Live production..Help

[rjkora]

Hey we are a Christian foundation that does Worship events, Over the Last Year I got two Panasonic AG HMC82. since i have no clue about live events and would like to know what all i need to get with a video mixer to do a complete live capture of the event, my budget is about 5000 dollars!! Thanks

[Brad Weber]

Can you tell us a bit more about the intended use? What are you capturing to? Are the cameras going to be handheld or on tripods or pedestals? Will the person running the switcher and/or directing the shoot need to communicate with the camera operators? Are you trying to switch and mix live and capture that result or is the intent to capture the multiple sources and then edit them in post? Who is going to be operating the system? Will the cameras be the only sources or would you also bring in a Program feed from a graphics presentation system? How is audio being handled? Do you have anything beside the cameras that could be used, any tripods, computers, interfaces/converters/adapters, etc.?

You may not have answers to all of these questions but the more information you can provide about what you envision doing and the desired end result, even if in non-technical terms, the better.

[sempei13]

It looks to me like you have firewire, composite and component out. Of those, component is your best shot of getting HD out, but that's it. I'd check those specs to make sure the cams aren't suffering for the nicely named, but evil "analog sunset" which renders component (which has the bandwidth for up to 1080p) only able to output 480p (or 480i, I forget). If the cams can output 720p or 1080i at least, we can look at analog switchers or converters to go from component to hd-sdi.

If you want sd, the options are wide open.

The only other concern I have is latency. Will this be for recording only or will it also be put onscreen (aka IMAG). If it's only for recording, latency isn't that much of an issue.

Paul

[stevelam]

Man a live switcher for HD for 5k is out of the question since the HMC82 cameras don't support HD-SDI.

If you want a nice inexpensive switcher for SD I would choose the Datavideo SE-500 for sheer price and reliability.

If you want a little more flash and bang I would suggest the Edirol VR-5.

[stevelam]

Oh yeah the Price on the Datavideo unit is $960 MAP and the price on the VR-5 is $4,995.00 MAP.