SmartCam Pano — a panoramic 4K video conferencing camera

Kirill Kochetkov

CVTE Group has been on the market for more than 16 years, offering products for education, medicine, and system integration. Its strengths include technical innovation, in-house research and development laboratories, and staff training that helps employees develop their abilities. One product area is video conferencing equipment, including webcams, pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, and panoramic cameras.

Modern business increasingly uses video conferencing. This reflects not only more remote workers but also the need to solve problems quickly with geographically separated departments and partners.

A laptop's built-in camera or a desktop webcam may be adequate for personal use. For several people in one room, however, these cameras are unsuitable and can seriously reduce meeting effectiveness. Many have limited resolution and video quality, and a built-in laptop camera is hard to position conveniently.

Fixed PTZ cameras are a common alternative. Integrated conferencing systems can select preset positions or automatically switch to a speaker. Even this is not always convenient for several employees sharing one room.

Panoramic conferencing cameras appeared more recently. High resolution and software processing provide useful layouts for several participants. Their features are not fixed: software updates can add modes later, increasing value and useful life.

The SmartCam Pano is an intelligent panoramic conferencing camera with a 180° field of view and 4K resolution. It works effectively in small rooms and with mobile computers. The updated design reached the market in January of the review year.

The product makes a positive first impression. It comes in a stylish black box with a simple design. Packaging does not determine performance, of course, but attention to detail matters.

The box is very rigid, reducing transport damage risk. The surfaces are matte rather than glossy.

A quick guide is the first item inside. This English leaflet describes the camera, its main parts, installation options, and wall mounting. A Russian version can also be downloaded.

A dense polyethylene foam insert holds the camera. A separate accessory box sits beside it.

The supplied 1.5 m USB Type-A-to-Type-C cable matches the camera's USB 2.0 capabilities. It is moderately stiff, with Type-C at the camera and Type-A at the computer. Branded SmartCam cables can extend the connection by tens of meters if required.

The wall-mount kit contains a metal bracket, screws, wall plugs, and a 1/4-inch screw. This allows a fixed meeting-room installation independent of a TV or monitor.

SmartCam Pano specifications

• Three 12 MP sensors;
• Maximum resolution: 3840 × 2160 at 24 fps;
• Fixed focus: 1.5 m;
• Maximum horizontal field of view: 180°;
• 2 microphones with a range of up to 4 m.

The matte-black aluminum housing looks professional. It measures about 145 × 75 × 40 mm and weighs about 250 g. Since this is not mainly a personal-use device, that size should cause no difficulty. It can be mounted on a small, light laptop, but placing it on the desk beside the laptop may be more convenient. The housing warms only slightly during use, so we expect no overheating problems in normal operation.

Three lenses occupy the front center. The built-in processor combines their images and outputs one complete view. High resolution and good processing leave almost none of the obvious distortion typical of fisheye cameras. Two microphones sit on the side projections, with LED strips below. These indicate camera activity and mode changes.

A touch button on top selects operating mode. The rear has two USB ports: Type-C connects to the computer, while Type-A accepts a speakerphone from the same manufacturer or its Bluetooth receiver. This simplifies connections and makes the conferencing system easier to use.

A folding clamp underneath mounts the camera on a monitor or TV. Threaded holes also accept the supplied wall bracket or a tripod.

The camera works with modern operating systems without extra drivers or software. In that case, only fixed layouts selected by the touch button are available; participant detection and tracking are absent. Five preset layouts are provided:

• Full panoramic image;
• Four people in a row;
• One person in a standard close-up;
• One person centered, with the full view below;
• Full view with three people below it.

The button works only in standalone mode. That may be sufficient in some situations, but full camera functionality requires the manufacturer's software.

On first connection, the computer detects a virtual optical drive containing PanoCAM Studio. Versions are available for Windows and macOS. This is a useful distribution method because installation works without internet access, although conferencing itself needs a connection. The program automatically downloads and installs new versions online. An electronic manual can also be downloaded from within it. Installation is straightforward.

First open PanoCAM Studio to check and configure the layout. Then open the conferencing application. It receives the processed camera image in Full HD, while PanoCAM Studio minimizes to leave room for the meeting.

Extra processor load is not a concern. Even modern low-power mobile platforms show no noticeable impact.

The interface is available only in English and Chinese, but the controls and settings are easy to understand.

The full camera view occupies most of the left side. Up, Center, and Down select three virtual camera positions. This helps when the physical camera is fixed but framing needs to match different participants. Colored frames appear over the view according to the selected mode.

A collapsible menu on the right has four sections. Preview shows the image sent to the conferencing application with current settings. It can be moved under the full image on the left for more precise adjustment.

Display Layout is the main section, selecting how the raw image is processed. Six options are available:

• Compose Mode shows the full 180° view above and close-ups of up to eight faces below;
• Manual Mode lets the user select the exact area of the full image to send to the conferencing system;
• Body-fit creates one image containing all detected participants. People can move freely while the virtual camera adjusts automatically;
• Grid Mode shows up to four participants as large as possible, without the full panorama;
• Presentation Mode combines a fixed user-selected area, usually a board or screen, with an automatically found presenter in the lower-right corner. This is a picture-in-picture layout;
• Speaker Mode resembles Body-fit, detecting all participants and adding the full panorama at the bottom.

In every face-detection mode, areas can also be selected manually. The grid follows the number of detected faces or selected areas automatically. When someone leaves, their image disappears and the others grow larger. When someone joins, the grid expands if needed.

Face detection is fast and effective. A change of position produces a framing adjustment within a couple of seconds. The movement is smooth and comfortable for remote viewers. Group-detection modes behave similarly.

Control enables horizontal mirroring and can disable face detection.

Brightness and contrast are usually correct without adjustment. Manual controls are available in Effect if needed.

Standard drivers provide compatibility with common conferencing applications, including Teams, Zoom, Skype, and Webex.

We tested the camera in a meeting room about 8 × 6 meters, with a 3.5-meter ceiling. A 50-inch TV on a stand was near a short wall. A meeting table about 2 × 4 meters sat in front. The camera used its built-in bracket on the TV. A USB extension connected it to a compact laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, Windows 10, and PanoCAM Studio. The laptop used Wi-Fi 6 internet access. Tests used Skype, Zoom, and Discord.

Compose Mode correctly detected all six participants, seated two per side around the table. They could move fairly freely while automatic tracking kept them well framed.

In Body-fit, seating people on one or two table sides works best. Otherwise, the combined view can become too small. The benefit is that everyone remains visible together, including their interaction.

For up to four participants, Grid Mode may be best. Everyone is shown clearly while retaining some freedom to move.

For Presentation Mode, we moved the camera to the table opposite the TV. PanoCAM Studio was set to the TV screen area and the presenter. The presenter did not need to stay still because framing adjusted automatically.

Meeting rooms normally have adequate lighting, so we saw little reason to test low-light sensitivity.

The microphones also performed well. Participants at the table did not need to raise their voices. For even better speech transmission, however, a dedicated microphone array is preferable, such as the Maxhub BM21.

Comparing the SmartCam Pano with a laptop camera or even a good external Full HD webcam makes little sense. Those devices cannot meet the same meeting-room needs.

Conclusions

The SmartCam Pano is a distinctive business conferencing product. It works effectively for presentations and meetings with many participants. The software allows one camera to support different situations with flexible layouts. We have no complaints about image quality, design, or reliability. It should look appropriate in a meeting room of any level.

Considering the specifications and capabilities, the price no longer seems high compared with similar solutions.

Note. This is an adapted machine translation into English. It follows the “In simple terms” approach. Read the original article at https://prosound.ixbt.com/microphones/smartcam-pano.shtml.