Video solutions for sermon publishing to web, local cable TV

Hello,

We currently video our sermons to be later uploaded on our Vimeo account and website and also direct to DVD to go to local cable companies in our small community. Our setup is what I would call “MacGuyerish”. We have two camcorders ($300 range) and we toggle between the two of them and the projected screen (worship lyrics, scripture, etc) with a basic AV selector. We also can toggle between camcorder mic audio and a feed off our sound board with a separate AV selector. Both the video and audio feed into a DVD recorder that captures the footage. We deliver the DVD to the cable companies and rip the footage using Handbrake to go online.

Obviously, the level of quality of the footage is not great with the level of equipment we are using, but it has been functional for quite a few years. We are upgrading cameras and I would like to know of best practices or solutions you would recommend.

If you can answer any questions, I would be very grateful!

  1. Do you know of a good consultant/solution provider that can help with our setup in the Omaha, NE/Des Moines, IA area?
  2. Is there a solution that will a high quality signal direct to DVD on the fly?
  3. Are there any products that will record to a DVD or SD card and allow video switching?

I would like to keep this as simple as possible for our volunteers to best manage. Your advice is appreciated. Thanks

Matt,

You should take a serious look at BlackMagic-Design.com, in particular their ATEM switchers and SSD/SD recorders. For about $1.6K, you can put an 8 channel switcher/fader/audio mixer/etc and a dual SD card recorder in a single Rack Unit. You get 4xHDMI input + 4xSDI input with program and monitor output. You can use the front panel buttons to select sources or a free Win/Mac software control panel for full fade/resolve/wipe video operations plus audio mixer.

I know you said you wanted to go to DVD. Since it has lower resolution than Full HD, you can always transcode from Full HD to DVD with Adobe software or similar. Or you can check with your Cable company and see if they can accept SD cards instead.

Greg

PS - Black Magic also has very nice full HD cameras starting at $1k.