Camera recommendation for showing live image on projector?

[andyH12345]

I'm after a camera recommendation for a fairly niche purpose. I help manage a community hall which hosts some clubs and associations. We'd like to fit a camera where the live image can be sent to a projector, allowing a close-up of view what's happening at the front or a wide-angle view to feed to another room. The camera will be wall mounted about 3m up and 10-15m away from the subject. The camera output will not be recorded.

There was a system fitted historically, a Baxall PTZ dome with RS232 control off a PC program. The output went into a video switch, hence could be routed to the projector. However the PTZ control no longer works, which is probably a PC software issue, but we can't work it out. So our thinking is a basic IP camera that will be viewable on an existing PC, and then the PC output can be sent to the projector as well as the local monitor. Just using ethernet cables rather than separate control and video leads will be a bonus.

The camera must have PTZ control, and ideally have a reasonable performance in stage-lit conditions, ie high contrast. We also don't want IR LEDs turning on. And of course it must be the cheapest thing going because the budget is approximate 20p. Cheap chinese stuff is quite OK for this.

 

[Dan]

Hi @andyH12345

The cheapest indoor PTZ camera we offer would be the Hikvision DS-2DE2A404IW-DE3(S6) 2-Inch 4MP Mini PT Dome Camera

This model features a 2.8-12mm focal/zoom range which should be fine for 10-15m and has Back Light & High Light Compensation image settings which should help with any extreme lighting conditions, it does feature IR LEDs but if you set the camera to Day mode 24/7 this will disable the IR LEDs.

If you access this camera in Hikvision iVMS-4200(V3.10.1.5_E) software on a PC desktop and you make sure the PC is set to not time out/go to sleep for the duration of the time you are using it, then you should be able to connect that PC to a projector and display the PC desktop including the PTZ live stream.