Thomas
Hardware is great, software works well, but documentation could be better
This is a great PTZ camera for video calls, conferences, etc. The package includes the camera itself, together with the power adapter, a remote control, a cover for the camera, a long USB-A-to-C cable and an instruction booklet. The remote control requires two AAA batteries (not included) and the camera has a USB-C port, so a USB-A port on the device being connected to it is expected.
The instruction booklet provides details about the hardware, including identifying the various connectors for power, USB, Ethernet, etc., as well as the locations of the microphone, tripod connector, etc. It also explains the function of each of the buttons on the remote control. What’s lacking, however, is information about the software.
To update the firmware and configure the device, I had to download software from Nearity. I first used this camera with a Mac, so started by checking the App Store. It contains a Mac app called ‘Nearity’, published by Suzhou AuditoryWorks Co., Ltd (obviously Chinese), so tried installing that. It was unable to detect the device – it looks like it’s for Nearity’s audio devices – so I uninstalled it and searched online.
On online search turned up a downloadable Mac (and Windows) app called NearSync, so I downloaded the installer for that. It was able to detect the camera, update the firmware and allow me to configure the device. The long and short of the software is: download and install NearSync, not Nearity.
The hardware is great, and the software works pretty well. The camera’s physical rotation and angle can be configured using the remote control, with four presets. There are also buttons for zooming in/out at high or low speeds, for flipping the image horizontally or vertically, switch between 50/60 Hz, turning the camera off/on and resetting it.
The NearSync software allows more advanced control, whilst also displaying information like the firmware version, and allowing the firmware to be updated. The device could probably be used without installing NearSync, but I don’t know if firmware updates would be possible. Without them, the camera would be stuck running old firmware.
The NearSync software allows configuration of image settings like saturation, brightness, contrast, hue, white balance, frequency (50 or 60 Hz) and HDR. The white balance can be set to ‘auto’ and the HDR setting says it cannot be enabled at 60 fps. The HDR setting can nevertheless be turned on when the frequency (mislabelled ‘Frequence’) is set to 60 Hz, and it does appear to have an impact (my display supports HDR).
NearSync also offers various device-configuration settings. The camera can be set to ‘Manual’ or ‘Auto Framing’ mode, the latter of which automatically zooms in on the people in the image. The auto-framing feature works pretty well, and it’s suitable for things like video chatting/conferencing, but it has a tendency to zoom in and out too much, so I’d avoid it for things like presentations.
The device-configuration settings also include configuring Visca over IP, which is useful if the Ethernet port is used for connectivity. I only use the USB port, so this isn’t an issue. The rotation, angle and zoom can also be set in the device-configuration settings, along with horizontal/vertical flipping and OSD mirror. There’s a setting to switch to preset 1 when the camera is turned on, rather than returning to the previous position, which can be useful.
There’s also a ‘Privacy Protection’ setting in the device-configuration settings. There’s no explanation of what it does, but I thought it might toggle the feature that causes the camera to point backwards when the video is turned off. It doesn’t seem to turn that feature off, so I don’t know what it does.
There are some quirks with the software, including lack of documentation of some settings and a non-standard UI, but it works reasonably well.
Overall, this is a great PTZ camera and the software is fairly good too. I can definitely recommend it, but the documentation could be much better than it is.
