The Need: In our small church, we have an "overflow" room right across the hall from the main room where the pastor speaks. We're already getting sound into the overflow room separately, but we need to get video into there, too. We don't need recording capabilities, just a live video feed.
Some challenges: We did have a setup using a camcorder in the main room, and running an HDMI cable from the camcorder to a TV in the overflow room, which worked ok, but the camcorder recently broke. We could just buy a new camcorder, though it seems overkill to buy a camcorder with all its functions, when all we need is a live video feed. At the same time it would be nice to have something I can move and zoom with a remote (sometimes we need to switch views when there's a baptism, for example).
I even thought about using a cell phone or ipad with google hangouts or face-time, or chromecast. But I don't think I want to rely on wifi; plus, there will probably be a delay that then wouldn't sink with the sound that we're piping in separately. I was looking for closed circuit cameras online, but most of the stuff I found was either bad video quality (like some security cameras), or had all these bells and whistles that I don't need, like infrared night-vision, motion-detectors, etc.
So, here's a detailed list of needs/wants for the setup:
- Live video feed to a separate room (no recording necessary, no sound necessary)
- Decent video quality (not like some security cameras)
- Remote move/zoom control
- Ideally < $500
- (optional) Wireless (nice to have, but NOT necessary)
