NAB 2024: JVC Talks New PTZ Cams and 12-channel vMix Studio Switcher

JVC District Sales Manager Alicia Reed discusses key features of JVC's KY-PZ510 and KY-PZ540 PTZ cams--including extra-narrow zoom, super-wide angle, and smart auto-tracking--as well as JVC's new 12-channel vMix Studio Switcher with NDI, SRT, and SDI support in this interview with Streaming Media's Marc Franklin from the JVC booth at NAB 2024.

Marc Franklin: We are now at the JVC booth at NAB 2024. I'm here with Alicia Reed, District Sales Manager at JVC Kenwood, and she's going to show us some of the new things that JVC is showing this year. So what do we have over here, Alicia?

Alicia Reed: Yes, we're showing some new JVC PTZ cameras and they have some unique features. It's the KY-PZ510 and KY-PZ540. And that allows you to, again, either a 45, which is extra narrow instead of having a 12X or a 20X or a 30X, it's a 40X. So if you need to be far away from your subject, it's really the perfect camera for that. It's in the $2,000 range. And also we have the version that has a super wide angle wide. Normally the PT Zs will have maybe a 60- or 70-degree wide angle. The JVC has an 80 degree, so if you need to be in maybe a podcasting room where a bunch of people are close to the camera, you can see more people. Or if you're in a big space like a lecture hall or a hockey stadium or an event, you can see a really nice crowd shot here, you can see the zoom on the 40X.

And then we also have an image showing the wide shot. And these are made to be used together. So you can put one at the back of the venue, you can put some on the sides with the longer zoom, and you can see it's a much wider view than normal. So it's a very unique feature that JVC has. And these are also both tracking cameras. So if you did want to, maybe you're short-staffed or you wanted to just make life easier for yourself, they can train on a person. And we have some advanced firmware that just came out and you can center the person, put them on the side, give them more headroom, make it a closer-up shot. You can even make borders; maybe someone's in front of a whiteboard. You can have the camera be still while they move in front of the whiteboard, and that's less distracting than a typical PTZ, which might move around during that action. So there's some great choices. The wide angle is about $3000, the zoom is about $2000. And we even have promos: buy three of the wide angle, get one of our controllers free. So we've got a lot of new things at NAB this year.

Marc Franklin: So how does it track people when you want to use the tracking software? Does it recognize faces or clothing or how does that work?

Alicia Reed: Good question. So there's a variety of styles. JVC uses object tracking of a person, so it's looking for your size, shape, and colors of what you're wearing. And you can either use a handheld remote, the GUI interface or one of our remotes. Even in some of the switchers you can select the subject. And with our new firmware, you can even change between subjects behind the scenes. So if one speaker is finished and you want it to start tracking a second subject, you can do that.

Marc Franklin: Will this work only with JVC cameras or can you mix and match if there's a certain kind of camera that JVC doesn't make and you need something small, super-small, or whatnot?

Alicia Reed: This particular device is the RM-LP100 controller. This is made just for JVC cameras, but part of the reason why is our cameras have SRT, which allows you to use them out of a network. So if you had a camera in New Jersey and you were at NAB Las Vegas, you could actually connect that New Jersey camera, not only streaming video to this location, but also you can control it from other locations using this device. It's about $2,000. It can control up to 100 cameras. So it's really nice for a JVC ecosystem. We also came out with one last year that can do what you're talking about. It's more agnostic if you have different brands and want to mix and match. That's called the RM-LP5. And it can control five cameras, it can have up to five presets. And the cool thing about that is it's only $300, but it's only available if you buy it with two or more JVC cameras.

Marc Franklin: You have to get a package deal with that one, right?

Alicia Reed: Right, but the other cameras can be other brands. So maybe you have some older cameras you want to continue to use that allows you to do that, which is nice.

Marc Franklin: Is there anything else that JVC has that we want to show?

Alicia Reed: Yes, JVC has some new vMix switchers that I can share with you. We can go over there and check 'em out.

Marc Franklin: Now we're over at JVC's switchers and Alicia is going to show us a little bit about them and the new features they have this year.

Alicia Reed: So, JVC has partnered with vMix. As you know, in the old days, vMix was a software that you needed to use to build a computer to make a switcher yourself. And JVC got permission to make a switcher using the vMix software to their exact specifications. It's to the Ruby or Topaz specifications depending on the model. And that means it'll work precisely the way vMix wants it to. It'll work great with all of your cameras, be they JVC cameras or other brands of cameras. And this particular one that's new is called the KM-IP12S*. And what that means is it has 12 channels of NDI or SRT and then eight channels of SDI. So up to 20 channels. It's very robust and you can see the size of it. It's got a lot of power and it's even liquid cool. So it'll stay nice and cool and quiet.

And it also has a nice feature if you want to record a lot of the cameras or save some of your footage, it has the ability to put in and out little SSD cards. So it has a lot of storage and it works just like a regular vMix box. So if you're familiar with that, it's very complete. You have graphics, you have virtual sets, you have greenscreen, you can stream up to three locations, and JVC even offers these really nice optional control panels for the switcher. This is the RM-LP350 that has the ability to basically give you a more traditional hardware field to the vMix. And also we have a sports controller. If you opt for the version that has eight channels of instant replay in slo-mo, this allows you to control the slo-mo and it's perfect for a high school or college that might want to use this, but without the slo-mo, obviously it's great for city council, house of worship, school events.

It's a wonderful solution for not much money. It's in the $11,000 range. A lot of places you'd pay much more. But with the JVC-vMix combo, it's a really nice selection. So the box itself, the switcher is around $11,000 depending on which model you get. This RM-LP350 controller is $750, and then this unit is around $1,400 for the sports controller. So altogether, it's still very affordable and you can use it with either JVC or other PTZ cameras and also JVC or other handheld cameras. So it's very versatile. You can mix and match.

Marc Franklin: That is it for us at JVC's booth at NAB 2024.