PTZ ComposerMotion planned around your camera.
A gentle departure, no visible speed steps, and a landing that settles where you asked.
A PTZ head is not a dolly. It moves in the steps it was built with, it answers a moment after it is asked, and it has edges it cannot pass. Camerawork that ignores those facts looks like robot television. Camerawork planned around them looks like a camera operator.
What the room sees is a move that leaves gently instead of snapping into motion, travels without the visible changes of gear that give cheap automation away, and settles into its final framing rather than arriving and then correcting itself. The end of a move is as composed as the start.
The planning is done around the behavior of the head in front of you, not around a generic idea of a camera. Two different heads in the same production are each driven the way they need to be driven. What each one can deliver still depends on the head, and the software says so in rehearsal rather than on the night.
None of this is yours to think about. You shape the route, the framing and the pace you want. The work of making a particular head deliver it happens underneath, and when a head cannot deliver it you get an honest refusal instead of a disappointing move.
The planning covers the whole move, not the ends of it. Pan, tilt and zoom are brought along together, so the framing holds its shape on the way instead of drifting while one part of the move catches up. The shot looks planned from the first frame to the last.
The same care applies whether a move runs on a cue or somebody rides its timing on a stick. The hand decides when the shot arrives; the planning decides how the head gets there.
Questions
Will every camera move look the same?
No. Each head is driven the way it needs to be driven, and what it can deliver depends on the head. The software says what a camera can do in rehearsal, so you choose moves your cameras can carry.
Do I need to tune motion settings?
No. You shape the route, the framing and the pace. The work of making a particular head deliver that happens underneath, and a head that cannot deliver it gets an honest refusal instead of a disappointing move.
Why do many automated camera moves look robotic?
They snap into motion, change pace in visible jumps, and arrive before correcting themselves. A move planned around the head leaves gently, travels evenly and settles into its final framing, the way a camera operator would do it.
Can two camera brands run in one production?
Yes. Each head is planned around its own behavior, so two brands in the same room are each driven the way they need. The software reports in rehearsal what each one can deliver. Tell us both brands when you check your setup, and we say which answer applies to each.
Read next
Flights and the virtual rail
A flight is an authored camera move, with a planned route, framing and pace from departure through landing.
Rehearse and prove
A move is checked against your actual camera before the show, and a refusal names its reason.
Set up in minutes, honestly
The software measures your camera and says whether it can fly it. If it cannot, it says why.
Camera profiles that travel
A camera measured on one install flies on the next without being measured again.