Re: Setting up a new system

if you have a limited budget, and you must be HD, it is my suggestion that you abandon any hope of running a switcher, with a switched feed, and work with iso HD cameras, and a nice FCP edit system. All of this can be done for way under 25 grand. You will get wonderful quality, and produce the exact show that you expect.

If you get a camera like a Sony HVX-200, and a nice FCP edit system with an AJA Kona LHi card, and a nice big Panasonic Plasma display (and the assorted accessories, like a mixer, speakers, black generator, disk drive storage), you will be UNDER budget, and still have a wonderful camera, and a wonderful edit system, and still be able to produce professional quality shows in HD. You can't accomplish the world for 25 grand -nor should you try. Do with the budget that you have to work with, and as you succeed, and your shows become successful, you will get more budget allocated to you, and then you can expand your system - and eventually have the multiple GOOD QUALITY cameras and switchers that you need to do what you really want.

Always buy good gear - not consumer junk.

Bob Zelin