Hi Thomas,
This sounds like their is some form of a network congestion issue occurring or that the cameras need a firmware update; but I'll cover a few ideas for the cameras, joysticks and a recommendation or two for the network.
As a bit of background on why I am suggesting a network issue is that typically the control commands are instant in a TCP/IP sense; when we see these delays occurring it is typically due to an excessive amount of "noise" on the network preventing equipment from properly communicating and responding to each other.
Camera Side
We'll start by trying to make sure the cameras are not spamming your switch / network with multicast traffic.
Open the WebUI of each PTZOptics camera you have on your network.
Navigate to the "Network" section.
Locate "Multicast Settings" in the UI and make sure "Multicast" is set for "Off"
Click "Apply" at the bottom and then reboot the camera either from the "System" page or from the switch on the back of the camera.
Next, unless you require ONVIF for control, required for the PT-JOY(G1) & PT-JOY-G2 but not the PT-JOY-G3, we should look at eliminating that as well since a campus security system may be trying to make connections to the cameras with this feature on.
Open the WebUI of each PTZOptics camera you have on your network.
Navigate to the "Network" section.
Locate "ONVIF Settings" in the UI and make sure "ONVIF" is set for "Off"
Click "Apply" at the bottom and then reboot the camera either from the "System" page or from the switch on the back of the camera.
You mentioned having static IPs for all of the cameras and the joystick.
Were these addresses provided by the local IT administrator to ensure that there were no IP conflicts?
It may be worth just double checking.
This has been reported as behavior the cameras will exhibit when the firmware is not the latest and greatest.
Please try updating the firmware on your cameras, ensuring to following the instructions for backup and restore, when you have the opportunity.
PTZOptics Firmware Finder - https://ptzoptics.com/firmware-finder/
Network Side
You said that the switch is unmanaged; has it been connected to a "managed" network infrastructure?
If this is the case and the larger network has not been setup to protect the unmanaged switch and itself properly your switch may be getting spammed with traffic from the network at large.
You should be able to use the network tool "WireShark" to see if you're noticing a chatty network.
A good test here would be to isolate the networked equipment from you main network and see if the delays persist after rebooting all, now isolated, equipment.
A good next step would be to disconnect everything from your isolated network except 1 - 2 cameras and the PT-JOY joystick controller and see if the issue persists.
Joystick
So you mentioned having three (3) joysticks at play in this scenario.
If you are overloading any one (1) camera with commands you may see this type of behavior; it may be worth testing with each joystick assigned to a single camera so there is no possibility of multiple end users overloading a single camera.
Additionally it would be worth checking the speed setting associated with presets via the Camera OSD / on the OSD of the PT-JOY, if it is the G3 model. If the speed is set for slow movement it will prevent the addtional commands from interrupting while creating a back log of erratic commands if someone keeps sending control commands while it's trying finish executing one.
Again it may be worth testing with a simplified setup just to eliminate potential causes of the erratic behavior... so for this again I'm suggesting one (1) PT-JOY joystick controller and one (1) camera for troubleshooting and seeing how that goes.
On a slight side note here do you notice the same experience when using the WebUI for calling presets?
I hope these suggestions help you get to the problem and if you have success or not we'd love to hear back from you to hopefully celebrate or possibly assist further.
I too am having the same issues. The UI presets work great. It's just when the controller is used that it lags. Now I have 4 cameras and 4 controllers. 2-10x that works fine. (they are a couple of years old. And 2-30x I bought this last year along with the controllers that are both slow.
Hi Gary,
I'll see if I can't assist you with the issue.
To be able to do this I am going to need a bit more information on how this is setup and exactly what equipment is being utilized since this does not appear to be a simple one to one or one to many control setup.
One point of clarification to help guide my suggestions...
When you state the controllers are "slow" what exactly is "slow"? P/T/Z, Presets, etc...
Is this "slow" control present on all controllers, if-not please state which unit's exhibit the "slow" control issue.
Once I have a bit more information about your specific setup I will be happy to try and assist you in trying to resolve the "slow" nature of control you are describing.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
All my equipment is PTZ. 2-20x (that work fine) and 2-30x that have the 5 second lag. Now I did notice that the two 30x have older software. SOC v6.2.46-ARMv6.3.12THI f16,HI V1.5.4
Let me get them updated this week and I will get back to you one way or the other. Hopefully it's just a matter of upgrading the software.
The 20x have SOC v6.2.50 - ARM v6.3.10THI f2.HI V1.5.5
Hi Gary,
Thanks for following up... once you have the chance to update your firmware and re-test let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
If the firmware update does solve the issue if you could just post to let other users know what worked for you we would appreciate it.
Again if there is anything else we can do to assist while we await test results please don't hesitate to ask.
Thomas A Lytle
We bought 3 NDI 30x cameras and three joysticks (I realize that we could control all 3 with 1, but we are a student TV studio, so we prefer separate individuals on each camera for teaching purposes). We setup the presets 1-9 for each camera on the joysticks. I also setup all three cameras on each joystick in case we ever need to switch, but they are each always set to only their 1 camera. We purchased a Cisco PoE unmanaged switch to put all the joysticks onto, including our Tricaster into. We also connect the switch to the school network so we can stream the event and connect to the cameras which are in the school network. All devices are manually assigned IPs in the 172.16.4.X range. Everything looks and works great with the following exceptions:
When selecting a preset, such as clicking "2", the camera appropriately moves to its prescribed location. If the operator waits a good 5 count, then everything is fine. Two problems occur if the operator doesn't wait. If the operator immediately decides to take another preset, such as if they meant to hit "3", then nothing happens. They can tap it 10 times in the intervening 5 seconds and it won't take until the time is over. This is actually livable, not great, a bit of a disappointment, but we could live with that. The bigger problem by far, is that if we take a preset, such as "2" and discover the guy at the podium is a bigfoot and needs more headroom, than whatever direction the joystick grabs within the first 5 seconds will just continue, such as "tilt up a scootch" and it will go to the ceiling.
Any ideas?