March 9, 2023 - The SuperJoy is advanced pan, tilt and zoom joystick controller that is continually being improved by the PTZOptics team. The SuperJoy has several features not found on lower-cost joystick controllers such as an HDMI video output and custom buttons with the ability to perform advanced commands such as turning auto-tracking ON and OFF on the fly.
The SuperJoy is the only joystick from PTZOptics that features native NDI support allowing PTZ camera control for any NDI-enabled PTZ camera. The joystick can also mix and match serial and IP connected cameras to fit almost any workflow.
Here is a list of new features added to the PTZOptics SuperJoy via new firmware since launch:
Core Features:
The core SuperJoy features include universal compatibility with the majority of PTZ cameras, 6 camera select hotkeys, dedicated pan/tilt/zoom speed buttons, dedicated iris and shutter speed knobs, and dedicated zoom and focus knobs. The SuperJoy has everything you would find on an advanced PTZ camera joystick with the addition of customizable buttons, a network-connected interface, a smartphone control option, and an HDMI output. So, the core features are plentiful, and in the end, it's a solid PTZ camera joystick made of high-quality materials including a metal housing.
New Feature Deep Dive
The Custom Buttons feature on the SuperJoy allows users to customize their joystick to control many devices even beyond PTZ cameras. For example, the SuperJoy can be set up to control vMix using the HTTP-based API. The vMix API is a great example of video production software that can be controlled by SuperJoy to initiate functions such as Start Recording= and Start Streaming.
The new Custom Button toggle update allows users to effectively double the number of commands they are able to use. This is especially useful for ON and OFF commands such as controlling the Auto-Tracking functionality of a PTZOptics Move camera. It's also useful for START and STOP commands for functions such as recording or streaming. This new feature allows you to get more out of the SuperJoy custom buttons.
You can learn more about using the SuperJoy with Auto-Tracking commands here.
NDI Camera Control Improvements
The SuperJoy can be used with any PTZ camera that supports Network Device Interface (NDI). Recently, the SuperJoy has gained support for automatic NDI camera discovery on a local area network. Auto-discovery makes it easier to locate new NDI cameras on your network and control them with the PTZOptics SuperJoy. PTZ Cameras available with NDI include manufacturers such as Panasonic, SONY, Lumens, Bird-Dog, Marshal, and PTZOptics.
Better IP-Synchronization with NTP
The synchronization of packet data is imperative to low-latency and high-quality IP video and camera control. A Network Time Protocol server can be used to synchronize computers, PTZ cameras, and network-connected devices such as PTZ joystick controllers together with a single source of time. This allows computers and devices to use the exact same time code and therefore synchronize the data more efficiently. The result is lower latency performance across multiple PTZ camera manufacturers beyond just PTZOptics. It's important to note that each PTZ camera and device (including computers) should use the same NTP server. You can learn more about how to sync multiple IP video camera streams together in the following video.
Support for more PTZ cameras including Axis and ONVIF
The PTZOptics SuperJoy is able to control many different PTZ cameras including any NDI camera, any camera that supports SONY VISCA, and any camera that supports ONVIF. These are all industry standards that allow the PTZOptics team to confidently say the SuperJoy can control "Most PTZ Cameras" without having issues. ONVIF stands for Open Network Video Interface Forum and it was originally created by Axis. It is the main pan, tilt, and zoom control protocol used by security cameras.
Getting the new Firmware
In conclusion, you may want to perform a firmware update for your SuperJoy to gain all of the new features. The PTZOptics team is also always open to new ideas in regards to new feature requests. You can find the latest SuperJoy firmware here. If you have any questions or issues setting up any PTZOptics product please feel free to contact our support team at support@ptzoptics.com.