How many cameras do you actually need?

The question almost always arrives as a budget: "I have this much, how many cameras does that buy?" The order is back to front. The number of cameras follows from how many things have to be visible at the same moment — and the run of show answers that before price enters the conversation at all.

One camera: when only one thing moves

A lecture, an announcement, a service with a single lectern. The camera holds still, the framing is wide, and the audience misses nothing. A second camera here makes the stream feel restless without adding information.

What decides the quality is not the second camera but the audio: take the sound from the venue mixer, never from the camera microphone.

Three cameras: when there is a conversation

A talkshow, a panel, an interview, a seminar with a Q&A. Three cameras give you a wide for context, a medium on the speaker, and a third for whoever answers or asks. The cuts follow whoever is talking, and that is what makes the recording still watchable a week later.

This is the configuration we shoot most often, and the one clients regret least.

Six cameras: when the stage has depth

A graduation, a performance, a concert, a tournament. Things happen in several places at once, and some of them happen exactly once. Six cameras is not extravagance — it is not missing the moment a diploma changes hands because the only camera was on the audience.

What gets forgotten in the count

• The run from camera to switcher — past 30 metres that needs SDI, not ordinary HDMI.
• Who supplies the screen for the audience in the room; that is a separate output.
• Whether there is a remote speaker — one Zoom feed occupies one switcher channel.
• How long the event runs; crew is counted by the day, not by the hour.

And the price

Our price ladder follows the number of cameras rather than the type of event, because that is what sets the crew and the gear. The current figures are always on the Pricing page. If your event does not clearly fit one of them, send the run of show through the consultation form — that is faster than guessing.