Abstract: The invention relates to a system for controlling evaporator boats, having a fixture (16) for receiving a plurality of evaporator boats (14), an energy source (18) for providing energy for heating each of the evaporator boats (14), a supply wire drive (24) for each of the evaporator boats (14), at least one camera (32) adapted for capturing an image of at least one of a plurality of evaporator boats (14) mounted in the fixture (16), and a control (26), the control (26) having an image analyzation module (36) and being adapted for providing a control signal for the supply wire drive (24) and a control signal for the energy source (18), the control signals depending at least in part from an output of the image analyzation module (36). The invention further relates to a PVD machine and to a method of operating the machine.