setting up camera for charity. Please help!!

[sol 0]

Hi, I'm a bit of a noob to this. I've been asked to install a system for a charitable organisation (I’m doing it for free) in which parents can see and hear meetings going on in a room 20 meters away and a floor level above. Can anyone give me advice on a good camera that’s easily hard wire linked into a TV and it provides audio and visual.

 

As I’m not charging them anything I would like to keep this cheap.

 

Thanks

 

Sol

[t3chsupp0rt 0]

Can we get a little more detail. How much area do they want to cover, is it just an overall shot they want to see or does anything need to be captured. I'm guessing no since you say it's going to be output on a TV and not recording.

You can run a mic from inside the meeting room to the tv so audio can be heard without being muffled by 20meter travel. The camera and mic don't need to be mounted together to be heard together.

Give us some more info, this should be very easy to accomplish

[sol 0]

I did think to get a camera with a built in microphone but it probably is better separate.

 

The camera only needs to see the front of a room where presentations will be shown approx 8 meters length covering the teacher and the projector screen beside him. The room is approx 12 meters by 15 meters.

 

I presumed wired connection would be more robust, reliable and better quality over the distance if it could be done.

 

Just looking for decent quality, reliable camera only to be used in well lit area and a microphone. Both preferably fixed to the ceiling (2.5 meters high). Used for 5 hours a day during meeting times for two months a year max. I would like it to be able to connect to a large standard TV. So coax, scart, av etc. Has to display on the TV whilst the presentation is going on, recording not required

 

Any more info required?

 

Thanks for your interest in my needs!

[Nimrod 0]

“The camera only needs to see the front of a room where presentations will be shown approx 8 meters length covering the teacher and the projector screen beside him”

 

This is in to the realm of it can’t be done. We need more detail of this 8 meter area you want to cover, what kind of presentation is this, large text on a screen, movie, still picture, what kind of detail are you trying to get on your TV. You might get a good shot of the person doing the presentation, but 8 M E T E R S with an analog camera!

[t3chsupp0rt 0]

That's a huge mic. Surely you can find smaller ones that perform just as good.

[t3chsupp0rt 0]

[t3chsupp0rt 0]

Inside the camera.. Really? What a ptz maybe.

[sol 0]

Well the camera is only to give them an idea of what's going on. The audio is the important part. I would like both. I dont mind if the camera only focuses on the speaker. There will be no background noise, just the lecturer speaking. Even if a home video camera could be linked to a tv 25 meters away would be fine as it has everything i need

[Soundy 1]

The thing you have to be careful of with a mic is that, unlike a camera that can be focused on a particular area, most mics will pick up EVERYTHING in the room *equally*. Anyone coughing, rustling a bag or coat, sneezing, or talking in a stage whisper, will all be heard. If the mic is closer to them than to the speaker, that noise will likely drown the speaker out. If the room is particularly "bright" sounding, you'll get all the room reflections of the speaker as well as his direct voice, and it will sound like he's in a tunnel or bathroom to the people watching remotely.

 

A camera with a built-in mic won't really give you very good results unless you're putting the camera close to the speaker. I'd really recommend keeping the two separate, or using a camera with a mic-in jack and then running the mic to a location closer to the speaker. If you can get a more directional mic (hypercardioid pickup pattern), you can minimize surrounding noise. The ideal, if you only need to hear the speaker, would be to have the speaker wear a lavalier mic (the little one that clips to a lapel).

 

Honestly, a basic camcorder might suit this purpose best. Since you don't need to record, you may even be able to find something at a second-hand or consignment store, or even Craigslist - an older 8mm, VHS-C, or some other sort of tape-based type would work fine. The built-in mics in some are fairly directional, but again, you ideally want one with an audio-in or mic-in jack so you can run a separate mic closer to the speaker. From there, just run from its A/V out jacks to your remote TV, and you're golden.

 

Oh, one thing to watch for with the camcorder idea, though: many of them will shut off automatically after a period of time, if they're not recording. You'll want to look for one that doesn't do that.

 

Edit: BTW, I have this great little JVC MiniDV camcorder I got at a yard sale for $25... battery was toast and they were selling it because the power cord had been ripped. I repaired the cord and got a cheap battery off fleaBay. Thing has 10x zoom, A/V out, built-in stereo mic and *I think* a mic-in jack as well... and just testing it, when running as a camera (vs. playback mode), it DOES NOT shut off over time. No, I'm not selling it... just pointing out that you should be able to find something suitable for cheap