Total Newbie Trying to Figure Out Hardware Needed

I'm trying to implement a setup like the following:

A total of 6 rooms. All connected by ethernet cables and whatever other cabling would be necessary. Rooms A, B, C have 1 PTZ camera each. Rooms X, Y, Z have 2 TVs each. I would like to control the 3 cameras as well as record them on demand from a central point. I would also like to be able to send a live feed from any of the cameras to any of the TVs. So maybe have camera A going to X, B going to Y, C going to Z...or A going to all 6 TVs in X, Y, and Z. And so on. I'd also like to add in the ability to stream offsite at some point too.

At this point I have no hardware, so I'm pretty much wide open. Poking around a bit, I was recommended a Newtek Tricaster. Doing more digging along those lines got me to Blackmagic.

Does anyone have any input in where to start or what devices to look at? I have a decent idea as far as the cameras go, but the rest of the hardware leaves me clueless at the moment.

I am not going to even start making suggestions for cameras and PTZ control.

But for the routing of these cameras to the monitors and recordings, a VideoHub is a good idea. Their smallest one, the Smart Videohub 12x12, is plenty big enough for your needs. It has 12 inputs and 12 outputs. Your 3 cameras in and 6 monitors out (plus a local monitor and a record output) is still way under the 12 x 12 of this unit. what are the distances from the rooms to the head end?

Yeah, no need to dig into the cameras...well unless anyone wants to, anyway.

I'm still in the space planning stage of an office build out, but the runs to the central hub would be no greater than 100'. More likely 50'-75'.

I also realized I forgot to mention the audio input, which I'm sure adds a little more complexity or another step. I'd likely be using 2 ceiling mics per room for audio, which needs to not only be recorded with the video, but also be sent out to speakers in the X/Y/Z rooms (the TVs displaying the live feed wouldn't need audio, or could just be muted).

But looking at the VideoHub, it sure does seem like it handles the routing like I'm envisioning. Thanks so much for the help. It's seeming clear that Blackmagic has the tools I need, I just need to learn what they all are!

Thinking about this a little more and the issue of getting the audio in.

Assuming I had 2 mics in each room, am I correct in thinking a setup like the following would be feasible:

Camera 1-> Mini Converter 1
Audio 1 & 2 -> Mic Mixer -> Mini Converter 1
Mini Converter 1 -> VideoHub
VideoHub Output 1 -> Hyperdeck Studio
VideoHub Output 2 -> TV 1

And so on.

Not sure if that's overkill or not, but it seems like I'd need to get the audio into the SDI before it goes into the VideoHub so that everything's properly sync'd up.

This leaves me scratching my head a bit about getting the audio to separate speakers. Do I need to split the audio back out of the SDI after the VideoHub?

What all audio needs you have may be difficult for me (or even you) to determine. But since your original post stated “whatever cabling may be necessary” you might end up benefitting from running some discrete audio lines to the room.

Obviously, you need the audio from whatever you choose on the input to the recorder. But I can’t really tell what audio you might need in the rooms. The speakers you mention, are they sets of speakers in each of the three rooms? Do they need to run independent audio in each, so that room x gets audio from room a, while room y and z get audio from rooms b & c respectively? Or can a, b, & c all run into a mixer, and you send the mix to all rooms x, y, & z? Possibly, you could set aux mixes on your mixer so that aux 1 goes to room x, aux 2 to room y, and aux 3 to room z with the main mix out going to the recorder. If that works, you could, conceivably have a single mini converter audio to sdi, with mixer and a video hub output going into the recorder. Meanwhile the three aux busses feed on audio cable to speakers in each room. So that all audio is externally run and not embedded except the line going into the recorder.

Just an idea. As I say, hard to tell your real needs from the comfort of my recliner.