Taking Over AV for A County

[winters\]

Hello all. I have gotten myself into a bit of a pickle. I work in IT for a county in the US and I have started hosting all of our official meetings as well as beginning to record them. As time has gone on I have built rolling TV setups and small meeting rooms to record video footage. I do all of my recording through OBS(another learning curve entirely) and have since been tasked with creating a full mobile video production set up. I essentially have a blank check but, like Luke I don't like spending money without knowledge of a good return. My predecessor was fired as he over promised and never delivered leaving me with a half baked BMD(Black Magic Design) system. 

 

That is a long way of saying, while I can use OBS I have ZERO knowledge about the hardware I need. I am looking for resources, guides, or anything that might help me make an informed decision to build a semi professional setup to record and stream county meetings. What I need to do is capture the audience video and replies on one side and the speakers video and voice on the other. Currently all I have is a BMD URSA Mini Pro G2 4.6K Camera, a handful of Rokinon lenses(35mm, 58mm, 50mm and a 14mm), and a single Rode Microphone mounted on top of the camera. Apart from that I have no way of currently connecting this to my computer or any way of doing audio balancing. My only knowledge of this equipment is pushing buttons and reading user manuals. I am not the artsy type so right now I am just going for making this a functional setup that won't require additional resources apart from the occasional battery purchase or maintenance upgrade. As a side note I am enjoying learning all of this so I am not taking on the project begrudgingly I just know this forum will help me get on my feet. 

[AbydosOne]

16 minutes ago, winters\ said:

As a side note I am enjoying learning all of this so I am not taking on the project begrudgingly I just know this forum will help me get on my feet. 

The right answer is to have the county board (or whatever) actually hire a professional, at least to consult on purchasing and setup. As fun as it is for you, asking a not-expert to set up something that requires expert input (to a certain degree), as they've already found out once, doesn't usually end well.

 

I'm not saying you can't learn, but I'd be annoyed with my local gov't if they blank-chequed their way into multiple piles of professional gear but no knowledge of how to use it, and then paid someone to learn, when they could have just paid someone who knew what they're doing from the beginning.

[winters\]

19 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

The right answer is to have the county board (or whatever) actually hire a professional, at least to consult on purchasing and setup. As fun as it is for you, asking a not-expert to set up something that requires expert input (to a certain degree), as they've already found out once, doesn't usually end well.

 

I'm not saying you can't learn, but I'd be annoyed with my local gov't if they blank-chequed their way into multiple piles of professional gear but no knowledge of how to use it, and then paid someone to learn, when they could have just paid someone who knew what they're doing from the beginning.

Actual fair point. Since I have been blank checked I don't see why they wouldn't approve a consultation. Would you have any recommendations on a company to choose from? It seems like you might already have something in mind.

[Poinkachu]

56 minutes ago, winters\ said:

Actual fair point. Since I have been blank checked I don't see why they wouldn't approve a consultation. Would you have any recommendations on a company to choose from? It seems like you might already have something in mind.

IMHO, they probably just not that tech savvy or not willing to bother learning it themselves, so they tell you to do it, or act as a middle man, handling the techy stuffs in their place.

 

Most often when someone I know not tech savvy tell me to do something like this, they simply want what I mentioned above.
I on the other hand need to learn how to explain the techy stuffs in a way that the fund giver can understand easily.

And act as a gatekeeper, preventing the fund giver from being ripped off, or spending too much , or spending for something they don't really need.

 

But yeah, I'll get blamed too even just a little bit if shit happens, unless it is really not my fault.