Redundant Storage Camera?

[Chriz6097]

My friend is getting 20k to make a new setup for a city broadcast and they need a redundant system. He was thinking of doing what LTT did with xsplit but we all know how that went... anyways I was wondering if there are any professional cameras (I'm talking fs700) that can do dual writes to separate cards?

[Tmh85]

In City Broadcast do you mean like Tv?

[Chriz6097]

In City Broadcast do you mean like Tv?

Its like council meetings and boring crap, so the camera literally sits there and if it fails there is no-one to notice

[CaptainSi]

So you mean to say you're after a broadcast camera setup that can write to redundant storage? You said professional level so I assume your budget is fairly robust?

[Puppet]

Not exactly sure what you are after? Think I know what type of work you are doing, but where is the media going to be displayed?

 

If its just for a static camera the FS700 is a bit overkill, but definitely an option, even though its not usually a broadcast approved camera. Anything with a decent sensor, clean output and good lens options should do, but it all depends where its being displayed, if its for a TV broadcast there are some tight regulations. Like I said for a static camera though you should probably try and save as much as you can in this department.

 

Spend the rest on good recording equipment, I wouldn't use a PC, get something dedicated it will be far more reliable. A good part of that budget should go on audio and lighting is something you might want to consider.

[CaptainSi]

Yeah, something like a GH3 or 5D pushing to a field recorder might be an idea. I know Atomos' Ninja is a fairly well regarded bit of kit, and Blackmagic has their Hyperdeck Shuttle. Both solutions will spit footage onto 2.5" SSD/HDDs, and perhaps you could split the HDMI signal to a monitor or SU. If you're going down these larger form factor storage options perhaps you might want to take a look at PhotoFast's GMonster. It's basically four independent flash drives in a 2.5" formfactor, and can be configured into RAID 0, 1, 5 and I think 10 as well. Or you can switch to JBOD if it's a long shoot and you need the additional capacity. I've never used them personally so I can't speak to their reliability myself, however they're used in studio for television broadcast here in Aus, so I can't imagine they're anything but quality. Photofast also make an mSD to CF adapter which will let you cram 4 mSD cards into a CF card adapter and run them in RAID 0, which is another route you might wanna take. 

I want to reinforce what Puppet mentioned, especially in regard to audio. It's both cheaper and easier to run redundant channels for and vastly more important in a broadcast than the image. If the image drops from the broadcast the audio will at least allow information to continue to be conveyed. The same can not really be said in the event that audio is lost. Shotgun or cardinal mics running through separate DI boxes with redundant mixers preconfigured is the go here.

Just touching up on cameras and lenses, old GH2's and GH3's can be found on ebay for like $500 (which is a bargain). Obviously the 5D is one of the most written about and documented cameras out there, so if you need multiple camera redundancy either of these options are probably best. I know Sony even make (or made) some handicams that have clean HDMI out (though I'd imagine it's compressed). No idea which models but it's only a google search away. As for the decision between primes and zooms, that really depends on lighting. If you're sticking with ambient then faster primes are the way to go so you can keep your ISO as low as possible. If you have designed lighting through soft boxes, lowel or dedo kits (I really recommend a dedo kit/s if you're going down that route) then you'll probably benefit from the convenience of a zoom. A lot of cinematographers disregard zooms because of the increase in aberrations and relative softness of the image due to the complexity of the optics, and these factors are certainly important, especially for green screen work or large format productions. However in broadcast you're only ever talking at most 1080p or 2 megapixel, and such factors become marginal at such sample sizes. Hell, most television is still received as SD (576/480, PAL/NTSC respectively).

Hope this is helpful. I know @Puppet will be able to drown you with information about the 5D, so I'll pass the baton on to him.

[Puppet]

If its for anything other than TV broadcasting I would say a 5d3 and something like an Atomos Ninja would be perfect and save you a lot of money to spend on the audio equipment and lighting.

 

Some clarification is definitely needed on the intended use of the equipment though.

 

If it was for broadcast I would be inclined to recommend something like the Sony PMW-200 or 300 (300 has interchangeable lenses) over the FS700, in general they are more widely accepted for TV broadcasting, but using an external recorder might bring some of the more cinematic cameras back into play.

 

As for recorders, I don't know a great deal about the upper end studio stuff, the sky is the limit really at least in terms of price. Something like the Atomos Samurai Blade would probably be suffice though, have seen them paired with the above cameras quite a lot and will give you a nice little boost in bitrate.

 

Audio and lighting is something I couldn't really answer without knowing more about the set up... Really need more info...