You can spend forty thousand on this. You can also produce something good for very little. The difference is knowing the order to spend in.
1. Audio, first and always
A hundred on a microphone improves your broadcast more than a thousand on a camera. Nobody leaves because the picture is soft. Everybody leaves because they cannot hear.
A lavalier for a single speaker, a shotgun for a small group, or a handheld if there is already a sound system you can take a feed from.
2. Light
Every camera looks better lit. A cheap camera in good light beats an expensive one in bad light, every time.
One key light at forty-five degrees is the whole technique. A window works. If you do one thing after the microphone, put light on the subject.
3. Cameras
Start with what you have. A recent phone on a tripod is a serious camera. A webcam is fine for a single-person desk setup.
Buy cameras when you have a specific shot you cannot currently get — not because the spec sheet is better.
4. Getting them in
A capture card for HDMI or SDI cameras. A single USB stick is cheap; a multi-channel PCIe card handles several on one card and is the purchase that lets you skip a hardware switcher entirely.
A network encoder for cameras too far to cable.
5. Tripods and mounts
Unglamorous and it matters. A handheld shot reads as amateur instantly. Every camera on something solid.
What you can probably skip
A hardware switcher. It is usually the largest line on the list, and switching is something software does well now. Put a multi-channel capture card in the computer instead and you have the same capability plus grading, audio processing, graphics and isolated recording in the same place.
A separate audio desk, if your software has a real console in it. A separate recorder, if it records isolated camera files. A dedicated graphics machine, if graphics are built in.
A sensible order
- Microphone.
- One light.
- Tripod for what you already own.
- Capture card, sized for where you want to get to.
- A second camera angle.
- Better cameras, last.
Most people do this list backwards, starting with the camera and ending with the microphone, and wonder why it still does not sound right.