Subject: Remote Camera Control Software Release Announcement

From: Deb Agarwal (ITG staff) <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 16:06:43 -0700 (PDT)

Announcing the release of:

Remote Camera Control Software
------------------------------

We have developed two new videoconferencing tools, devserv, and
camclnt.  These tools allow remote control of a serial controllable
camera system.  The devserv program is run on the machine with the
serial (RS-232) connections to the camera system and camclnt is the
user interface that can be run anywhere to control the camera system
over the Internet.  By running these tools together, users can
control the video devices of a videoconference.

The devserv program can currently drive the Sony EVI-D30 and Canon
VC-C3 cameras and the Panasonic WJ-MX50 Digital A/V Mixer.  Devserv
listens on a UDP connection for ASCII text command strings that
request camera motion or video switcher actions.  Any program which
sends commands that conform to the Remote Camera Command Language
(available from http://www-itg.lbl.gov/mbone/devserv/Remcam.txt) will
be able to control the camera system.  Devserv transmits status
messages using IP Multicast.

The camclnt program provides a graphical user interface for making
requests to control the cameras and a video switcher being run by
devserv.  These requests are sent using the Remote Camera Command
Language to the device server, which in turn drives the devices.  A
user watching video (with a tool such as vic) may request to pan,
tilt, or zoom of any of the cameras, select the camera to view, or
request a picture-in-picture (selecting a camera and requesting
picture-in-picture only work if you have a video switcher).

The devserv program was written in C++ and has been tested on Solaris,
SGI, and freeBSD (windows soon to come).  The camclnt program was
written in Java 1.1 and should run on any platform.  Documentation,
precompiled binaries and source for both programs are available from

   http://www-itg.lbl.gov/mbone/devserv/

Please let us know if you have any problems using the software or
suggestions for its improvement.

Thanks,
Deb Agarwal ([email-masked]) and
Marcia Perry ([email-masked])
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory