On location, eh. Well, I would demand a budget and a video village and color the cameras before recording, like a camera shader or DIT does. That's what I'm doing the past few weeks with 3 EX3 cams.
Don't have that luxury? Get an expansion box like a Magma box
http://www.magma.com/products/pciexpress/expressbox1/index.html and use a Kona LHe or Kona 3 to get the signal out. Can't afford the Aja products? How can you NOT? It's your job to provide these tools and if you cannot, then find something else to do.
That may sound harsh, well, i guess it is. Just because the the software is cheap, doesn't mean it should be used in all circumstances, as Walter eluded to, and it also doesn't mean the infrastucture to support the tools and the talent to pilot those tools are cheap. Perhaps your director needs a wake up call.
Hope your show goes well.
