PTZ ComposerBlock the cameras like you block the cast.
Design the show's moves in rehearsal week, then run the performance with a student crew calling camera cues beside the light and sound cues. A flight is an authored camera move, with a planned route, framing and pace from departure through landing.
One school auditorium. Two or three PTZ cameras the district already owns, a theatre teacher who is also running lights, sound, microphones and forty cast members, and a student crew that changes with every graduating class.
Three moments
A reveal from the house wide to the opening number.
The show starts on the whole stage and opens up on the company as the first number begins. Months of rehearsal deserve better than a static wide from the back of the auditorium, and this move is designed in one afternoon.
A follow that rides the song's pace.
A slow push along the Act II diagonal, at the tempo the song is played tonight. A student turns one wheel or nudges one stick to ride the move at tonight's tempo, and the camera stays on the route the whole time.
A transition into the two-shot.
When the scene turns, the camera leaves the wide and arrives on the two people the song belongs to. Your stage manager calls it by number, a student presses one button, and the frame lands where the director put it.
Who runs it on show night
A student crew, with the theatre teacher in the room. Camera cues use the same language as every other cue. The stage manager calls the number, a student presses one key, and that is the whole job. Whoever is on the switcher keeps cutting exactly as before. With a Blackmagic ATEM, the software reads which camera is on program, and that camera does not move under the cut. The other switcher paths (vMix, OBS, TriCaster, Ross, NDI tally) are planned, and each row on the integrations page states its status. Without an ATEM, the crew cues moves on cameras that are off air.
Compose on the empty stage
One afternoon in rehearsal week, on the stage with nobody on it. Shape the route, framing and pace of every move the show needs, working from the blocking the cast already learned.
Rehearse against the blocking
Run the moves during a rehearsal and refine them where the blocking moved. Each flight is proven on the school's own cameras before tech week, so opening night holds no surprises for the teacher or the crew.
Arrange the cue sheet
Put the prepared shots in a rundown in the order the show runs, keep each flight one press away, and number both on the cue sheet the stage manager already calls from, act by act, scene by scene.
Perform with the crew you have
The call comes, a student presses the button, and the move runs. When tonight's tempo changes, that student rides its timing from the joystick or the wheel on the controller they already use. An eager crew member cannot wreck the shot, because every frame on the way is one the director composed.
Fits your room
Each row carries the state it is actually in today. Choose one to read what it does and what it does not do yet.
Cameras in this segment
- AVKANS
- BZBGEAR
- Datavideo
- FoMaKo
- HuddleCamHD
- Panasonic
- PTZOptics
- SMTAV
- Sony
Manufacturer and product names belong to their owners. A name here describes what the software talks to, and states no endorsement or partnership.
Two answers, and we always say which one applies to you. Tested means a named model, firmware and control path we have flown; supported protocol means the camera speaks a control path we read, and the software measures it and tells you honestly whether it can fly it.
Proof
Film of real flights appears here when a Tested model has one on tape. Until then, here is what the software is doing for the shot.
Shape the whole moving shot.
Perform the move with the moment.
Motion planned around your camera.
Questions
Can students really run the cameras?
Yes, because the judgement happens in rehearsal week and not on show night. The student presses the cue the stage manager calls, and the camera stays on the route the teacher composed. When the ballad runs slow tonight, that student turns one wheel or nudges one stick to ride the move at the speed the song is actually played.
The cast changes every spring. Do we start over?
No. The show's moves live in a library you reuse, so next spring starts from last spring's shot list instead of a blank stage. Adjust the routes where the new blocking differs and keep the rest.
Our license for the musical limits streaming. Does this change that?
No. What you may stream or record is set by your performance license, and this software does not change it. It moves the cameras for the coverage you are already allowed to make.
Can we use the cameras the school already owns?
Tell us the make, the model and how they are controlled, and we say which of the two compatibility answers applies before anything starts. Tested means a model and control path we have flown ourselves. Supported protocol means we measure your camera and tell you plainly what it can do.
Does the family stream pass through the software?
No. Your program video keeps its existing path to the switcher, the recording and the stream families watch at home. The software moves the cameras, and the streaming setup your AV club already runs stays as it is.
How does a school, a parents' association or a booster club buy it?
On a purchase order against the school year, rarely on a card. Licensing is sold as a block of up to four cameras, and a block spans rooms and sites, so an auditorium and a black box sit under one purchase. Buy through your integrator or distributor and ask for an invoice.
When should we run the evaluation?
Against the show you are already producing. It runs fourteen days from the day we confirm your setup, and no card is needed to start. Choose two weeks that include rehearsal week, tech week and the opening performance, and the teacher and the crew will see what they get.
Buying
Each plan covers a block of up to four cameras. A fifth camera needs a second block on the same plan. Blocks can span rooms and sites.
Put it through a real rehearsal and a real production first. Your evaluation runs fourteen days from the day your setup is confirmed. No card is needed to start.
Buy through a partner
Integrators, distributors and rental houses can sell and install this in your segment. Tell us your segment and region and we introduce one who works in your kind of room.
Take this to your theatre teacher and your booster club
- The three moves: a reveal from the house wide to the opening number, a follow that rides the ballad's pace, and a transition into the duet two-shot.
- Who operates: the teacher or a parent volunteer composes in rehearsal week; students call and press the camera cues on show night.
- Your cameras: tell us the make, the model and how they are controlled, and we say which of the two compatibility answers applies before anything starts.
- Your video path does not change. The software moves the cameras; the switcher and the family stream stay where they are.
- Runs on macOS and Windows. One license covers either.
- Licensing: a block of up to four cameras, and a block spans rooms and sites, so an auditorium and a black box sit under one purchase.
- Evaluation: fourteen days, no card, scheduled against rehearsal week, tech week and the opening performance.
- Buy through your integrator or distributor, on a purchase order the district, the parents' association or the booster club can process.