PTZOptics, a company well-known for its PTZ camera and controller line up, has added another option to its controller offering, the PT-JOY-G4. This is a 4th generation network or serial camera controller. PTZOptics has a history of bringing quality products to market at affordable prices. The PT-JOY-G4 is no exception; at $549, it is an affordable option for controlling a variety of cameras, including PTZOptics, HuddleCamHD, Sony, BirdDog, and NewTek.
The PT-JOY-G4 is designed to work with current and legacy protocols via VISCA, VISCA-over-IP, Pelco-P, and Pelco-D protocols over IP and serial RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485, topped with the ability to control 255 cameras from mixed manufacturers via the network. The PT-JOY-G4 features an RJ-45 Ethernet port that supports communication and Power Over Ethernet (POE). There is also a 12VDC power connector. POE is not available. For serial control, there is a 15-pin D-Sub connection for RS-232 and a Phoenix-type connector for RS-422 and RS-485 control.
...excellent bang for the buck for a unit that appears to be built with the house of worship in mind.
As the name implies, the controller can control pan, tilt, and zoom all from the joystick or with the joystick and zoom dial. Programing and recalling the 255 presets is easy and intuitive. The first nine presets can be quickly recalled and quickly set using the alphanumeric keypad. Pressing and holding will set the presets; a quick press can recall the programmed preset once set. For presets beyond nine, press set and type a number. To recall, simply press call and the preset number.
The control surface also features quick selection buttons for cameras 1-6. Focus lock/unlock and one-push autofocus along with dials for red and blue gain, iris and shutter, and a dial for pan/tilt/zoom speed. The pan/tilt/zoom controls can get granular with a pan speed of 1-24, a tilt speed of 1-20, and a zoom speed of 1-7.
In Use
I typically try to set up anything I am reviewing for Church Production without reading the manual first. This gives me a good idea of how easy or complicated the setup of a product is. The PT-JOY-G4 was easy enough to set up; with one catch, the button on the joystick has to be held down for three seconds to switch between network or serial setup. However, once I had that worked out, setup was very straightforward. For my review, I was also sent a PTZOptics 12x 3G-SDI (Gen 2) camera for use with the controller.
I found the controller to be very responsive; the buttons, dials, and joystick felt solid while in use. The buttons have a significant range of travel, but the actuation point is closer to the top of the press than the bottom. The buttons had plenty of room, reducing the accidental push of neighboring buttons. The focus dial is spring-loaded, with solid resistance, and the smaller dials have lots of stops rather than free spin, making individual selections easy. While the LCD screen isn’t large, the text is easy to read and obvious. The LCD screen always informs you what input you are currently giving the camera in the bottom left of the screen. This makes it easy to confirm if the joystick has been reversed or not. The overall build quality is quite good; the chassis has a solid metal feel and enough weight not to slide around when in use in your worship environment.
The control surface is not revolutionary; in fact, it’s comfortably familiar. Anyone who has used a PTZ camera before will feel right at home on the PT-JOY-G4. One of the only issues I could find with the controller was that the buttons are hard to read in dark environments. While this certainly isn’t a deal-breaker for me, I would have liked the buttons to be backlit so that they would be viewable in darker environments often found in the production areas of houses of worship.
The PT-JOY-G4 is a straightforward PTZ controller. The fact that it interfaces with many manufacturers’ cameras makes it a strong option in the house of worship market, where mixing cameras from different manufacturers is commonplace. Combine that with the $549 price point, and great build quality, and you have a controller that gets excellent bang for the buck for a unit that appears to be built with the house of worship in mind.
