BirdDog EYES P200 1080p Full NDI PTZ Camera User Guide
- June 6, 2024
- BirdDog
Table of Contents
- Key features of this product
- Getting to know your P200
- Booting up your BirdDog Eyes P200
- Operating EYES P200
- Password management
- Network settings and device naming
- Tally support
- PTZ
- NDI NETWORK SETTINGS
- Advanced Controls
- Firmware update
- Receiving NDI streams
- Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
- Download This Manual (PDF format)
BirdDog EYES P200 1080p Full NDI PTZ Camera User Guide
Thanks for purchasing BirdDog Eyes P200. Please take some time to read this document to allow you to get the most out of your purchase and familiarize yourself with the features available in the unit.
About BirdDog Eyes P200
BirdDog Eyes P200 is a remotely controllable PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera
based on BirdDog’s unique Full-bandwidth NDI A/V transfer protocol. It is
equipped with many features to ensure the quality of images and control is
kept to the highest standards as well as being fully compatible with industry
standards.
Key features of this product
BirdDog P200 has the most complete feature set for a HD production PTZ camera, including some advanced control functions to ensure the camera excels even in the most challenging conditions:
- Sony 30x Image module
- BirdDog NDI Processing
- Simultaneous HDMI, SDI and NDI outputs
- Video resolutions up to 1080p60 including non-integer rates such as 59.94 and 29.97fps
- Native VISCA-IP and NDI Protocol support for 3rd Party control applications and interfaces
- Stereo Audio input/output with Mic and Line level
- BirdDog Comms audio communications software compatible
- Excellent image properties for low light and challenging lighting conditions
- NEW! Advanced Color Matrix colour controls
- NEW! Advanced Gamma/Exposure controls
- NEW! Unified communications platform for all camera settings.
About NDI
Network Device Interface (NDI) is a high performance standard that allows
anyone to use real time, ultra low latency video on existing IP video
networks.
NDI® harnesses the power of Software, Computers, and Networks to make video creation and sharing accessible and fun for millions, helping fuel the software defined visual storytelling revolution. NDI makes video a standard part of every computer network, from common IT implementations to mobile environments and has changed the picture- giving everyone access to easy-to- use, high quality video using the equipment they have today.
NDI® moves live digital media around with your existing software applications, computing devices, and networks using what you already have.
NDI® empowers even small teams of creatives to achieve big show results, as there are no limitations from specialized upgrades, networks, or hardware.
For more infromation about NDI please visit: bird-dog.tv/ndi
Getting to know your P200
Physical connectors
Powering Eyes P200
P200 is equipped with a sophisticated system allowing power from various
sources:
PoE+ (Power over Ethernet)
PoE+ is a convenient way to power P200 as it allows both data and power to be
sent through the same standard Ethernet cable. To take advantage of PoE+, the
network switch that P200 is directly plugged into must support PoE+
(802.11at).
Different network switches are capable of providing differing amounts of total
power to all connected devices. P200 uses approximately 14 watts in PoE mode.
DC
Located at the rear of the P200 is a DC connection port. This power input
socket is capable of accepting 12vDC power. P200 should only be powered by the
included AC adaptor.
Thermal management
Eyes P200 has been engineered to be passively cooled, no fans are required. In
order to achieve this the entire enclosure of P200 is designed to dissipate
heat. The main processor is capable of operating up to 100º C / 212º F.
Some factors affect how much heat BirdDog will produce, and it is normal for it to feel warm to the touch.
In extreme circumstances (a hot day/direct hot sun) it is advised to power P200 via DC as this produces less heat than PoE.
BirdDog has been tested in extreme environments.
Booting up your BirdDog Eyes P200
Indication of system boot process As soon as BirdDog P200 detects a power input signal the left hand ‘power/fault’ light will light up green.
On the ethernet/NDI connector on the rear. After initial boot up is complete your P200 unit will be visible as a source on any NDI compatible devices on the SAME ethernet subnet.
For further networking architecture instructions including routing please consult either your system administrator or the support page at bird- dog.tv
Operating EYES P200
Web configuration panel
In this release, the web configuration panel allows you to alter key settings
of P200, specifically A/V settings, and video frame rates, restarting the
video processing engine, changing networking parameters, recalling PTZ presets
and applying firmware updates.
Access via web browser (URL)
To access the web configuration panel please point your computer web browser
to:
http://birddog-xxxxx.local/
“xxxxx” is the serial number of the P200, the serial number is printed on the box and on the main unit. Note the web address is case sensitive and should be all lower case. Your computer will need to have ‘Bonjour’ services loaded in order to access the unit via it’s ‘friendly’ name described above.
Apple devices come pre-installed with Bonjour, while Windows devices need a
small plugin available here:
support.apple.com/kb/dl999?locale=en_AU
Note: only the last 5 digits are required for accessing the web
interface.
Accessing P200 via an IP address
P200 is configured to automatically receive a network (IP) address from the
computer network via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). Most
corporate, education and home networks have a DHCP server present on the
network to allow this to occur. Usually your Internet Router provides this.
If P200 receives an IP address automatically from this server (DHCP) the IP
address can be discovered in several ways, including the BirdDog Finder
application or BirdDog Central Lite available from:
http://www.bird-dog.tv/
Accessing P200 on a network without a DHCP server Some standalone or private networks may not have a DHCP server. After 30 seconds of searching for an automatically assigned IP address P200 will fall back to a default address which is: 192.168.100.100
In order to access the web configuration panel on a network which is configured to a different subnet, change your computers IP address to match the BirdDog unit. Once you gain access to the BirdDog web configuration panel choose your IP address to match the rest of the devices on your network.
For instructions on setting your computers IP address please consult your computer operating system manual or IT support resources.
Password management
Once you direct your web browser to the web configuration panel you will need to log in to change any settings.
Default password
The web configuration panel is secured by a user-selectable password. The
default password is:
birddog (one word, lower case).
To change the password simply login using the default password, navigate to
the network tab in the web interface, and select change password.
It is recommended to change this password in a network environment where P200
is shared with other users (e.g. not private). By entering this password, the
user is granted full access to the P200 configuration settings and could
interrupt a live program.
A/V
Bitrate Management
Birddog Devices allow you to set your target NDI output bitrate. This allows
you to select acompression ratio that is more efficient on your networking
infrastructure (lower bandwidth) or higher image quality for critical footage.
The scale allows you to select anywhere from 60mbps to 360mbps.
By setting Bitrate Management to NDI MANAGED, the BirdDog device will manage
the target bitrate in accordance with the NDI® standard. By selecting MANUAL
you are able to manually select a target bitrate.
NDI Video selection
Eyes P200 is capable of outputting independent video formats for both NDI and
SDI/HDMI. This setting affects only the NDI video output. Please note that the
video rate you select here must be of the same family as the SDI/HDMI video
output set in Part 1 of the P200 Manual.
ie. 720p50 aligns with 1080i50/1080p50 but will not co-exist with any
29.97/30fps based camera setting.
NDI Group Enable
NDI v 4.5x supports NDI groups. This allows you to set the BirdDog Eyes P200
camera to only announce it’s availability to other devices that belong to the
same NDI group. By default this setting is DISABLED. When enabled the receiver
device needs to also be set to the same identical group name. Commonly this is
done using the NDI Access Manager application provided by NewTek free of
charge.
NDI Groups can be very useful in larger environments to control visibility and
access amongst various groups.
NDI Audio Selection
BirdDog Eyes P200 has the ability to route the incoming audio from the 3.5mm
audio input socket to either be embedded in the main NDI® stream, or to behave
as an audio comms end-point. If you operate the BirdDog Comms application you
can then use the P200 as an output for IFB communications.
Failover Source
BirdDog Eyes P200 can inform any receiving device of a failover scheme. This
means if their BirdDog NDI stream is interrupted for any reason the receiver
can automatically switch to a pre-determined alternative NDI stream. This
isparticularly useful for live ‘on air’ productions where there can be no risk
of still frames or black being broadcast should any source no longer be
available.Select an available NDI source for the failover function from the
dropdown list in ‘Available NDI sources’. You can update this list by pressing
Refresh source list in either Chrome or Firefox web browsers.
Network settings and device naming
Device naming
When P200 is first powered on it defaults to the naming convention as
described in the web configuration panel section of this manual.
It is possible to change the name along with the network settings to better suit your environment.
In the web configuration panel, navigate to the network section.
IP configuration method
You can configure P200 to operate on the network with a dynamic (DHCP) IP
address or a fixed address.
For smaller networks DHCP networking is generally suitable, however larger networks with managed operations will often determine each device needs to have a dedicated and static IP address.
DHCP IP address
DHCP is set as the network configuration by default for Mini.
Static IP address
To enable a static IP address, change configuration method to static and fill
in the details required in Address, Mask and Gateway. Particular attention
should be paid to the Address and Mask fields as incorrect information entered
will result in P200 not being visible on the network and a factory reset will
be required in order to recover the unit.
IP address recovery
In the event that the P200 is not visible on the network, the network has
changed, or the static IP address details have been lost, reset the BirdDog
back to its default settings by following the factory reset procedure.
BirdDog name
You can name each P200 with a friendly name that makes sense for each
production (Camera 1,Camera 2, etc). This name will appear on any NDI receiver
when it looks for video coming from Mini over the network. The name must not
include any special characters and can be any combination of ‘a-z, 1-0, and
–‘.
Note: no uppercase characters are valid.
On NDI receiving devices, P200 will present as a source as follows:
birddog-name [CAM]
when the unit is set to automatic input.
Tally support
Onboard Tally
P200 supports Tally within the NDI protocol. Tally is a method of identifying
which source is being used ‘on air’ at any particular time.
Whenever a P200 source is being used on the program output of an NDI compatible receiver that supports Tally metadata, the LED will light up red on the front of the P200 unit.
PTZ
Control
You are able to save and recall presets from the Web Dashboard using the
Select Preset option. To operate this, simply press the Preset number you wish
to recall or save followed by APPLY PRESET or SAVE PRESET
Settings
The P4K communicates with the camera head via a serial interface, these
settings should remain as per default:
VISCA ADDRESS: 1
VISCA BAUDRATE: 9600
PT Max Speed
When controlling the P4K over NDI you can limit the maximum speed of PTZ
movements by affecting this option, the higher the number (18) the faster and
more sensitive the movements will be on theP4K.
OSD
In the initial release of P4K the OSD is very important for adjusting the
camera image settings since this is the primary control mechanism. To adjust
all cameras settings please press the OSD ON/OFF button to illuminate the OSD.
The OSD is visible on both the NDI output and SDI/HDMI and can equally be accessed via the included remote control.
Please take note that the PTZ will not operate normally (control of movement) until the OSD menu is closed again.
NDI NETWORK SETTINGS
BirdDog Eyes P200 operates with the latest NDI Libraries. There are several options to configure the P200’s behaviour in an NDI network. Each configuration has its benefits, however it is recommended to utilise the default TCP transmit method unless you have reason to change. Transmit Preferred Method.
TCP
TCP is the default transmission method for NDI, it operates well within local
networks with predictable latency and limited jitter. BirdDog recommends that
TCP be used for typical applications, and only using alternative transports
for specific reasons.
UDP
UDP is recommended for networks where there is extended latency from one end
to the other. The nature of UDP means that it does not need to receive a
confirmation of each packet being received successfully – vastly improving
performance on distance WANs. UDP can have some consequences f there are other
issues on the network such as jitter or lost packets as it will not inherently
re-sent a lost packet.
Multicast
Multicast is especially useful for use-cases that require a single source to
be received on multiple receivers simultaneously. Utilising Muliticast
offloads the distribution of the NDI A/V packets from the BirdDog Flex 4K to
the network infrastructure. You should take care to ensure your network is
specifically configured to support Multicast as using it on an ill-prepared
network can create unintended network problems.
MultiTCP
MultiTCP is a new NDI transport method that allows users to send NDI video
over poor network topography such as WAN (Wide Area Networks) without
experiencing issues such as packet loss and lost frames. In the past in order
to send NDI video over a WAN the UDP transport was the only option available.
UDP solved some issues of WAN applications by allowing the NDI video to travel
without dropping masses of frames but results in dropped packets being missed
which could cause unstable video. UDP also places more performance demands on
devices sending and receiving the signal.
MultiTCP employs a new method of sending TCP packets whereby it opens a mass of TCP connections over the WAN and uses them in a‘round robin’ manner, this allows each individual TCP connection enough time to acknowledge the receiving packet, confirm nothing is lost and prepare for the next one before it’s sent the next TCP packet in the round robin. This is similar to a RAID setup in traditional storage.
Advanced Controls
BirdDog Eyes P200 now supports some advanced controls to enable greater fine- tuning of image properties for either matching images with other cameras in your production or pushing the overal dynamic performance of the camera for more true to life and sharper images.
These advanced controls are placed into three distinct setting sections: Colour Matrix, Colour Enhancement and Image Enhancement.
Colour Matrix
The Colour matrix section allow you to fine-tune the cameras performance for
individual colours across the spectrum.
You can see in this figure that the color spectrum is divided into six
sections, theses being Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.
The Colour Matrix control allows individual fine-tuning of each of these colour sections without affecting the response of other colour components. The controls allow for adjustment of Gain (Intensity) and Hue (offset) of each colour.
Colour Gain
The Gain control of each colour component defines how intense that colour is
represented in the image that is produced by the camera. The default level
(32) is a moderate gain which shows an even bias between all pixels that
contain the colour. I.e. a dark red with have the red component shown as
vividly as a bright red, this generally gives a balanced look to your colour
representation.
By increasing the gain value, the camera will add additional intensity to all parts of the image pertaining to this colour. For example, if you increase the Red gain value to 64 all pixels that are red in the image will have a boost of colour compared to other colours in the image resulting in a more vivid representation of this colour.
Conversely reducing the colour gain will take some intensity out of the target colour. This can be useful in some lighting conditions where certain colours appear over saturated to the camera.
Colour Hue
The Colour Hue option adjusts the temperature or phase in which any colour is
represented. When looking at the colour spectrum, beyond the true colour
points for each of the main colour adjustments in the camera (Red, Green,
Blue, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow there are areas where the colours transition to
their neighbouring colour point.
In P200 Colour Matrix controls you can adjust the colour offset in a negative
(counter clockwise) or positive (clockwise) direction, effectively moving the
cameras response to any colour towards its neighbouring colour transition
point.
Adjusting individual colour Hue can assist dramatically in matching colour representation from the camera to true-to like colours or matching the P200 to other cameras in your production.
Recommended practice for using Colour Matrix controls
It is recommended to utilise a colour chart or colour chip chart when
adjusting the Colour Matrix controls. These charts are available readily and
have colour chips for each of the colours that the camera can adjust. By
utilising a colour chip chart you are more easily able to see the impact of
any adjustment you are making.
Using a colour chip chart such as the Datacolor SpyderCheckr can be beneficial
to fine-tuning adjustments in the P200 Colour Matrix.
Image Enhancement
The image enhancement properties allow for adjustments and fine control of
several aspects of the cameras performance including video enhancement, detail
enhancement and exposure enhancement.
Video Enhancement
By enabling video enhancement the camera will attempt to adjust the amount of detail and gain for both the shadows (darker areas of the image) and highlights (brighter areas of the image). This can result in a dramatically more balanced image. However when pushed can result in video noise being present in darker areas of the image.
Brightness
Adjusts the level of enhancement provided by the Video Enhancement function. A
higher amount will result
in more vivid images and more sensitivity in the shadows but can increase
video noise produced by the
camera
Brightness Compensation
This setting informs the camera where your desired level of enhancement should
be focused. If your image has large amounts of dark areas that need to be
enhanced then set Brightness Compensation to Dark. If your image appears over
exposed, set Brightness Compensation to Light.
Compensation Level
Adjusts the mask area for the camera to apply the Video Enhancement effect. By
increasing the value from low to high, the camera will attempt to adjust a
greater amount of the shadow or highlight area of the image.
Detail Enhancement
The Detail Enhancement section adjusts the handling of edges and overall image
sharpness. Adjusting items in the Detail Enhancement section can result in
much more legible images when shooting digital displays like computer screens
of LED display walls.
Exposure Enhancement
This section allows fine tuning of the overall exposure or dynamic rage of the
camera. It allows for adjustment of the handling of shadows (darker areas of
the image) and highlights (brighter areas of the image). By adjusting these
settings to suit your shooting environment the camera can respond more
naturally to high-demand environments such as stage areas with extreme
highlights and areas with less lighting.
Gamma Offset
Gamma offset adjusts the way the camera will handle the relationship of dark
to light across the overall image. This can be represented as a positive or
negative number. A negative or lower number will place more bias towards the
shadows of your image giving more detail to the darker areas of the image
resulting in much more detail in the shadows. Moving Gamma offset towards
positive will increase the bias towards brighter areas.
Challenging shooting environments typically centre around lack of detail in the shadows so adjusting the Gamma offset accordingly negative will result in a more balanced image in many cases.
Exposure Compensation
Exposure compensation offsets the reference exposure level of the camera, this
is effectively the ‘balance’ point the camera attempts to achieve between the
brightest and darkest parts of the image. By moving Exposure compensation
towards a negative value, the camera will reduce the overall exposure or
darkness of the image. By moving exposure towards a positive value the camera
will increase the overall exposure or brightness of the image.
Exposure Compensation
If you have areas of your image that are particularly bright in comparison to
the overall image being captured by the P200 they can appear over exposed and
lose detail in the highlights. There are several ways to combat this optically
– by reducing exposure, increasing shutter speed or adjusting the iris.
However, when adjusting for over-exposed highlights this can often lead to
under exposed shadows.
Exposure compensation is a digital processing function of the P200 camera that will detect areas that are over exposed and process these pixels to reproduce significant amount of detail and reduce the overall amount of exposure for the area.
The strength can be adjusted from OFF through HIGH to specify the amount of exposure compensation desired.
Additionally, the Exposure mask can be adjusted to control how sensitive the area selection is for offsetting the exposure. A higher mask value will result in a larger amount of the image being compensated with the exposure compensation process.
Firmware update
P200 is updateable via the web interface. Please check the below address regularly to ensure you have the latest firmware available for your device.
Having the latest firmware ensures you have all the latest features and
performance updates to get the most out of P200:
bird-dog.tv/firmware-updates
After downloading the latest firmware release, navigate to the settings tab on
the P200 web configuration console click on Choose file… select the firmware
update file and press the update button.
The screen will update the status of the update procedure, once complete it
will reboot the main processor.
Please wait for 30 seconds and refresh your browser to access the unit again.
Receiving NDI streams
There are many applications that support receiving the NDI signal that P200 produces. Each application will vary slightly on how you choose your source.
NewTek Studio Monitor
NewTek provide a free Studio Monitor application that allows you to monitor
many NDI sources on a standard Windows computer. Once Studio Monitor is
launched on your computer, simply right click anywhere in the interface and
select your Mini from the drop-down list.
Once connected to the P200 you will notice a configuration cog appears on the bottom right-hand side of the video display, this is a shortcut to access the P200 web configuration panel.
NewTek TriCaster Series
NewTek TriCaster series devices allow several NDI sources to be received
simultaneously, the amount of simultaneous connections varies by what model
TriCaster you have. Consult your TriCaster user manual to determine how many
connections are available on your device.
To select P200 as a source on your TriCaster, simply click on the configuration cog below your desired source location, this will bring up the Input Setting dialog, select from the drop-down list your P200 source.
Once connected to the P200 you will notice a configuration cog appears next to the source drop down window, this is a shortcut to access the P200 web configuration panel.
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