Orad
- Start Ncam, and initialize the tracking with the correct camera and lens selected from the database.
- Under the menu option Export, select Export in Orad format.
- This will give a dialogue requesting a location and filename. It makes sense to store the lens calibration under a Desktop/Ncam/LensCalibration directory. Give the file a meaningful name, and include the serial number of the lens e.g. Fujinon_HA14x4.5BERD-S6_6704738.ecf.
- Copy the exported file to a thumb drive, and then move the thumb drive to the Orad system.
- Copy the file to the relevant directory in Orad – the engineer/operator can advise on this.
The Ncam lens centre values have to be converted from normalized values into pixel offsets from dead centre of the image sensor. To do that, follow these formulae:
Orad X CCD Offset = -1 x ( (NcamHorizImageCentre - 0.5) image_width )
Orad Y CCD Offset = ( (Ncam_VertImageCentre - 0.5) image_height )
N.B. If the system is 1080p the image_width =1920 and the image_height =1080. If the system is 1080i, i.e. an interlaced format, then the image_height is divided by 2. i.e. for 1080i image_width = 1920 image_height = 540
A simple Excel spreadsheet can calculate these values for you. You only need 2 decimal places of precision e.g. x.xx and y.yy
The configuration for Ncam to communicate is simple.
- In Options/Preferences select the Datastream Tab.
- Enable the FreeD output with the checkbox to “Start FreeD Streamer”.
- Check that the “Sync to Video” checkbox is also selected.
- Change the Kind to be “UDP Ethernet”
- Check the Device/port to be 6301
- Exit the Preferences by pressing OK. (Note that the file is not saved to disk until the Ncam application software is shutdown normally).
N.B. By default the UDP port is set to be 6301, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be any port that is not in use.
Whichever port Ncam is transmitting on, the same port has to be configured in Orad.
Orad uses a Tracking Set configuration file to hold all the parameters for the tracking source. This is typically found on the Windows system under the config directory e.g. G:\config
The file is named in the form of "TrackingSet_hdvg-nnnn.cfg" The values of this file should be edited as necessary. N.B. Some of these values can also be modified and saved by using the Orad GUI, rather than by editing the configuration text file.
# FANTASTICO channel 0 timecode type ntsc_drop synchro source tracker 1 synchro source delay 2 synchro delay 0 heads 1 type freed name Ncam1 \ interfaceaddress 10.10.13.24 port 6301 \ autorange calibration Fujinon_HA14x4.5BERD_6704738.ecf PICTUREASPECT 1.778 \ reverse r CCDOFFSET 17.67 2.19 FOCALSCALE 0.940 DELAY 0.00
The configuration file has keyword description and value pairs to set parameters. In some cases there is more than one keyword to a description.
- Channel: this is usually 0 but may be higher in the case of a multi-camera environment – the Ncam tracking will be on the first virtual camera channel.
- Timecode type: This has two possible values: pal for 50Hz operation or ntsc_nondrop for 59.94Hz operation
- Synchro source tracker: set this to 1
- Synchro source delay: set this to 2
- Synchro delay: set this to 0
- Heads: set this to 1
- Type: freed (this is the protocol that Orad is expecting to read)
- Name: Ncam1 (default naming)
- Interfaceaddress: 10.10.13.24 (the ip address that has been set on the Ncam server)
- Port: 6301 (the specific port to communicate on. 6301 is the default, but any free port can be used. This must be the same port as specified in the Ncam Preferences/Datastream.)
- Autorange: (unsure what this parameter does)
- Calibration: Fujinon_HA14x4.5BERD_6704738.ecf (the name of the exported Ncam lens calibration file that can be found on the Orad filesystem – the Orad system looks for this exact filename to load).
- Pictureaspect: 1.778 (this should be the correct aspect ratio for the image being produced. Typically this is HD, so it is 16:9 or 1.778 as a decimal)
- Reverse: r (if when tracking and panning, the virtual camera in Orad appears to be panning in the wrong direction, set Reverse r).
- Ccdoffset: X.xx Y.yy (these are the X and Y sensor offset values in pixels that we computed from the Ncam Horizontal and Vertical image centres.)
- Focalscale: 0.940 (this is a value to scale the focal length by to overcome the scaling of the image to cope with distortions. In effect, this is a value that is set by a little bit of trial and error, and should best be adjusted through the GUI.)
- Delay: 0.00 (set this at 0.00 initially)
Orad has to have distortions enabled to correctly match the behavior of the physical lens. Two parameters have to be enabled in the file: /usr/RE/bin/RE.xml which is on the HDVG renderer.
- Distortions On = Yes
- Distortions Isenlargeview = Yes
The RE.xml file should be saved and then the RE processes killed and restarted as follows, from the /usr/RE/bin/ directory:
- killall RE - (kills the current processes)
- start.sh - (restarts the processes again – system should be available after 20 seconds or so.)