BRC 300s... any luck?

Hey Catalyst community.
Has anyone had luck with running Sony BRC-300s from Cat?

I have a tour coming up & they just added cameras to the mix.
I will have couple robo-cams, 4 lipsticks & 1 handheld. So yes, there will be iMag, but not ALL iMag.

Have convinced the rigger to run the handheld, and let the the LED tech run the robos... But would like to run them from Cat.

Does it just trigger presets on the Sony RMBR300 or can you actually drive the cams from the Lx desk via Cat?


Also, I have no one to do switching, can anyone advise a solution? Can I just trigger a router & send the destination to the video input on the Cat?

Trying to keep the signal path simple as possible, e.g. no image pros adding latency.

The vendor tells me that the Cat is the latest Mac Pro, with Phoenix vid input card.

Any suggestion or helpful advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
KDelvo

Sounds like you need to set up some RS-232 controls.

There are video switchers that can be controlled via RS-232 commands from Catalyst.

As for your Sony cams.....there is no way to control them directly from Catalyst, but I believe you can trigger stored pre-sets via RS-232 commands with those.

I would get with your vendor and see what solutions they might have for you.

Hope this helps. :)

there is a way to control them from catalyst via a dmx patch from desk

major tours have used it

remote camera control

you have to test it for yourself

start small get a single camera working

K,

Working on the control in the shop right now. You can map DMX channels to the camera functions through Catalyst.

Planning on serial control of a DFS-700 for the switch. Anyone have thoughts.

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!
I'm sure this is doable. Have been running the robo cams a lot on gigs lately
and am truly bored of the Sony controller. I would really like to be able to send presets to ALL cam at once. Could this be a solution???

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gringoloco

You can map DMX channels to the camera functions through Catalyst.

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Well then I stand corrected!:D

And now I'm curious.....how exactly does Catalyst "talk" to the cameras?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kdelvo

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!
I'm sure this is doable. Have been running the robo cams a lot on gigs lately
and am truly bored of the Sony controller. I would really like to be able to send presets to ALL cam at once. Could this be a solution???

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you have to try it. and see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marty Postma

Well then I stand corrected!:D

And now I'm curious.....how exactly does Catalyst "talk" to the cameras?

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same way as usual using the rs422/232 commands

i do a dmx to rs232 / 422 conversion

its been used for well over a year.

the cameras have limits and they cant be controlled fast - which is why people have to test

Quote:

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Originally Posted by samsc

same way as usual using the rs422/232 commands

i do a dmx to rs232 / 422 conversion

its been used for well over a year.

the cameras have limits and they cant be controlled fast - which is why people have to test

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Cool. Thanks Richard.
I knew you could control them via the Sony remote/base, but I never tried directly controlling them without it....
...I'm guessing that the movements and response are better when controlling them through the remote as it probably "smooths out" some of that weird resolution loss between RS-232/422 and DMX?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marty Postma

Cool. Thanks Richard.
I knew you could control them via the Sony remote/base, but I never tried directly controlling them without it....
...I'm guessing that the movements and response are better when controlling them through the remote as it probably "smooths out" some of that weird resolution loss between RS-232/422 and DMX?

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the cameras only do one thing at once- movement zooming or whatever -

and they dont accept any new commands until the last one has finished-

so you cant do more than one thing at a time - and this is a camera thing -
it means you cant do smooth movements for example- this is how the cameras work - you cant use them as hot heads with live panning etc.
but the hysterisis in position repeatability is reasonable for a unit this size.


so you have to test to see if it does what you need to do-

there isnt any weird dmx/rs232 resolution loss- the integer number resolution is the same.

I tried several cameras from DMX. It's a nightmare for busking and for quick cues. It worked great for a timecode show though after I figured out the bugs. The simple solution is to test and repeat the transitions from one focus to the next.

On another note, you can use Catalyst as a switcher from a DMX desk and there are even some tricks to get preview.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SourceChild

I tried several cameras from DMX. It's a nightmare for busking and for quick cues. It worked great for a timecode show though after I figured out the bugs. The simple solution is to test and repeat the transitions from one focus to the next.

On another note, you can use Catalyst as a switcher from a DMX desk and there are even some tricks to get preview.

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they arent intended for live control or quick cues or live moves

they are not hot heads.

there is no effective speed control. and they do not move pan tilt axis together proportionally

the cameras only move one parameter at once, and they will not do anything else until one move has finished.