VISCO Over IP, ONVIF IP or the rest. So it is better we understand that it supports all of them, as long as it is a standard protocol.

Other Things to Note

• You can overlay and preview what you are doing while controlling your cameras, whether it’s by using VLC app or something like that in nature.
• Everything is kept in an easy form factor, so you don’t need to be a tech pro before you can use the app.
• The price of the app is pretty down for anyone to buy. Just $10, and you have your own app.
• For PTZ Cameras, the default VISCO Port is 5678. So you don’t really need to figure out what the IP address of your PTZ Camera is.

Possible Future Requests

Using Presets Stored On the Camera
I strongly believe that it will be nice if one can use the presets that are stored in the camera.  Justin Brown confirmed a future request on that, he said, “One of the future request we have gotten is to use the presets that are stored on the camera. So that’s what we are working on. Maybe when you are working on it you can choose the ones that are app specific or the ones that are built in”.

Sharing preset on multiple cameras

Currently one cannot share preset on different cameras, but I believe the developer is currently working on that in order to make it pretty much possible for the user to share presets on multiple devices, “That’s another future request, right now it’s kind of a menu thing. When we have a kind of multiple people using it, we have the primary one that is set up to go through one at a time, you go to the home button and set it on the app and that is some kind of annoying if you have multiple devices. That’s a future request we are working on, to be able to share between apps but that’s not yet ready”.

Synchronized Tilting and Panning

If you notice, you can’t easily get a smooth movement if you are trying to move in a diagonal direction. That is to say that if you are panning and tilting at the same time, you don’t easily get that synchronized motion. It is great news to hear from Justin that synchronized panning and tilting is part of their future plan. He said, “We are working on panning and tilting, right now if you are panning you may not know the right speed for tilting to get the smooth movement. So we are working on synchronized panning and tilting, so that it will take the right distance of panning and tilting to get there at the same time”.

Recording a Macro

For now, PanTiltZoom doesn’t record a macro. It will be a nice feature for one to be able to record for some seconds or minutes, save and call back with a preset button. It really makes things easier and swift. We have high hope that this feature will definitely be added to PanTiltZoom, thanks to the confirmation from Justin Brown at the Podcast. He said, “The one I’m working on now is the ability to record a macro. That’s a kind of, hey i want to go over the preset one, hold it for 10 seconds, move slowly here and over there manually, and  record that and be able to call it with a preset button”.

Access to Camera Menu from PanTiltZoom

Another great and innovative feature is to be able to connect and control the camera menu from the app. This may actually be handy to achieve, but we believe that it can be achieved. What does Justin had to say about this? “Another one is to have access to the camera menu from the app.  This is what the people are requesting; I want to be able to see the camera on the app. What allows you to build that is the VLC app on the iOS. Apps that allows you to connect to their ITSP stream, so if you have more tasks all you have to do is to slide them over and show them side by side”, he said.

Web App to Save Pictures with a Preset

“Another one there, is the web app that allows you to save your own picture with a preset button, so the new layout on the iPad will contain more preset button with 16×9 format so that you can take a picture, essentially what that camera is looking at and save that with your preset”, Justin said.

Managing audio coming in from the camera

Well, I think this is just PanToolZoom control, but when you think of feature like this – managing audio that comes in from the camera by turning it off and on, it’s quite awesome and has a lot to say. And from what Justin brown said, it is possible to have such functionality in the app. He said, “Yea, if we can implement some audio tool in the menu, we can configure that but that’s not right now”. I can’t wait to see this implemented on this wonderful PanTiltZool.

Right now it is pretty cheap to get this app. But if all these features were added, will it still be available at the same price? I doubt. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that Justin Brown and his team have a great vision that will favor everybody. So let’s keep our fingers cross and hope for better things

More on PTZ Camera Control

• How to access PTZ camera controls outside your network here.
• Using a iOS iphone or iPad app for PTZ camera control here.
• How to mask PTZ camera movement with easing transitions here.
• How to control PTZ camera movement speed here.
• Tips for using the IR remote control for PTZ camera control here.
• How to use the IR remote control with multiple PTZ cameras here.
• How to use RS-232 and RS-485 camera control cabling here.
• Testing auto-tracking cameras in a live streaming show setting here.
• PTZ Camera control inside the NewTek Tricasters here.