CEO Image on a Budget

Am consulting for a large company that's been using a Canon XL1 I recomended years ago. It is only used for occasional field shoots. They have gone to a Polycom system with robotic camera and high-end conference mic feeding a realtime encoder for internal H.264 connection in their conference room. Now they are ramping up for a live streaming feed to 41 locations worldwide. Their CEO, a lady in her late 50's, is very concerned about her image (looks!). I am now hired to "make her look good". Their industrial flourescent, white-walled background conference room has to go. With an end-of-the-year budget of only 15K, and only 3 weeks to get it all together, I have convinced them to reconfigure the room, assemble a corporate/office looking background, install professional lighting, lav mics/mixer for the CEO (at times to be the CEO and 2 assistants), and add a decent HD(V) camera that can feed the Polycom hardware in place of the robotic cam. Their IT section is a little disjointed (they order AV gear in different departments without consulting other departments). Today I find out that one department ordered an HD version of the robotic Polycom Camera/encoder system, while another department just ordered a Panasonic HVX 200 Don't know yet how many P2 cards they ordered! I had planned to go with either a JVC HD200, Canon A1 or one of the Sony HDV units, recording to tape while sending component to the HD capable Polycom unit. Is has no HDSDI or HDMI inputs. I need to be able to tweak/filter the camera to "make her look good". The CEO is up for some testing once everything is installed and running. Any personal choices for the camera. Needs to be under $7000. But then, apparently I now can use the HVX 200. By the way, the CEO plans to speak live for up to 90 minutes. Suggestions?

John D. Frey
25 Year owner/operator of two California-based production studios.

Digital West Video Productions of San Luis Obispo and Inland Images of Lake Elsinore