PTZOptics, manufacturers of affordable broadcast-quality robotic cameras, and the MIDI Association, the international stewards of MIDI technology, announce a new frontier for MIDI control. In a joint project, they are bringing fully configurable MIDI control to the PTZOptics robotic cameras.

Starting with the 12X-NDI and SDI cameras, PTZOptics will roll out direct MIDI control to their current generation camera line via a free firmware update. Users will be able to map camera commands including setting presets, call, pan, tilt, zoom in, zoom out, speed up, and slow down to available keys on any MIDI device. Once configured, the MIDI controller can steer and control the PTZ camera from anywhere in the world via the Web MIDI API.

This release is the result of a rapidly-formed relationship between PTZOptics and the MIDI Association. Athan Billias, President of the MIDI Association, reached out to Geoff Robinson, Product Manager at PTZOptics, to see if the camera maker had plans to further develop their existing – but limited – MIDI control software application. Billias and Robinson saw an opportunity to bring flexible, open-source camera control to the music industry. In less than two months, PTZOptics was a newly-minted MIDI Association member and the only camera manufacturer to implement direct MIDI control.

Owners of current generation PTZ 12X cameras can unlock MIDI control immediately by downloading and installing the latest camera firmware from the PTZOptics website. MIDI control will roll out to all current-generation PTZOptics PTZ cameras by the end of 2022.