EagleEye Director Tips and Best Practices

Posted on June 6, 2016 Videoconferencing

The EagleEye Director (EED) uses a dual camera system. While one camera tracks the person who is speaking, the other camera captures the room view.

  • The EagleEye Director shows the room view while the camera moves from one speaker to another.
  • When the tracking camera locates a person who is speaking, the EagleEye Director camera switches to a close-up of that person.
  • By providing automatic and intelligent views in various speaking scenarios during a conference, the EagleEye Director delivers a user experience similar to a newscast video production.

Room Lighting:

Good conference room lighting is important for face finding so try to avoid shadows, standing in front of windows or low lit rooms.

Calibration:

You can calibrate the Eagle Eye Director with the HDX remote or via HDX Web User Interface while in the room.

Far End Camera Control:

The far-end cannot control the Eagle Eye Director camera while Voice Tracking is enabled. This is working as designed.

Camera Presets:       

Camera presets can only be used when the Eagle Eye Director is disabled.

Whiteboard in the room:

While the Eagle Eye Director will track you to a whiteboard, it will switch to the room view when you have your back towards the Eagle Eye Director and it will track back to you once you turn around and start speaking again.

Muting/Un-muting Audio:

Muting the mics temporally disables the Eagle Eye Director during an active call. Muting/un-muting re-enables the EED even if it was temporarily disabled to begin with.

Single Person in a large room:

You can have the person sit closer to the Eagle Eye Director, change the room view or temporarily disable the EED for these types of calls.

Disabling/Enabling the EE Director:

The EE Director will be automatically enabled when the HDX connects to a far-end. You can temporarily disable/enable the EE Director on the HDX via the HDX remote control by selecting the “Option” button and selecting “Stop Camera Tracking”, or “Start Camera Tracking” however, anytime you mute/un-mute the Eagle Eye Director will be enabled again.

Turning-Off the EE Director Tracking feature:

You will need to go into the HDX Admin Settings > Camera Configuration > Camera Tracking Settings and set the Tracking Mode to “OFF”

Reboot/Power Cycle:

Don’t forget that the Eagle Eye Director has its own power cable, so an HDX reboot/power cycle does not reboot the EED.

Positioning the Eagle Eye Director

  1. Avoid setting the Polycom EagleEye Director in the corner of a room. The Polycom EagleEye Director should be at least 12 inches away from all of the walls.
  2. Make sure the Polycom EagleEye Director is on a level surface or mounting bracket.
  3. Because the Polycom EagleEye Director auto-tracking feature covers less than 30 degrees downwards and 9 degrees upwards in terms of tilt angle, you should follow these requirements:
  • Recommended height is 5.7 – 7 feet (1.7 – 2.1 meters). Typically the EED will not let you calibrate it when the camera is lower than the person speaking.
  • Ensure that people are sitting within the viewing range of between 3 and 22 feet from the camera.
  • Set the Polycom EagleEye Director on top of a monitor. Ideally, place the camera between 5.5 and 7 feet from the ground.
  • Ensure that people are sitting between 3 and 20 feet from the camera.