New HD Internet Stream from Ground Up

[dwvsplat]

Our church wants to be able to Stream HD video by the fall. We have a budget of $15,000. We have a quad core computer for the streaming and are going to use ministream.tv (able to stream HD content for free), and an aviom unit to do a small mix down for the audio. So after all that we are looking for three camera (one needs to be portable for a college class stream, video mixer, wiring, monitors, stands, & etc. My question is.... is it possible with the budget we have? What cameras, and mixers should I look at? And any other help would be appreciated!

[petereit]

Why do you want to stream HD? Even the biggest churches only stream SD, even if they're shooting HD. Only people with the fastest broadband connections (probably a small percentage of interested viewers) will be able to view an HD stream. We shoot HD, but we compress down to wide-format DV for internet broadcast.

And I would be quite suspect of any service that would allow you to stream HD for free. That an awfully expensive service to offer for no return. In my experience dealing with "free" services, you get exactly what you pay for.

[dwvsplat]

Prepare for the future!!!! We may not need HD but we do not want to do a major overhaul in a couple of years. We were looking at the panasonic cameras
(AG-HMC70). Is this a good camera? I am not sure what type of mixer to use. We had someone recommend the panasonic AG-MX70, but I do not think this mixer is HD ready. The only mixer I have seen (for a price under $10,000) is the Edirol V-440HD, but I only need 4 inputs, and a way to go to firewire for the streaming.

[zactommo]

HD may be possible for $15,000, but it's probably going to be a stretch.
The V-440HD would be a good option, being that is has 4 component HD inputs, were most other switchers would have HD SDI, but at 8.5k, its waaaay out of your price range.

Something like the panasonic AW-HS50 would be a better option for you, at only 4k, but it HD SDI, so it wouldn't interface with the AG-HMC70. So my suggestion, given your price range, would be to start searching ebay and the like for something like a used Canon XL-H1, which will give you HD-SDI output, which means you can go with a cheaper switcher, which will help balance your budget out.

Capturing into your computer via firewire is a no go for HD when working with a switcher, in most circumstances. You'll need a Blackmagic Decklink HD card, or similar, which will take care of the capturing.

[petereit]

OK, I misunderstood your aim.

Don't limit yourself to firewire for streaming. You don't want to compress already-compressed HD video (HD video has to first be compressed before it can be transmitted through Firewire). Look for a used BlackMagic Decklink HD extreme board to ingest your HD video. Some of the folks that bought the first and second generations of those boards are upgrading to the latest and greatest for their editing stations. The older boards will still work FABULOUSLY for ingesting HD and can do hardware downconversion to SD resolution for streaming and output to DVD recorders on the fly.

As far as an HD switcher is concerned, it's hard to beat the price of the Panasonic AV-HS50. Around $3,650 street for 4 HD-SDI inputs + 1 DVI input. But that obviously requires HD cameras with HD-SDI outputs. Some great deals can be found on reconditioned JVC GY-HD250Us, nice studio-ready workhorse HD cameras. We recently bought 3 from G&G Video and they're working out very well for us.

Another thing you'll want to invest in when shooting HD -- a nice, high-resolution preview monitor for your tripod-mounted cameras. Pulling focus in HD is critical, and very difficult if you're trying to use the small flyout LCDs on most cameras. We bought three SmallHD DP1x monitors to mount on top of our JVC cameras and we absolutely LOVE them. Mounted on ikan MA210 articulating arms so our camera ops can get them right in their face, they show a full 720p HD display without scaling which makes it a cinch to hold a nice, sharp focus.

You'll also want to invest in some solid tripods with fluid heads so your camera operators can shoot some nice, steady shots and smooth pans. We use Manfrotto tripods with 519 fluid heads and Varizoom remote zoom and focus controls mounted on dual pan handles.

[dwvsplat]

So if we went with an SD system, what might it be... remember able to be upgraded. Possible HD cameras. Let me see what you have?

[stevelam]

My recommendation would be 3 of our HMC70 shooter pack kits and a Tricaster Pro. Tricaster has a great trade-in program so when you want to go full HD you get credit for the unit you already bought.

The kits give you a HMC70, camera bag, and a AvTronics TRIPOD2 and tripod bag. The only extra expense would be cabling and a monitor to get you started.

You could do all this for $15,156.00. ALSO the Tricaster can stream automatically. All you have to do is plug in an ethernet connector and tell it the IP to send to. Incredibly easy and VERY VERY powerful. The Tricaster gives you ease of operation and a terrific amount of options. For the price, upgrade credit and accessbility of the Tricaster Pro you really can't compete with it.