PTZ?

[HaloTech]

When might we see a competitive pan tilt zoom camera from Meraki? 

[NFL0NR]

YES!!!!  We just got a couple in to demo... VERY disappointing

[Jack]

No Pan Tilt but you get the Zoom  Also no speaker / mic and Wifi option. Also no cloud storage.  I will stay with other DVR / Arlo Or Nest solution until Meraki wakes up.

[Matt_Collins]

It is something that they are looking to do, I have spoken to a few people at Meraki on this option as had a few requests from some customers who just want a single camera with several areas to be monitored.   When I spoke to Meraki they said that it happen but they dont kow to what effect the PTZ would be deployed and would more than likely be a preprogrammed PTZ on set areas rather than a live PTZ function where you can move the camera when and where you want. - but you never know what they may come up with.

[CJ_Ramsey]

Based on collective market research from Meraki and Gartner, there just isn't a whole lot of demand in the marketplace for Pan/Tilt in the majority of camera deployments. The reason here is aside from a handful of select industries, most organizations do not have a dedicated employee watching cameras and following movements. We have found that we can overcome the absence of Pan/Tilt with a more deliberate camera placement to properly cover all areas without movement.

[Jack]

I agree you don't need Pan and tilt  if you have a high quality / high resolution ultra wide lens that will  record everything. I still suggest a mic and speaker / WiFI + Cloud storage option. If I'm a thief ( which i'm not  ) all i need to do is to steal the camera and you have no video proof anymore since everything is stored locally on the camera it self.

[stephen]

Hi CJ_Ramsey,

While that market research may be generally correct I do not think that it takes into account the expectations of a "cloud-managed" product. I'd like to be able to have a camera shipped to a client destination, have anyone do the installation and do 100% of the setup remotely. 

Presently, we still need to manually take off the lense, adjust the camera angle, check the angle, adjust again, and so forth until the correct angle is found. This really is sub-par experience for the price point the MV series cameras are in. Expectations from the MV cameras:

1. Pan tilt and zoom = 100% remote setup (besides having mount & installer plug it in).
2. A microphone.
3. Customizable email notifications based on motion events. 

I'd also like to see more options with greater storage. If I can get 256GB of flash storage and a 4K camera in my iPhone, why can't I get at least similar specs (or much better) in an MV camera. I'd like to see Meraki raise the industry's bar in both data storage and video quality.

[Ryan-Zimmerle]

Here is my take on the MV and PTZ, take this with a grain of salt, my logic here could be totally flawed.  I do not see Meraki releasing a traditional PTZ option, here is why. 

Merkai has consistently been the type of company to not do what everyone else is doing, but to disrupt the market with products and technologies that are superior in addressing specific needs.  I imagine the Meraki team is looking at this more from 30,000 ft and trying to understand what specific needs are driving the demand for PTZ, multi lens, 360, fish eye, etc, and then they will Merakify it.  I would imagine there will be an awesome single sensor product kicking around R&D at Meraki HQ that will help address the demand for PTZ, 360, and multi-lens.

Ryan

[MerakiDave]

Understand the objections and agree with some of the comments about why Meraki is not offering a PTZ.  Industry reports show decreasing PTZ camera use, and Meraki is not likely to add a PTZ camera to the portfolio anytime soon.  Less than 10% of cameras are PTZ, and PTZ cameras can be 2x to 3x as expensive, they are physically larger, and heavier (motors/servos) and these moving parts wear out and break down more frequently, and the more you use it, the shorter its lifespan becomes, as indicated by the shorter warranty typically offered on PTZs.  PTZs do have their place in the industry.  But perhaps the biggest drawback is that if you PTZ into a specific area, the camera cannot record what it isn't looking at. 

Most PTZ use cases can be addressed with proper planning and multiple non-PTZ cameras today, and in the future with other models that might offer a wider field of view for example.  There are many cases where PTZ cameras have been deployed and then the pan and tilt functions are rarely used, and only the zoom gets used, to zoom in for identity or zoom out for overall scene context, and MV does offer a varifocal lens remotely adjustable via Dashboard for that purpose.  

All that said, MV cannot address every use case.  If you're in retail and want to follow an active shoplifter around a store, the MV cannot be used for that purpose.  But I'd make the argument that with well-placed cameras and Dashboard's video wall, you could get very close, as well as meet all other retail requirements.

MV21/71 are the first two products in a new and exciting product family.  Help Meraki help you, keep making wishes in Dashboard, and keep the feedback coming through your Meraki sales team or Meraki Partner so all of the use cases and feature requests can be collected, categorized and prioritized.

[nikiwaibel]

pls no PTZ. build a hi-res 360 and do PTZ digitally!

[MerakiDave]

@HaloTech wanted to make sure you saw today's announcement on the MV32.  @nikiwaibel what you said is exactly what we've done.  The MV32 records everything in 360 and offers live and retrospective PTZ and is even VR-enabled.  Check out the link Caroline posted, this is an exciting new addition to the MV family!

[nikiwaibel]

@MerakiDave@CarolineSBRILLIANT! took about 1.5years, that's very ok! can i send you my contact details to get a free cam for sharing the idea? i'd love to get my hands on it!

[MerakiDave]

I like the way you're thinking @nikiwaibel but I'm afraid the best they'll be able to do is a free trial, not a free MV32!  🙂 

[CarolineS]

While not exactly PTZ, our new MV32 may fulfill your use case. Take a look - just announced today! 

[Jack]

I like the new FishEye ALOT !! The demo show very low distortion... I have couple question

1) When i export the video does it export in 360 wrap mode only? Can i export it in de-wrap mode?

2) Does this camera have 4K sensor?