Hi everyone. At work we are trying to record live meetings and I am searching for what all we need.

There will be at least 4 PTZ cameras and we would like those to feed into a switcher that will either work with my MacPro or at least have a dump into it. we already have an audio mixing board. I am going to do all the post production in final cut studio 2. At first this will not go out as a live feed but I want to prepare for that in the future.

Thank you in advance for your help.

I have used the Datavideo SE800 in a manner similar to what you describe. The SE800 takes video in by Firewire, composite, and S-video. It outputs the same, as well as monitors for each input. I have hooked one up to a PowerBook and recorded with QuickTime Pro directly to a .mov file.

Another vote for the SE800. I would recommend using the component inputs - I use them at one location and they work great. At another location a friend of mine is using firewire inputs and he has audio sync issues that he needs to fix in post.

We had the same problem when we were setting it up in a TV studio with firewire cameras. We were using an audio mixer so the video and audio were separate. We found out that if you run the audio through the SE800 it automagically makes it delayed as well. Actually there's a setting that you can use to force the audio to delay to match the video. If I find it in the manual I'll post the page number.

EDIT: It's actually in their FAQ on Datavideo.us. I'll give you the gist here. The audio needs to be separated from the video to get the SE800 to accept the out from a mixer. Select the input (A, B, C, or D) with the input format button. Type 01 on the effects keypad, then press SPD to change it from Y to N. Push input format again. Connect the mixer to whichever input you chose (A, B, C, or D.)

I forgot to mention this is in a room with 14 mics so i am going to have to go thru a board of some type.

What would that look like on the SE800 or SE1000

The setup would be the mics and cameras coming together in the switcher, to eliminate the audio delay and to get the video and audio onto the computer together. You would need an audio mixer, but the output from that would go into the switcher, then out to the computer (via Firewire.) It is all very simple to describe, but there will be a mess of wires, especially with 14 microphones!

I am really looking at the SE1000 (http://www.datavideo.us/fs/products/se1000_fs.htm) because of the 6 video inputs. but it doesn't have audio inputs so it would all be on the audio board.

Okay here is our whole setup.

14 mics lead to a 32 channel EuroDeck
I will have at the least 4 cameras but am hoping for 5 or even 6
I would like to be able to do some audio mixing on the video board, that way i can set the house where it needs to be and the video where it needs to be.

I need to be able to dump this straight to my Mac.

I am thinking the cameras feed into the SE1000 the audio feeds into the Eurodeck and then all of the feeds into a BlackMagic Multibridge (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/multibridge/) and that is how i get it on the computer. I am just worried about audio sync issues.

Any better thoughts?

Hmmmm....well, I am in month 4 of a 6 month contract for the state putting the Governor's Health Council meetings LIVE on the internet. I just use wirecast with a laptop (of course I don't need 5 or 6 cameras, but I've been able to use 3 cameras succesfully). Wirecast will allow you to switch firewire cameras live, I use a 3 input firewire card in the slot of my laptop and plug in two cams there, and then one more on the other side on the separate firewire bus. I run quite a few mics (10 or so) to a Alesis 16 input mixer, and then send the output of that mixer into my PD-150's XLR channel 2. I have the PD-150 firewired into the computer.....you can select your audio and video separately in wirecast so I just use the audio feed from the PD-150 even if I switch cameras.....which is actually the audio feed from the mixer routed through the PD-150 into the computer. Haven't had audio sync problems yet.
Seems to work pretty well for me. Course there was a LOT of testing and prep work because I wanted everything to work but so far so good.

You might want to look at the Newtek Tricaster Studio. It's six inputs mix and match composite, s-video or component. You have full camera control of the cameras, waveform, it has a DVR which will record quicktime. 4x3 or 16x9 support. It has 4 audio inputs, mic or line. So you could send a master feed from your mixers. You can do live graphics to add name keys or stills and it will stream live as well. I've been using the TC Pro, but it doesn't do quicktime and only has 3 camera inputs. It is a very nice systems. Worth a look.