Configure automatic hover camcorder for conferences in 30 minutes

In the last article on the organization of videoconferencing in meeting rooms and conference rooms, we looked at several typical sets of equipment for different scenarios.
For large meeting rooms with more than ten participants, a typical scenario is the use of conference systems with personal microphone consoles and PTZ cameras with high optical zoom.

In such halls, the most popular task is to implement the automatic camera pointing function at the speaker, which makes videoconferencing more dynamic and productive.

In this article we will offer a budget but effective way of organizing this function and show an example of work based on a real stand.
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The task of automating equipment in conference rooms has arisen for a long time and was solved over the past time in various ways. We will tell about the main ones.

Specialized hardware solutions based on proprietary PTZ cameras

Well-known hardware manufacturers of video conferencing systems, such as Polycom and Cisco, offer additional modules with the function of automatically pointing the camera at the speaker for their video conferencing terminals. For Polycom, this solution is called EagleEye Director , for Cisco - TelePresence SpeakerTrack 60 .

The official information of the manufacturers about the methods used in the systems is reduced to using triangulation of audio signals from the microphone array to determine the direction to the speaker. In addition, each camera performs an analysis of the image received from its own CMOS sensor, in order to determine people or their faces completely or partially entering the frame. If the information on the position of the face and the direction to the voice coincides, the control module located in the terminal gives the command to move.

To implement the audio triangulation method, Polycom and Cisco systems use arrays of microphones located around or under each of the video cameras.

A set of seven microphones built into the Polycom EagleEye Director device allows the solution to capture the voices of people in a room and automatically direct one of the cameras to them, while the second camera gives a general view of the room.



At the same time, users should be located at a maximum distance of 7 meters from the camera system, that is, in a meeting room of greater length, this solution will not work effectively.

In addition to the size of the premises in which the system can be used, such a factor as the cost of this solution is important: the system of two cameras costs $ 14,999, while it does not work by itself and you need to buy a Polycom hardware terminal, for example, RealPresence Group 500, the cost of which is about $ 6000. As a result, the cost of a turnkey solution with Polycom EagleEye Director will be at least $ 21,000.

The Cisco TelePresence SpeakerTrack 60 system came on the market later with a solution from Polycom, and this made it possible to debug the logic of its work under the most common business scenarios and, according to representatives of Cisco, to get rid of some childhood diseases inherent in the Polycom solution. For example, in the solution from Cisco, the “Dual Hunting” mode was initially implemented, when after finding a new speaker, a review camera is pointed at him, the image is switched, after which the inactive camera is retracted to the minimum magnification and becomes overview. In addition, much more advanced cameras with CMOS resolution matrices of 4K (2160p) and a magnetic actuator of the positioner are used, which makes it possible to more quickly point out and be more likely to recognize the faces of speakers.

The permissible distance to the speaker separately is not mentioned anywhere, but the solution as a whole is positioned to work in “ small rooms ”.

The recommended price for the Cisco TelePresence SpeakerTrack 60 system is $ 15,900, plus the cost of a C40, C60, C90 or SX80 terminal, as by analogy with Polycom, the Cisco camera set with other video conferencing terminals is not compatible. As a result, the solution from Cisco costs as much as the Polycom EagleEye Director.

Even if you do not take into account the cost of two-chamber solutions from these vendors, the area of ​​their use due to the specifics of the algorithms used is limited by the size of the premises. How to be if the meeting room or conference room has an area of ​​more than 50 square meters?

The second method comes to the rescue.

Solution based on feedback from the media equipment of the hall

This approach does not imply the use of a turnkey solution; on the contrary, the composition of the equipment expands significantly and includes:

1. PTZ camera with optical zoom. The criteria for selecting cameras, depending on the size of the premises was discussed in the last article .
2. Congress system with microphone consoles at every workplace, such as the “gooseneck” type.
3. Controller microphone controls.

The congress system microphones not only capture the sound from the participants of the event, but also serve as a guideline for each participant’s position in relation to the video camera, provided that the microphones themselves do not move on the table during use.

The PTZ camera can be controlled with the help of the remote control unit supplied with it, but by itself it cannot be automatically guided to the microphones.

The control controller serves as a link between the camcorder and microphones. He receives information about the number of the active microphone and sends to the video camera a command that translates it into a pre-programmed position (the so-called preset, from the English preset) corresponding to the current active microphone. Controllers from such manufacturers as Crestron, AMX, Extron are known on the market.

The advantages of this approach are obvious: it can be used in rooms of different sizes, for any number of participants, and integrated with any VKS terminal. Each new participant means only the addition of a new microphone console, and by using high-magnification PTZ cameras, you can cover halls larger than 100m2. The video camera and the congress system can be integrated both with a personal computer with the VCS software installed on it, and with the VKS hardware terminals.

But there is a fly in the ointment. First, due to the use of a single camera, remote participants will see camera movement. Secondly, the controllers themselves are not able to manage anything. In addition to the control interfaces (RS-232, RS-485, RS-422, IR ports, etc.), they include a built-in programming environment in which you need to write a program-controlling device, that is, the services of a highly specialized AV programmer are required. The cost of a programmer’s work and the time required to write and debug a program directly depend on the models of equipment used in the hall and other project features. The recommended cost of the control controller starts at $ 2500. The cost of a programmer’s work on implementing only the task of auto-pointing a video camera starts at $ 1,000. And this is not counting the cost of the video camera and the congress system itself.

In addition, the task of controlling a video camera is only a small part of the possibilities that room controllers can solve: projectors, televisions, lighting systems, projection screens — all this equipment can be controlled by writing an appropriate program. Therefore, in cases where only the automatic guidance function of a video camera is required, the use of controllers is a cannon firing on sparrows.

This article was written to tell about the third way to implement the automatic camera pointing function, in which there is no need to spend an impressive budget for this for acquiring a control controller, for programmer services or for a two-chamber solution.

The guidance system PTZ-camcorders UnitKit Autotracking

In this method, there is no need to use a control controller due to the fact that the central unit of the congress system assumes the function of controlling the video camera. He receives the number of the active microphone console and, according to it, tells the camera the number of the position-preset to which it should switch.


The entire process of setting up the equipment takes a maximum of 30 minutes and can be performed by a non-specialized IT specialist.

We assembled a test stand where we presented two variants of the task implementation - based on wired and wireless congress systems. Below are photos of equipment and videos on which you can visually evaluate the performance of the automatic guidance of a video camera.

Stand 1. UnitKit Autotracking Wireless

The following equipment was used in this stand:

1) Clevermic Uno camcorder with 12x optical zoom, ideal for medium to large meeting rooms.
2) BKR WCS-20M congress system with BKR WCS-201C / D wireless microphone consoles
3) Personal computer with the VCS TrueConf Client installed on it. The video call was made using the TrueConf Server software video server.
4) TV to display remote participants, the sound output was carried out through the speakers built into the TV.

Stand 2. UnitKit Autotracking Wired

The following equipment was used in this stand:

1) Clevermic Uno camcorder with 12x optical zoom, ideal for medium to large meeting rooms.
2) BKR BLS-U450M congress system with BKR BLS-4513C / D wired microphone consoles
3) Personal computer with the VCS TrueConf Client installed on it. The video call was made using the TrueConf video server software.
4) TV to display remote participants, the sound output was carried out through the speakers built into the TV.

The work of the stand is shown in the following video:

Conclusion

As a conclusion, we present a comparative table of the solutions presented in the article. In assessing the cost of the second option, the price was taken as the basis for the Bosch CCU2 congress system with the number of consoles equal to eight. The cost of televisions, personal computers and other equipment was not taken into account.

No	Decision	Room size	Programmer required	Cost of solution
one	Polycom EagleEye Director	Middle	Not	$ 21,000
2	Cisco TelePresence SpeakerTracks 60	Any	Not	$ 19,000
3	Integration solution with control controller	Any	Yes	$ 14,000
four	UnitKit Autotracking Wireless Solution	Any	Not	$ 3,600
five	UnitKit Autotracking Wired Solution	Any	Not	$ 2,900

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