A Pan tilt zoom camera is a closed-circuit television camera

Closed-circuit television camera

Closed-circuit television cameras can produce images or recordings for surveillance purposes, and can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras...

 with remote directional and zoom control.

In television production PTZ are used with professional video camera

Professional video camera

A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...

s in television studio

Television studio

A television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...

s and referred to as camera robotics. These systems can be remotely controlled by automation

Automation

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...

 systems. The PTZ are generally sold separately without the cameras.

Uses

The phrase PTZ Camera has two meanings within the video security and surveillance products industries.

First, PTZ is an acronym for pan

Panning (camera)

In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...

, tilt

Tilt (camera)

Tilting is a cinematographic technique in which the camera is stationary and rotates in a vertical plane . A rotation in a horizontal plane is known as panning...

, and zoom

Zoom lens

A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements for which the focal length can be varied, as opposed to a fixed focal length lens...

 and may refer merely to features of specific surveillance cameras.

Second, PTZ Camera may also be used to describe an entire category of devices where a combination of sound and/or motion

Motion detector

A motion detector is a device for motion detection. That is, it is a device that contains a physical mechanism or electronic sensor that quantifies motion that can be either integrated with or connected to other devices that alert the user of the presence of a moving object within the field of view...

and/or change in heat signature may enable the camera to activate, focus and track suspected changes in the video field.

By activating only during times of change, systems can notify human monitors and minimize storage requirements.

Auto tracking

A new innovation to the PTZ camera is a built-in firmware program that monitors the change of pixels generated by the video chip in the camera. When the pixels change due to movement within the cameras field of view, the camera can actually focus on the pixel variation and move the camera in an attempt to center the pixel fluctuation on the video chip. This process results in the camera following movement. The program allows the camera to estimate the size of the object which is moving and distance of the movement from the camera. With this estimate the camera can adjust the cameras optical lens in and out in an attempt to stabilize the size of pixel fluctuation as a percentage of total viewing area. Once the movement exits the cameras field of view the camera automatically returns to a pre-programmed or "parked" position until it senses pixel variation and the process starts over again.