Well done, Mitch! A man after my own heart!!

- Tom

Next stop 4 x full HD < $1500 ...

ok maybe < $3000 would be more doable (maybe).

we are working on that solution. if your talking just video capture and not the vmix cost and computer cost then under 1500 should be pretty easy. I know we have two cams at HD working already.

That is easy;

Yuan High-Tech UB5A0N4 $599
4x Marshall CV200 ($399) / Marshall CV550 ($399) / Marshall CV502 ($499) / Marshall CV342 ($599)

Or of course you could just use HD webcams, logitech 920 looks pretty good as far as webcams go.

I would, and alwayse, caution against HDMI, but if you go into it knowing the tradeoffs and find it a livable solution the video quality should still be better than the SD system you are using now.

HDMI can be extended to up to 250 feet with powered HDMI extenders.
I also found a hdmi to cat6 converter (and back again) theoretically it should be able to go up to 650 feet over a cat6 cable..
I understand the "fragility" of HDMI. Which is one reason I stuck to SD.

As for cameras..

We have tried the highend camcorders from most manufacturers over the last ten years. Here is what I have learned..

Sony - great auto focus when recording sporting events (following a ball or puck gets tricky with most brands especially at far distances) sony is great at it for camcorder costing $600 and up

Sanyo Toshiba and most other brands besides sony and panasonic, either have NO or very poor image stabilization. Until you get over $1000..

Panasonic at every level from the gs30 - dvc20 has superior image stabilization, auto focus AND what sony lacked light adjustments.

In many events we found the cameraman looking ringside up at a wrestler on the ropes and right behind the wrestlers head is a parcan.. Sony and all the others would get a white flash, then fade adjust up and down and eventually go b/w and then come back to proper focus and color.. The panasonic would just get a white flash that lasts about a third of a second after you stop pointing it directly at the bulb in the par can..

Plus we found the picture quality through the rca cable over distances of over 100 feet up to 900 feet did not change with the panasonics (and this is with an $85 gs-30 palmcorder 1ccd). the gs-30 picture quality did not have a percievable difference from to 200-500$ camcorders in the other brands.. all panasonic 3ccd camcorders were superior in picture quality especially over long distances.. the g3-320 is under $200 brand new.

just to give you some background, I've been mixing video since the 1980's on a poormans budget. I used to do concerts for the hairbands and then in the early 2000's we started a pro wrestling company just to have something to record. We work on a McGiever shoestring budget. you can see some of our work on tvbydemand.com (my website).

after about 4 years of using the GS line of panasonic camcorders I started running into the cable problems and jack wearout problems of the walkamn style jack to 3 rca cable they include with the cams.. which is why we switched to the dvc line from panasonic. A nice side benefit of the dvc line is the professional look..

As for feet with the HDMI (1080) my partner did a run this week of 200 feet and had no problems. But I convinced him to try sdi, we are getting sdi to HDMI convertors because his capturecards are hdmi only. Does anyone know which coax it uses? I have about 10,000 feet of rg58 and well over that of the type comcast uses sitting in my garage..

You might consider RG6.

Larger conductor.
More insulation.
Greater signal integrity.
And the cost difference is not that much.

I did some tests and had clean image on the cams. Didn't test if it was uncompressed, but definitely a clean feed. If you want i can make a short demonstration in our office with them ;)