A pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera can be steered horizontally and vertically and zoomed in, either by a live operator at a monitoring center or by an automated preset tour that cycles through fixed positions. This makes one PTZ camera capable of covering an area that would otherwise need several fixed cameras, at the cost of only seeing one view at a time.
On a real property, PTZ units are effective for large open areas like a parking lot or a warehouse yard where an operator can zoom toward a reported disturbance. Their weakness is exactly that trade-off: while zoomed on one area, the rest of the field of view is unrecorded and unmonitored unless a second fixed camera covers it.
Mechanical pan-tilt components wear out faster than fixed cameras and are a common maintenance item; a PTZ stuck at one preset provides no more coverage than a fixed camera pointed the wrong way. Operator training also matters — an unmanned PTZ left at a default preset overnight offers little value during an incident outside that view.
In a live monitoring program, a dispatcher can slew a PTZ camera toward an alarm zone while simultaneously dispatching a patrol officer, giving both a remote visual check and an in-person response to the same event.
Related entries
Official sources
- [1]NIST video surveillance systems resourcesNational Institute of Standards and Technology
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