Looking Into Blackmagic

Greetings!

I have been put in charge of researching options for upgrading the video recording and livestreaming suite for my church, and like the look of Blackmagic. Can anyone lead me to some resources that might help me with the following questions, or perhaps answer them here. Any help is greatly appreciated!

We currently use a Tricaster box that is receiving video from three remote control SD cameras. Is it possible to replace the tricaster with a Blackmagic unit while still using the same cameras?

We plan to purchase an Imac to use in tandem with Blackmagic. Is this the best way to go to, or should we be thinking PC?

We have a Sony RM BR-300 camera control unit that we use to control the cameras and interface with the Tricaster, is this still able to be used with Blackmagic?

What would be the best Blackmagic unit to use for to control 4-5 cameras (some fixed, some mobile) while allowing for livestreaming and archiving of video?

Thank you for any help you can give!

Well let's startoff with which cameras do you have? Based on the Sony RM BR300 remote i guess these are Sony domes. But are they EVI D70, BR300? D100? H100? etc?

Does the camera has SDI out? You don'tmention what tricaster you have.. So i can't chek if it does even have SDI inputs.. But most tricasters up to recent are also Analog video and component video input compatible..
So without knowing what your tricaster and your model Dome camera's are it is hard to tell and advice.

You mention you now use the Sony remote to control the domes and tricaster?? Domes i understand.. But tricaster??

If you keep running on SD you will need a converter to downconvert the signal from a PC or MAC to SD. Or connect an external ultrastudio mini or so..But then your software you want to use must support these devices..
But if you want to use powerpoint or so? Then you need to downconvert the second screen output of the PC / mac.. The decision MAC or PC is all up to you.. But greatly depends on what you want to do with it and what software you want to use in the future for worship..

Thanks for your help! Pardon my lack of technical knowledge, but I will try and fill in all those gaps for you.

We currently use a Sony RM BR300 to control (3) Sony EVI-D70P ceiling mounted cameras. So, I do not believe that these cameras have SDI outs. Our Tricaster is a Newtek TC350. I misspoke when I mentioned that the BR300 interfaces with the Tricaster, it just controls the cameras.

We also have a Kramer VP4x8AK as a switcher to control what we are sending to monitors throughout our campus (Feed from the cameras or media from ProPresenter).

We want to convert everything over to HD and SDI, but are looking at our options of doing this by phase. The first phase being replacing the tricaster with Blackmagic, and then replacing the cameras a bit later. Hope this helps, and thanks again for helping so far!

Well D70's are Analog composite video.
Tricaster TC350 is Analog Composite video..

Non of that is compatible with the HD and UHD mixers of BMD.

So you looking at a lot of converters. Which will still be crappy quility video.

So it looks like you have to jump up a bit and do the whole exchange at once. Cam's and mixer.. Or accept that you buy a few converters now and write them off when you buy new camera's.

Going for a Atem and 2 or 3 Lumens or Marshall or PTZOptics cameras will be a good start. You can still use the BR 300 remote as these cameras take VISCA protocol.

Thank you! This gels with what some locals guys are telling me about our setup.

Whether or not we pull this trigger now, we DO plan on going with a BMD mixer, but do you have a particular suggestion on one of those three makes of PTZ cameras?

We don't really have much space in our sanctuary for manned cameras, so we will be going with PTZ. The main objective of these PTZs is for livestreaming via our website and maybe through Facebook Live at some point.

Once again, thanks for the help!

Lumens is very good quality.. But PTZoptics does make good cameras too which are cheaper.. But do a search on this forum and you will find a few quarks with those cameras that are not always direct working with the atem..

I own 3 lumens and they never let me down. Running them with the BRC 300 panel also.