PTZ ComposerPanopto
Nothing to install. Panopto records the same feed, with better camerawork in it.
Panopto records and publishes the lecture, and that pipeline does not change. The software works on the control side of the room: it drives the cameras, so what Panopto captures is a better-composed picture arriving on the same input it always used. There is nothing to add to the capture appliance, no format to negotiate and no new point of failure between the camera and the recording. If the software stops, the recording carries on with a camera that has stopped taking new instructions.
How it connects
Camera video reaches Panopto exactly as it does today. The software reaches the cameras over the control network and never joins the video path.
What it does
- Drives the cameras in the teaching room, so the picture Panopto records is composed coverage of the lectern, the boards and the bench rather than a fixed wide.
- Runs the moves your AV team prepared: a flight is an authored camera move, with a planned route, framing and pace from departure through landing.
- Brings each camera to a controlled rest when it stops, so the recording carries on with a steady picture instead of a camera caught halfway through a move.
- Lets one prepared hall serve as the pattern for the rooms built to the same drawing, so coverage stays consistent across a building.
What it does not do
- It does not talk to Panopto. There is no plug-in, no connector and nothing added to the recorder or to the Panopto account.
- It does not start from the Panopto recording schedule. Today the coverage starts from the computer, a VISCA joystick panel or a USB joystick.
- It does not follow a person on its own. The coverage is composed by your AV team and performed as composed, so it never hunts across the hall.
- It does not touch the video. The picture reaches Panopto on the input it already uses, in the format it already records.
Setting it up
Check the cameras
Tell us the camera makes in the room and how they are reached on the network. We confirm which ones the software can drive before anything is bought.
Compose the hall
Your AV team frames the shots the room teaches from and the moves between them, working from a picture of the hall itself.
Rehearse before term
Run each move in the empty hall, refine its pace and its landing, and test a recording in Panopto the way you always do.
Questions
Do we install anything in Panopto?
No. Nothing is added to the recorder, the capture appliance or the Panopto account. The software runs on a Mac or Windows computer that reaches the cameras over the control network, and Panopto keeps taking video exactly as it does today.
Does the camerawork start when the Panopto recording starts?
No. The software does not read the Panopto schedule. Start the coverage from the computer, a VISCA joystick panel or a USB joystick. A recall from a Crestron, Extron or Q-SYS room panel is in evaluation and is not delivered yet.
What happens to the recording if the software stops?
The recording carries on. The software is not in the video path, so Panopto keeps receiving the picture. The cameras come to a controlled rest and stop taking new instructions until somebody starts the software again.
Will the camera follow the lecturer around the room?
No, and we do not make that promise. The coverage is composed in advance and performed as composed. That is why it does not hunt across the hall or snap between framings while the lecturer is speaking.