Panasonic Offers Cameras for Broadcast and Streaming Workflows
[This sponsored interview was recorded at Streaming Media East 2016.]
Panasonic made a splash at the recent Streaming Media East conference when it showed a variety of cameras for both broadcast and streaming workflows. Delix Alex, Panasonic's product manager for PTZ products and IT networking, explained some of the options.
"We have two different product categories that I'm heavily engaged in," Alex said. "One is our camcorder lineup. They're heavily used in all sorts of applications, mainly broadcast. It's what we call our AVC-Ultra lineup. An example is our AJ-PX270 handheld camera up to our AJ-PX5000 shoulder mount camera. All of them can stream via IP. We actually have a QOS algorithm there too that adapts to network because we stream over cellular. Then, moving to the PTZ side of things, we have our AW lineup. Starting at the bottom, we have our HE2, which is more of an electronic PTZ. It uses the image sensor. Doesn't have any moving parts. Then we have our integrated PTZs with optical zoom and such. That's where we start with the HE40, which is our HD-PTZ. Our UE70, which is our 4K-PTZ. Our HE130, our flagship model with a very nice image sensor, a 3MOS image sensor."
Panasonic's AW-UE70 can encode 4K video and stream directly to Wowza for distribution.
"The UE70 is the first 4K PTZ supported by the Works with Wowza program amongst all manufacturers, actually," Alex said. "We can stream our 4K RTP/RTSP H.264 straight to Works with Wowza. They can package it nicely and deliver it 4K."
For more, scroll down for the full interview.
Tim Siglin: Welcome back to Almost Live here at Streaming Media East 2016. I have Delix with me, a representative from Panasonic. Delix, go ahead and introduce yourself.
Delix Alex: Hi there. My name is Delix Alex. I'm a Product Manager for the PTZ product line and IP networking systems.
Tim Siglin: Tell me what you mean by IP networking systems.
Delix Alex: When I went and started in this role, I was a camera guy. Quickly, the field started changing into an IP/IT world where all the interfacing is IP-based. All the now streamed video, now even power is over Ethernet, moving towards a single cable or no cable solution.
Tim Siglin: As you're transitioning, what you're saying is that essentially no longer do we have a DC connector for the power, an SDI connector for the video. We have a single RJ45 with POE ...
Delix Alex: Our entire PTZ product line is POE+ plus HD streamed video plus control. If you do need truly live video, you still need the HDMI or HGSTI. Maybe in the future, once true video over IP standards emerge and become standardized, we'll move there as well.
Tim Siglin: You talked to me about the IP system solutions. Tell me about the product lineup.
Delix Alex: Sure. We have two different product categories that I'm heavily engaged in. One is our camcorder lineup. They're heavily used in all sorts of applications, mainly broadcast. It's what we call our AVC-Ultra lineup. An example is our AJ-PX270 handheld camera up to our AJ-PX5000 shoulder mount camera. All of them can stream via IP. We actually have a QOS algorithm there too that adapts to network because we stream over cellular. Then, moving to the PTZ side of things, we have our AW lineup. Starting at the bottom, we have our HE2, which is more of an electronic PTZ. It uses the image sensor. Doesn't have any moving parts. Then we have our integrated PTZs with optical zoom and such. That's where we start with the HE40, which is our HD-PTZ. Our UE70, which is our 4K-PTZ. Our HE130, our flagship model with a very nice image sensor, a 3MOS image sensor.
Tim Siglin: If I understand correctly, the AW-UE70 is a Works with Wowza product. Talk to me a little bit about that.
Delix Alex: Yeah. Interestingly enough, the UE70 is the first 4K PTZ supported by the Works with Wowza program amongst all manufacturers, actually. We can stream our 4K RTP/RTSP H.264 straight to Works with Wowza. They can package it nicely and deliver it 4K.
Tim Siglin: Are you encoding within the camera itself?
Delix Alex: Yes. We're doing something interesting. We're doing a simultaneous encoding of both motion JPEG and H.264.
Tim Siglin: Oh nice.
Delix Alex: The camera can actually do three motion JPEG and four H264, for a total of seven streams at the same time at different bit rates, at different resolutions. It's pretty powerful, especially with multi-platform devices delivering to different size displays. It's important.
Tim Siglin: Let's skip the motion JPEG for a minute. When you do the H264 simultaneous encodes, does it look like it's coming from four separate encoders to the Wowza media server or does it look like it's coming from a single encoder?
Delix Alex: We're using the RTP/RTSP protocol for the stream. It's just a different stream identifier at the end of it: stream 1, 2, 3, or 4. Between the four streams, they're all synchronized. You could pull all of them.
Tim Siglin: The media server itself could then take all four of those and package them down into HLS, or something along those lines?
Delix Alex: Exactly.
Tim Siglin: For multi-bitrate or adaptive bitrate.
Delix Alex: Yeah. Currently, that was our first target for protocol. We're now looking at other protocols we could possibly support in camera. There are plenty of middle-ware software that can…
Tim Siglin: Does the device itself, the camera, actually record to an SD card or something along those lines?
Delix Alex: That's an interesting question actually. Two of our PTZs in our product line are AW-HE40 and AW-UE70. It's actually our first PTZ that has internal recording. We come from a camcorder world where we've done recording, but in the PTZs they've always been for live for the most part. We're actually recording now in those cameras.
Tim Siglin: That file asset that sits there, can I get to it through a secure FTP or some other way? Do I have to physically pull the chip?
Delix Alex: You can physically pull the chip. The cameras all have an HTP web server so you can go in through a web server and download it. Or you can have the camera FTP it just like you mentioned. You can script it to do it at different intervals. We have an open API for that.
Tim Siglin: If you can do the seven simultaneous transmits, is there a number of records simultaneously.
Delix Alex: Record is a single record. It's the H.264 that has the greatest encoding capability.
Tim Siglin: Okay.
Delix Alex: In the case of the HE40, a full HD, and the case of the UE70 it could be a 4K.
Tim Siglin: It's highest raster size and highest bit rate?
Delix Alex: In 4K, on the UE70 it's 3840x2160, so UHD. It's about a little under 100 megs in terms of bitrate.
Tim Siglin: Okay. Interesting. The camera defaults automatically to whichever is the highest bitrate?
Delix Alex: There are several bitrate options and frame rates and resolutions you can record. It doesn't have to necessarily be the resolution the camera's system format is. You can record at a different format as well.
Tim Siglin: Okay. Very good. Again, this has been Delix Alex from Panasonic. I'm Tim Siglin with Streaming Media Magazine. We'll be right back.
Delix Alex: Thank you.
This article is Sponsored Content
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