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Keeping an A-Eye on every angle We find out more about the Atomos A-Eye Controller Pro, a sophisticated solution for controlling, monitoring & managing multicam PTZ productions A tomos has spent more than a decade creating technology to make professional video workflows simpler and
camera, making it a practical option for mixed-camera environments, or for productions that want to build on an existing PTZ set-up. There’s broad protocol support too, including VISCA, VISCA-over-IP, NDI and ONVIF. Once the cameras are connected, the Controller Pro offers more than basic pan, tilt and zoom. Depending on the camera, operators can take control of focus, iris, shutter, gain and white-balance, with dedicated adjustment of PT, zoom and focus speeds. Customisable shortcut keys also put frequently used functions immediately to hand, so the control surface can be tailored to suit the production and the operator. The Controller Pro also supports up to 255 preset positions per camera, allowing established framings to be stored and recalled quickly, and making moving repeatedly between known shots simple without having to recreate them manually each time. It can also record preset motion paths: perform a PTZ move once and the Controller Pro can capture
that sequence and save it for later playback, with the camera automatically reproducing the move when it’s called. This brings repeatability to framing and also the camera movement itself, which is handy for live events, studios, corporate production, education and environments where repetition of moves is essential. Monitoring is built into the controller too. ONVIF and NDI cameras can provide a live feed directly to its seven-inch display, while an HDMI 2.0 output lets the selected PTZ feed be sent to an external monitor or incorporated into a wider monitoring set-up. Put all this together and the A-Eye Controller Pro packs a significant feature set into a single desktop unit. It’s a great example of Atomos doing what it does best: identifying a complicated video workflow, finding a smart way to simplify it and making the technology easy to work with, so creators can concentrate on creating.
smoother. It first made its mark by combining high-quality touchscreen monitoring, removable storage and Apple ProRes recording, allowing filmmakers to capture a camera’s uncompressed output directly into a professional, edit-ready format. Game- changing products like the Ninja and Shogun followed. Since then, Atomos has gone beyond capture and monitoring into connected production, with cloud-based tools for collaboration and review, camera- to-cloud workflows, as well as live multicam production, streaming and wireless timecode. Its recent acquisition of Flanders Scientific has even further expanded its presence in reference- grade monitoring. Now, Atomos is bringing that focus on streamlined workflows to PTZ camera control. The A-Eye Controller Pro brings the essentials of multicam PTZ operation together in one place. A seven-inch HD touchscreen offers an intuitive interface, providing live monitoring alongside camera status and controls; while a PTZ joystick handles pan and tilt, with twist control for zoom, and dedicated knobs and keys give the operator immediate access to frequently used functions. The scale it can handle is impressive: a single Controller Pro can manage up to 254 PTZ cameras, organised into groups for easier control. Importantly, it’s brand agnostic – so you’re not locked into Atomos hardware. In fact, the controller can be used with pretty much any PTZ
Find out more at atomos.com
ALL IN ONE The A-Eye Controller Pro is an advanced PTZ interface for multicam production
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