A customer recently contacted CCTV Camera Pros and asked the following:

I have a Geovision GV-1480 surveillance system working fine. It is Geovision software Version 8.31. I want to know how do I add one or two PTZ cameras for parking lot I like PTZ-A10X Pan Tilt Zoom Camera, and its demo on your website.

CCTV Camera Pros providing the following information:

Thank You for contacting CCTV Camera Pros. In order to use two PTZ-A10X Pan Tilt Zoom Cameras with your Geovision surveillance DVR, you must add a Geovision GV-COM RS-485 PTZ controller to your system which you can find here:

http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/geovision-gv-com-p/gv-com.htm

You can also use a Geovision GV-NET PTZ controller if you prefer that the controller is installed inside the PC instead of as an external USB device.

PTZ cameras require an additional pair of cable for the PTZ controls. This cable pair connects to the GV-COM controller. When setting up more than one PTZ camera, you can daisy chain the RS-485 cables from one PTZ to the next. This means that you run the RS-485 cables (typically a single pair from a CAT-5 or CAT-3 is used) from the GV-COM or GV-NET to the first PTZ camera, then run an additional cable pair out of the RS-485 of the first camera and into the RS-485 inputs of the second camera.

You can find more information about setting up PTZ cameras using Geovision here:

http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/geovision-card-support-s/155.htm#ptz-camera-setup

Please let us know if we can help further.

A customer contacted us yesterday and asked the following question:

I currently have a Geovision surveillance system based in the GV-1480 DVR card. We are currently only using 10 of the camera ports and plan on adding 2 PTZ cameras to the system. In reading the Geovision PTZ setup instructions on your website, I know that we need to add a GV-NET card to our system in order to control the PTZ camera. I was wondering if we also need to buy a joystick to control the cameras.

CCTV Cameras Pros response to customer:

Please note that you do not need both the PTZ joystick and the GV-COM / GV-NET box. If you want to control the PTZ cameras with Geovision, you only need the GV-COM or GV-NET card. The Geovision GV-COM box or GV-NET card is required to send the RS-485 information to control the PTZ from the Geovision DVR to the PTZ camera. CCTV Camera Pros recommends the GV-COM over the GV-NET because it is easier to install being that it is USB and does not require an empty slot on your PC.

If you also want to use a joystick in conjunction with Geovision (instead of just controlling the PTZ cameras using your mouse and on screen controls) you would use a GV-Joystick from Geovision which can be found here:

http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Geovision-PTZ-Joystick-p/gv-joystick.htm

The GV-NET setup instructions can be found here on our website:
http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Geovision-PTZ-Setup-s/153.htm

The GV-COM setup instructions are almost the same ad can be found here:
http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Geovision-GV-COM-PTZ-s/163.htm

Please let me know if you need anything else.