NDI Camera Advice

mimoLive
1

I am considering the jump into NDI. I tested a NewTek PTZ1 last weekend for an event and it was awesome. We’re considering upgrading our basic set up to two NDI cameras and one operator controlled “traditonal” camera.

We are uncertain if we want to use NewTek Spark to wirelessly connect to the cameras via our own WiFi network (separate from the venue WiFi).

We want the two NDI PTZ cameras to be under joystick control.

I am running across NewTek, Panasonic, Lumens and PTZoptics as the most mentioned NDI PTZ cameras.

I am curious what your collective leanings are towards or away from any of these brands.

And feedback on joysticks would be helpful too.

I can share that I could only find one very expensive NDI joystick (SKAARHOJ PTZ Fly Controller) that would work with the NewTek PTZ1 because it’s not a VISCA compatable camera. I ran across another much less expensive controller that had a small preview monitor built in but my guess is that ONVIF2.4 is not a compatable PTZ control protocol for these NDI cameras.

2

@mimolive@deansuhr.us

A couple of thoughts:

  1. If the “traditional” camera is a different vendor/make, you’ll have different encoding delays, different colors and a different look.

  2. Wireless is not a good idea. If you have a room full of mobile devices, you’ll have problems with Wifi, even if you run your own.

  3. In our experience, using PTZ during recording is nerve wrecking and impractical. Your idea of having an operator controlled “traditional” camera is therefore a very good one. mimoLive supports NDI PTZ cameras to the degree that you can move the camera and store several presets for easy recall. If you do not plan to adjust PTZ too much, you might not need a Joystick.