USB Cameras

TCM has two USB cameras mounted on the real wall of its seminar room. These may be preferable to a laptop's camera for Zoom seminars, as they have a much better position, and may be better quality. However they do not include microphones, so one must either use the laptop's microphone or an external one, such as TCM's borrowable Yeti.

To use, turn on the relevant power adapter, and plug its USB lead into a suitable laptop. Please remember to switch the power adapter off when finished!

N.B. Zoom's standard resolution is 640x480, sometimes dropping to 320x240. Both of these have a 4:3 aspect ratio. It is possible to enable HD on Zoom (Settings, Video, HD), which is then 720p, i.e. 1280x720 with an aspect ratio of 16:9. This will give a different field of view. Google Meet seems to use 16:9 always, as 720p, 360p or 180p. Zoom may also degrade to 360p (640x360) and 180p (320x180) when HD is set, for reasons which are often unclear.

Writing on the blackboard, or slides, is hard to read at 360p. One may wish to consider the streaming cameras instead or as well, for they will provide 1440p (or better) streams unconditionally.

The Logitech camera has a combined plug/PSU lump, whereas the Sony has a mains lead leading to a discrete PSU. Both will be near the mains sockets into which the projectors' extention lead is plugged.

Both have remotes from which the zoom and direction of aim can be adjusted, but their defaults should be reasonable in case the remote cannot be found. In both cases the remote is IR, so needs pointing at the camera. Both return to sensible position on being powered on. Both use the standard UVC protocol, so should work with almost any laptop and almost and video conferencing software (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, etc.). Both support 1920x1080.

Sony

Is bigger and heavier than the Logitech, and so is its remote. It sits on a wooden shelf. It is generally superior to the Logitech, and copes reasonably with viewing a bright screen and a darker blackboard simultaneously.

Is USB3 only, and is currently set to 1920x1080 at 30fps, which is sent as an uncompressed stream. The resolution and frame rate cannot be adjusted from software(!)

It has a menu of configuration options accessible via the remote. Press `data screen' to bring up a menu on the video output signal, and then regard the data screen button as being the `menu' button, and the `home' button in the centre of the four movement buttons as being the `enter' button.

Sony user guide and technical notes.

(A switch on the back of the camera allows selection of 1080p or 720p, and 25, 30, 50 or 60 fps. It is thought that 1080p and 30 fps will be best in most cases.)

Logitech

Is USB2. It allows the computer to select the resolution and frame rate, and generally sends an H.264 stream to the computer. It copes very badly with large brightness variations, so is not very useful when the projector is used.

The remote is IR, and the front to back of the Seminar Room is at the limit of its range, so it needs pointing quite accurately at the camera.

It has three preset positions. Pressing 1 returns to the default, 2 gives a wider view of the front of the room, and 3 zooms in on the screen only, at which point the brightness tends to be adjusted to make the screen's contents visible. Auto-focus is on, and if focus is lost, pressing the current preset button will restore it. Focus is by contrast detection, so attempts to focus on a blank blackboard or screen are doomed.

The remote also allows cutting the video (top right, camera with line through it), and mirroring the video (top left). Please do not lose the small remote!

For full details, see Logitech's page on the PTZ Pro 2.