The PTZ  camera is the camera to use to show selected, non-moving shots of your classroom.  Contrast this with the Meeting OWL, which is designed to show the entirety of your classroom, with built in AI to zoom in on whoever is speaking.  The PTZ camera also has a very high image quality, bringing a level of quality that your online students will appreciate. Learn more general information about the PTZ camera here.

Camera ON: Check to see that the green light on the base of the camera is on.

Not green? Turn the camera on by one of the two methods below:

OPTION 1:
Touchscreen Control Panel: If the classroom has a touchscreen control panel, press the touchscreen to wake up the control unit and it will display the control buttons on its small screen. (it displays the Whitman College clocktower when asleep).

TIP:  The tip of your finger, where the flesh meets the fingernail, works best when pressing the touchscreen control panel.

Now do this:

OPTION 2:
Remote Control:  In rooms without a touchscreen control panel, use the provided remote control for the PTZ camera to turn on and control the camera.  Point the remote directly at the PTZ camera when pressing the buttons on the remote control.

Do this:

* or other video conferencing app, instructions are similarly-spirited to the ones below

Once your laptop is connected to the classroom technology, or you have logged into the classroom computer, launch Zoom.  Find and select the settings cog (⚙)  in the upper right portion of the Zoom home screen:

 In the settings section of Zoom, look for and choose the following: 

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  • Video: 

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    • Choose Cyt-Fx4 in the Camera drop down menu.

    • Visually check to see that you are getting video from the PTZ-- it should appear immediately above the camera settings.  Make sure the video is actually coming from the PTZ (as opposed to a different camera in the room).

  • Select Mirror my video - this is the most natural way of monitoring yourself/the shot, and is as if you were looking in a mirror.  The shot will not be mirrored for your students.

Now it’s time to point the camera where you want it.  Still in Zoom Settings, in the Video settings section, use the video preview to help you choose your camera shot.

The PTZ camera has been pre programmed with 6 different types of shots. Select from the six presets on the classroom touchscreen, labeled A-F:

 or 1-9 on the remote control:

Press any one of the buttons to change the camera shot as displayed in Zoom:

Once you have chosen a shot as described above, you can adjust it to fit your particular needs (pan right and left, tilt up and down, zoom in or out) with the other control buttons on either the touchscreen or the remote control: 

• Press the “+” button to zoom the camera view in, OR press “-” button to zoom the camera view out.

• The left and right triangle buttons pan the camera left and right.

• The up and down triangle buttons tilt the camera up or down.

• The center (touchscreen) / HOME (remote control) button will recenter the camera, so that it is facing straight ahead and level.

We hear this one a lot.  It you see the PTZ like this it means it's turned off.  It turns itself  right back around automatically when turned on.

Here's how to get it.