PTZ Quickstart (VISCA)

How to connect everything between a Seervision Server and a VISCA-controlled PTZ.

This page will guide you through getting set up with a PTZ that is controlled via the VISCA protocol.

In order to connect everything, you will need our interface up and running. If you are not sure on how to do that, see our Getting Started chapter first.

Preparing the PTZ

There are many different PTZs that can be controlled by the VISCA protocol, so setup may vary from model to model. We won’t go into detail for all of them, there’s only two requirements from our side:

  1. The PTZ accepts control over VISCA (for 99% of the PTZs, this is enabled by default)
  2. You know the IP of the PTZ (we will need this in order to communicate with it)

Connecting the Seervision server and the PTZ

To enable the Seervision server to control the PTZ, go into the Operations Server and create a new configuration.

  1. Give it a name that is easy to remember, this can be anything you like
  2. For the PTU, select the relevant PTU driver from the dropdown which corresponds to the model you wish to control. If the PTZ isn’t listed, contact Seervision and we will help you on your way.
  3. Under IP, add the IP of the PTZ
  4. Under Model and Lens, again select the names that are relevant for your model of PTZ
  5. Hit Save, then launch or re-launch the system, depending on whether it’s running

Activate FreeD Support

Free-D is a protocol that outputs tracking data in a standardised format, which helps us improve performance. We will inform you if your model supports Free-D, in which case you’ll have to enable it as follows:

  1. Open up the web interface of the PTZ camera and log in
  2. Find the section that refers to Free-D (this changes from model to model, but it can usually be found in Network Settings, IP Out, or Tracking Data Output)
  3. Enable the FreeD output, set the port to 40000 and set the destination IP to the IP of the Seervision server. If there are any other settings, you can leave them as default
  4. Hit Save & Apply

All done!

That’s it for the technical configuration. The next thing you should do is connect the SDI feed to the Seervision server, we go more in depth on that here: SDI and Seervision. If that’s already done, you should be good to go!