Home / server / Questions / 158812
Accepted
Malnizzle
Asked: 2010-07-09 20:01:19 +0800 CST

Remote Controlled IP Based Webcam

  • 772

This may be a tumbleweed, but does anyone know of a webcam that can be remotely controlled via IP? (understanding you'll have to have static IPs, NATing, open ports in firewalls, yada yada yada)

For example, there are two locations (A and B), and person 1 is in location A, and wants to be able to control a webcam/view in location B to zoom in and out on particular people.

On Windows XP/& boxes. Using LiveMeeting/WebEx.

Already looked at for round table view:

http://www.polycom.com/products/voice/conferencing_solutions/microsoft_optimized_conferencing/cx5000.html

Thanks!

video video-streaming video-conferencing

7 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Axis does some pretty good products.

    Camera is controlled by an internal webserver, on which you also follow the feed live.

    You can have some examples of this webserver by googling "Live view - / - AXIS" (with quotes) or "indexFrame.html axis" (without quotes).

    • 6

  2. We recently set up a webcam solution to look around our lobby. It's a Sony SNC-RZ25N. We mounted it on a pole (you can also mount it upside down on the ceiling) and we let people control the camera from our website.

    We chose it because:

    • 18X optical zoom
    • Limit camera usage to configured business hours
    • Limit how long individuals can control the camera (we chose 60 sec) and queue people waiting to control it with an ETA displayed.
    • Pre-defined "preset positions" which remember the direction, height, and zoom the camera is facing with an optional "auto-tour" mode if you want it to run through each preset.

    Cost is about $1,300 for the camera, plus you'll need to run power and ethernet to it. http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-securitycameras/cat-ip/product-SNCRZ25N/

    • 3

  3. Cisco has one - and I've used these:

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9948/index.html

    • 1

  4. We got one of these. It's $160 +tax and shipping. http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=1815073

    We're pretty happy with it. It has Pan/Tilt/Zoom capability, you can set up preset positions for the camera to cycle through. You can set an e-mail address for it to send images to and set up multiple users and restrict them to View Only or let them have "Pan/Tilt/Email" functionality.

    Here's a screenshot of the video configuration options it gives Config Options: Resolution, compression rate, Frames/Sec, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Frequency(Hz), Mirror

    edit: The Cisco one linked by Cole looks pretty good too that one has 2 way audio, I'd look at them both and decide which fits your needs better. One question though, these are more for watching employees. Are you looking for something for video conferencing?

    • 1

  5. Very very good product are Mobotix cams. They are quite expensive at a first look, but they are true processors (mounting an embedded Linux) governing a very good IP camera.

    You can access them through IP, SIP, ISDN and they are able to manage up to 2 local devices (open a gate, light on a TV, and so on ...

    They give you the best when you need to integrate a very large number of cams, as they are each one independent by the others, being able to save data on a local SD card.

    I suggest to take a look to mobotix.com , even if only for the sake of curiosity :)

    • 1

  6. X10 is a cost-effective answer, although I don't know if the products are high-end enough to suit your needs.

    • 0

  7. Can the CX5000 be streamed through a Flash server to sites like Ustream / Bitravity? The camera is amazing but the software seems to be tied to MS LiveMeeting and Polycom software? Or am I wrong? I would love to set this camera up as a round table webcast tool. The auto frame to a voice feature is fantastic!

    • 0