Precision

Robotics

At a glance.

DashBoard Plugins for Robotic and Camera Control

DashBoard is a free and open control platform from Ross Video that includes plugins for controlling our Ross PT heads, PTZs and Acid cameras. In addition to offering clean, simple graphical user interfaces that can be combined with off-the-shelf USB controllers to provide comprehensive device control interfaces, these plugins can also be used to create powerful, customized, user-friendly control and monitoring solutions that can drive your entire production.

Affordable

The DashBoard platform is available as a free download from the Ross Video website, and includes plugins for controlling all Ross robotic camera solutions. Add an HID-compatible USB device, such as the Monogram Creative Console, to complete your ultimate low-cost control solution.

Customizable

DashBoard is much more than a device controller. It is a complete UI development platform that can be used to create custom solutions for facility control and monitoring. This allows you to incorporate control of our robotics and cameras with almost everything else in your production facility.

Unlimited

Because DashBoard can be loaded on   any Windows, Mac or Linux computer, it offers the potential for adding an unlimited number of control points to your architecture – whether from a tablet in the studio or a laptop in your home office.  So even if you have a full, multi-station SmartShell installation for controlling your robots, the PT plugin is the perfect backup, allowing you to recall and touch up presets from anywhere.

Features

Virtual Joystick

Simple, progressive, and responsive – our onscreen joystick is no after-thought, providing accurate, intuitive pan/tilt control, allowing you to accurately frame your shots even without a physical joystick.

Get Physical

DashBoard allows you to map control parameters to physical joysticks however you like, to perfectly tailor the control panel layout to your workflow. Monogram’s Creative Console is the perfect partner in this pairing, offering a selection of modules that can be joined together with exactly the right combination of buttons, knobs and 2D controllers for your solution.

Complete Control

Combine Pan/Tilt/Zoom/Focus control with camera shading functionality in a single consolidated interface, whether that’s for our very own PTZ-12G or PTZ-NDI, an ACIDCam mounted on one of our many Pan/Tilt heads, or popular 3rd party PTZ cameras or box cameras from Sony, Panasonic or Hitachi.   

Components

PT Plugin
PTZ Plugin
Camera Plugins
Monogram Controller
PT Plugin

The PT plugin provides access to all the major functions of our robotic systems, from joystick control of the pan/tilt/zoom/focus axes to creating, editing, and recalling presets. This can be used with any Ross Robotics system, including our BlackBird elevation systems, Furio dollies, and CamBot XY pedestals. And it’s all available as a free download.

 

PTZ Plugin

The PTZ plugin is a complete control system for PTZ cameras, including our very own PTZ-12G and PTZ-NDI, but also for some 3rd party cameras too (license required). It provides full control of all axes and all camera settings, as well as the ability to store and recall camera presets using the on-camera storage, or the option to create a virtually unlimited number of presets on the control station computer.

Camera Plugins

Our camera plugins provide software-based shading and configuration of broadcast cameras such as our very own ACID cameras, as well as select third party cameras from Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi (license required for Sony and Panasonic cameras). Combine with the PT plugin or SmartShell to create a complete robotic camera control station, freeing up space in the control room by eliminating the need for space-hungry camera RCPs.

Monogram Controller

The Creative Console from Monogram is a modular, configurable USB control surface that is the perfect complement to our DashBoard control systems. It offers a selection of buttons and knobs to go along with the unique, pressure-sensitive Orbiter to offer precise and responsive tactile control options for any DashBoard application. Modules are held together by powerful magnets and can be re-arranged on the fly to suit any workflow or personal preference. Ross offers two pre-configured packages of modules to use with our DashBoard PT and PTZ plugins (supported on Microsoft Windows only) – please see the solution brief for more details.