iPhone App to Control PTZ Cameras

A customer recently contacted CCTV Camera Pros with the following question related to controlling a PTZ camera using an iPhone app or iPad app:

I have a Panisonic DVR system with 6 PTZ cameras installed at my residence. I want to view and control them from iphone or ipad. Can your iCamViewer app do this? If so, what encoder(s) would you suggest to add?

CCTV Camera Pros response:

Thank You for contacting us and for your interest in the iCamViewer App. As of right now, the iCamViewer is not an option for PTZ controls. Support may be added later this year but right now it does not support PTZ controls from the app. Also, typically the cost of adding a network video servers for each of your PTZ cameras ends up being equal to or greater than the cost of a CCTV DVR that natively supports remote PTZ camera controls via an iPhone app that is made specifically for that DVR.

If you are using standard analog PTZ cameras that use RS-485 for the controls, you may want to consider a new DVR (unless the manufacturer of your DVR is developing an app sometime soon). If you are open to this, I suggest checking out our iDVR-E series stand alone DVR or a Geovision PC based surveillance DVR. There is a new iPhone app available for it that is one of the best I have seen on the market besides Geovision (which is a PC based system that we also supply). Please see the below links to these two options as well as some additional information such as screenshots of the apps and setup instructions. Please let me know your thoughts.

https://www.cctvcamerapros.com/8ch-Stand-Alone-DVR-p/idvr-e8.htm

https://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Geovision-DVR-Computer-p/pcpro-gv8.htm

https://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Geovision-iPhone-Application-GV-iView-Setup-s/329.htm