The quick answer is: For 24 cameras or less, usb USB hubs. For any large camera arrays, scalling up using computer nodes (ideally Raspberry Pi) is the way to go. The reason is that the bottleneck of these system is the usb cable going to the cameras (slow and requires to stay short in length)
This is by far the simplest way of using Xangle Camera Server. You simply need to connect your cameras to a USB hub, and then the USB hub to your computer. Make sure the USB hub is a powered one. Also check out the specifications of the USB port of your computer. It makes a huge difference if you can use a fast one.
To scale up your bullet-time or photogrammetry rig beyond 24 cameras, the best option is to use a Raspberry Pi architecture (4 cameras per Pi). In any case, the main software would still run on a Windows based computer.
Here are the advantages:
What about 24 cameras or less?
We still use the Pis sometimes for installations between 12 and 24 cameras, but only when the priority is about speed optimization. There are a few seconds that can be gained when using Raspberry Pis instead of USB hubs: https://xanglecs.com/benchmarks
Xangle's networking feature enables scalable camera control by distributing USB connections across multiple computers. This eliminates the limitations of a single computer's USB hardware. Computers don’t need any configuration as long as they are on the same local network.
We strongly recommend using Raspberry Pi for the following reasons: