birddog Eyes P400 User manual

USER MANUAL
PART 2: NDI®INSTRUCTIONS
EYES P400
NDI®WITH PROFESSIONAL LEVEL COLOUR CONTROL

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE.

EYES P400
FULL NDI®. NO COMPROMISES.
4. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR P400
4. Physical connectors
4. Powering P400
4. PoE+ (Power over Ethernet)
4. DC
4. Thermal management
5. BOOTING UP YOUR BIRDDOG P400
5. Indication of system boot process
5. OPERATING P400
5. Web configuration panel
5. BirdDog Finder application
5. Accessing P400 via an IP address
5. Accessing on a network without a DHCP server
6. PASSWORD MANAGEMENT
6. Default password
6. A/V-SETUP
6. Adjusting Camera image settings
6. A/V Input
6. Video input format
7. NDI Encode
7. Bitrate management
7. NDI Audio
7. Onboard Tally
7. Failover Source
8. PTZ
8. Control
8. Settings
8. PT Max Speed
8. OSD
9. SYSTEM
9. System update
9. NDI NETWORK SETTINGS
9. Transmit Preferred Method
9. TCP
9. UDP
9. Multicast
9. MultiTCP
10. NETWORK
10. Device naming
10. Configuration method
10. DHCP IP address
10. Static IP address
10. IP address recovery
10. BirdDog name
10. RECEIVING NDI STREAMS
10. NewTek Studio Monitor
10. NewTek TriCaster Series

Getting to know your P400
Thanks for purchasing BirdDog Eyes P400. Please take
some time to read this document to allow you to get the
most out of your purchase and familiarize yourself with the
features available in the unit.
Physical connectors
Powering P400
P400 is equipped with a sophisticated system allowing
power from various sources:
PoE+ (Power over Ethernet)
PoE+ is a convenient way to power P400 as it allows both
data and power to be sent through the same standard
Ethernet cable. To take advantage of PoE+, the network
switch that P400 is directly plugged into must support
PoE+ (802.11at).
Different network switches are capable of providing
differing amounts of total power to all connected devices.
P400 uses approximately 14 watts in PoE mode.
DC
Located at the rear of the P400 is a DC connection port.
This power input socket is capable of accepting 12vDC
power. P400 should only be powered by the included AC
adaptor.
Thermal management
P400 has been engineered to be passively cooled. In order
to achieve this the entire enclosure of P400 is designed to
dissipate heat. The main processor is capable of operating
up to 100º C / 212º F.
Some factors affect how much heat BirdDog will produce,
and it is normal for it to feel warm to the touch.
In extreme circumstances (a hot day/direct hot sun) it is
advised to power P400 via DC as this produces less heat
than PoE. BirdDog has been tested in extreme environments.
4
RS422
FW Upgrade
RS232
DC 12V
NDI/PoE
HDMI
Audio IN
Video Format
Audio OUT
IR Select
Genlock
6G/3G SDI

Booting up your BirdDog P400
Indication of system boot process
As soon as BirdDog P400 detects a power input signal the
lower GREEN led light will illuminate.1
On the ethernet/NDI connector on the rear.
After initial boot up is complete your P400 unit will be
visible as a source on any NDI compatible devices on the
SAME ethernet subnet.
For further networking architecture instructions including
routing please consult either your system administrator or
the support page at bird-dog.tv
Operating P400
Web configuration panel
In this release, the web configuration panel allows you to
alter key settings of P400, specifically A/V settings, and
video frame rates, restarting the video processing engine,
changing networking parameters, recalling PTZ presets and
applying firmware updates.
Access via web browser (URL)
To access the web configuration panel please point your
computer web browser to: http://birddog-xxxxx.local/
“xxxxx” is the serial number of the P400, the serial number
is printed on the box and on the main unit. Note the web
address is case sensitive and should be all lower case. Your
computer will need to have ‘Bonjour’ services loaded in
order to access the unit via it’s ‘friendly’ name described
above.
Apple devices come pre-installed with Bonjour, while
Windows devices need a small plugin available here:
https://support.apple.com/kb/dl999?locale=en_AU
Accessing P400 via an IP address
P400 is configured to automatically receive a network (IP)
address from the computer network via DHCP (Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol). Most corporate, education
and home networks have a DHCP server present on the
network to allow this to occur. Usually your Internet Router
provides this.
If P400 receives an IP address automatically from this server
(DHCP) the IP address can be discovered in several ways,
including BirdDog Central Lite available from bird-dog.tv
Accessing P400 on a network without a DHCP server
Some standalone or private networks may not have a DHCP
server. After 30 seconds of searching for an automatically
assigned IP address P400 will fall back to a default address
which is:
192.168.100.100
In order to access the web configuration panel on a network
which is configured to a different subnet, change your
computers IP address to match the BirdDog unit. Once you
gain access to the BirdDog web configuration panel choose
your IP address to match the rest of the devices on your
network.
For instructions on setting your computers IP address
please consult your computer operating system manual or
IT support resources.
5
1
BirdDog Eyes P400
SERIAL xx:xx:xx:x x:xx:xx
Note: only the last 5 digits are required
for accessing the web interface.

Password management
Once you direct your web browser to the web configuration
panel you will need to log in to change any settings.
Default password
The web configuration panel is secured by a user-selectable
password. The default password is:
birddog (one word, lower case).
To change the password simply login using the default
password, navigate to the network tab in the web interface,
and select change password.
It is recommended to change this password in a network
environment where P400 is shared with other users (e.g. not
private). By entering this password, the user is granted full
access to the P400 configuration settings and could
interrupt a live program.
A/V-SETUP
Adjusting Camera image settings
Please note in the initial release of P400 the image adjust-
ments for the camera are affected by using the camera’s
unbuilt OSD (On Screen Display), details of how to access
this are available later in this user guide or in Part 1 of the
P400 manuals.
A/V Input
EYES P400
Enter Password
6
Video input format
Please select the desired camera frame rate and video size
from the drop-down menu. This action can take up to 60
seconds to complete if the camera is changing frame-rates.
A Companion application, BirdDog Cam Control is currently
available with additional functionality to be made available
with regular updates to this application.
Video format options are:
UHD Progressive Resolutions: 2160p25, 29.97, 30
HD Progressive Resolutions: 1080p25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60
HD Interlaced Resolutions: 1080i50, 59.94, 60
720P Progressive Resolutions: 720p50, 59.94, 60
EYES P400

7
Bitrate management
BirdDog P400 allows you to interact with the video bitrate
that the NDI encode engine produces. This can have drama-
tic effects on image quality and network traffic. It is strongly
recommended to leave this option on NDI Managed, if
Manual is selected this can easily cause issues with receiving
hardware and software that is not designed for lower or
higher bitrates and should be used with caution. Please
ensure you keep HD bitrates in Manual close to 100Mbps
and UHD close to 170Mbps.
NDI Audio
You are able to select if the audio input on the rear of the
P400 is embedded into the NDI Stream by making NDI
Audio Active, or Mute to disable
Onboard Tally
P400 comes equipped with an inbuilt Tally system in the
camera head. This tally light automatically communicates
with receiver software and will illuminate RED when the
Tally position on the receiver is set to Program, and GREEN
when the Tally position on the receiver is set to Preview.
Onboard Tally can be suppressed with this setting.
Failover Source
Within P400 you are able to nominate a failover source, this
means that if a receiver is connected to the P400 and for
any reason the P400 is no longer available the receiver will
automatically switch over to the nominated NDI source, this
can be any valid NDI signal within your network.
Please note to update the list of Available NDI sources you
must press the REFRESH button twice in the Web Dashbo-
ard, noting the Web Dashboard is designed to be used with
Chrome or Firefox browsers.
NDI Encode
EYES P400

8
PTZ
Control
You are able to save and recall presets from the Web Dash-
board using the Select Preset option. To operate this,
simply press the Preset number you wish to recall or save
followed by APPLY PRESET or SAVE PRESET
Settings
The P400 communicates with the camera head via a serial
interface, these settings should remain as per default:
VISCA ADDRESS: 1
VISCA BAUDRATE: 9600
PT Max Speed
When controlling the P400 over NDI you can limit the
maximum speed of PTZ movements by affecting this
option, the higher the number (18) the faster and more
sensitive the movements will be on theP400.
OSD
In the initial release of P400 the OSD is very important for
adjusting the camera image settings since this is the
primary control mechanism. To adjust all cameras settings
please press the OSD ON/OFF button to illuminate the
OSD.
The OSD is visible on both the NDI output and SDI/HDMI
and can equally be accessed via the included remote
control.
Please take note that the PTZ will not operate normally
(control of movement) until the OSD menu is closed again.
EYES P400

9
System update
The P400 is updateable via the web interface. Please check
the below address regularly to ensure you have the latest
firmware available for your device.
Having the latest firmware ensures you have all the latest
features and performance updates to get the most out of
Eyes P400:
bird-dog.tv/firmware-updates
After downloading the latest firmware release, navigate to
the settings tab on the web configuration console and click
on Choose file... select the firmware update file and press
the update button.
NDI NETWORK SETTINGS
Transmit Preferred Method
TCP
TCP is the default transmission method for NDI, it operates
well within local networks with predictable latency and
limited jitter. BirdDog recommends that TCP be used for
typical applications, and only using alternative transports
for specific reasons.
UDP
UDP is recommended for networks where there is extended
latency from one end to the other. The nature of UDP
means that it does not need to receive a confirmation of
each packet being received successfully – vastly improving
performance on distance WANs. UDP can have some
consequences if there are other issues on the network such
as jitter or lost packets as it will not inherently resent a lost
packet.
SYSTEM
Multicast
Multicast is especially useful for use-cases that require a
single source to be received on multiple receivers simulta-
neously. Utilising Muliticast offloads the distribution of the
NDI A/V data packets from the BirdDog P400 to the
network infrastructure. You should take care to ensure your
network is specifically configured to support Multicast as
using it on an ill-prepared network can create unintended
network problems.
MultiTCP
MultiTCP is a new NDI transport method that allows users
to send NDI video over poor network topography such as
WAN (Wide Area Networks) without experiencing issues
such as packet loss and lost frames. In the past in order to
send NDI video over a WAN the UDP transport was the only
option available. UDP solved some issues of WAN applica-
tions by allowing the NDI video to travel without dropping
masses of frames but results in dropped packets being
missed which could cause unstable video. UDP also places
more performance demands on devices sending and recei-
ving the signal.
MultiTCP employs a new method of sending TCP packets
whereby it opens a mass of TCP connections over the WAN
and uses them in a ‘round robin’ manner, this allows each
individual TCP connection enough time to acknowledge the
receiving packet, confirm nothing is lost and prepare for the
next one before it’s sent the next TCP packet in the round
robin. This is similar to a RAID setup in traditional storage.
EYES P400

Configuration method:
Address:
Mask:
Gateway:
DHCP timeout:
Static fallback address:
Static fallback mask:
BirdDog Name:
DASHBOARD NETWORK PTZ SYSTEM A/V SETUP LOGOUT
EYES P400
NETWORK
Receiving NDI streams
There are many applications that support receiving the NDI
signal that P400 produces. Each application will vary slightly
on how you choose your source.
NewTek Studio Monitor
NewTek provide a free Studio Monitor application that
allows you to monitor many NDI sources on a standard
Windows computer. Once Studio Monitor is launched on
your computer, simply right click anywhere in the interface
and select your unit from the drop-down list.
Once connected to the P400 you will notice a configuration
cog appears on the bottom right-hand side of the video
display, this is a shortcut to access the P400 web configura-
tion panel.
NewTek TriCaster Series
NewTek TriCaster series devices allow several NDI sources
to be received simultaneously, the amount of simultaneous
connections varies by what model TriCaster you have.
Consult your TriCaster user manual to determine how many
connections are available on your device.
To select P400 as a source on your TriCaster, simply click on
the configuration cog below your desired source location,
this will bring up the Input Setting dialog, select from the
drop-down list your P400 source.
Once connected to the P400 you will notice a configuration
cog appears next to the source drop down window, this is a
shortcut to access the P400 web configuration panel.
10
Device naming
When your device is first powered on it defaults to the
naming convention as described in the web configuration
panel section of this manual.
It is possible to change the name along with the network
settings to better suit your environment.
Configuration method
You can configure your device to operate on the network
with a dynamic (DHCP) IP address or a fixed address.
For smaller networks DHCP networking is generally
suitable, however larger networks with managed opera-
tions will often determine each device needs to have a
dedicated and static IP address.
DHCP IP address
DHCP is set as the network configuration by default for
P400.
Static IP address
To enable a static IP address, change configuration method
to static and fill in the details required in Address, Mask and
Gateway. Particular attention should be paid to the Address
and Mask fields as incorrect information entered will result
in device not being visible on the network and a factory
reset will be required in order to recover the unit.
IP address recovery
In the event that the device is not visible on the network,
the network has changed, or the static IP address details
have been lost, reset the BirdDog back to its default settin-
gs by using the Birddog Neuralyzer application available at
bird-dog.tv/firmware
BirdDog name
You can name each unit with a friendly name that makes
sense for each production (Camera 1, Camera 2, etc). This
name will appear on any NDI receiver when it looks for
video coming from P400 over the network. The name must
not include any special characters and can be any combina-
tion of ‘a-z, 1-0, and –‘.
Note: no uppercase characters are valid.
On NDI receiving devices, the device will present as a
source as follows: birddog-name [CAM] when the unit is set
to automatic input.

bird-dog.tv
[email protected]