Controlling Quad camera auto switchers

[dfaulkner]

Hi All,

It looks like I'll soon be experimenting with a quad input auto switching device. "Why?" you ask. Because we ran out of inputs, that's why!

Now, the EP4CQ linked above has a simple ASCII-over-Serial protocol to control which camera is up, and to put it back into quad mode (or to activate and pause cycle mode). So, I've been doing some experimenting while I wait on delivery of the device. Here's what I've found.

I think I could treat this as a single camera with four presets plus Home (for quad view). Then, i can set up four zones (named Cam1 - Cam4), one in each quadrant of the screen. Now, based on which zone is activated, I could use a filter on (Notes= Motion:Cam[1234]) to trigger the control script that activates the right camera.

This leaves two problems:

1. How to get back to quad view (home preset). When should ZM switch back?
2. How to get different zones?

I have a possible solution for the differing zones in each camera input. I could create 5 "virtual cameras," each using the same video device (say /dev/video, input 9). One would be the quad view, and the other four would be one of each of the cameras. Then, I could write a script that toggles active virtual camera in ZM at the same time I toggle the quad. How does this sound?

Of course, that still leaves the question of how to know it's the right time to switch back to quad view.

Any thoughts?

[jameswilson]

if its purely in 'out of inputs' problem, id buy another card or use a sep zm server as a ip cam. It will be a lot easier. Im sure if you set the zones correctly you could get zm to run the command you need to switch cam, but you will only be able to handle one alarm at a time, if a sunsequent alarm occurs in quad2 tough!
Plus you will have losses in the quad due to overscan issues i would think

[cordel]

I too think I would go the way of getting another capture card. IMHO I think this would just add to much to the way of possible failures, money, and time not to mention if you want a monitored cam (modect, mocord) there would render it almost useless. Cards are getting so cheap any more and I'd rather loop through the quad and use it with a modulator for distribution to all my TVs and have a consistent frame rate across all my cams looped from the quad to the capture cards.
Just my two cents.

Regards,
Corey