An old DV/ENG camera for live broadcasts?

yes.

That's an old JVC ENG shoulder camera, which I use for live webcasts, its well suited to this task because; it looks professional, is shoulder mount (steady shots,) puts outs out clean enough video over firewire, and can be had for cheap because its a little older.

But whats that sticking off the back where there should be battery you ask? 

Find out after the break!

 If you guessed a DV over UTP transceiver then you were correct! And its stuck on there with an aluminum plate I cut and drilled to match the standard DV battery plate Mount.

Here the transceiver is mounted to the camera, viewed from another angle. You can also see the power cable connecting the transceiver's power in to the accessory power out of the camera. The camera's accessory power jack is an industry standard 4pin Hirose, similar to a LEMO connector, they're a bit cheaper though. I was a little worried that the connector wouldn't be able to push enough current to the transceiver, most of the older DV equipment only gave around 1-300ma to the accessory jack, the brick for the transceiver was rated for 3A, I suspect most of that current is passed to the firewire devices plugged into the transceiver and the camera doesn't draw any power from firewire, so 100ma should be fine.

The mounting plate and power cable removed from the camera (like my right angle 2.1mm?) the plate has four pocketed number  8's and three tapped 6-32's. Now that I have the mechanics of it all figured out its time to talk cosmetics, right now the thing is sore thumb ugly, I was thinking I would either brush the aluminum up or maybe anodize black or blue. It would be cool to have  plastic (3D printed?) cover over the whole back assembly, but that doesn't really seem achievable or practical for me. I'm leaning toward black anodized, but brushing it will do for now.

  It lives!

Next step is to finish the cable assembly that goes from the camera to the transceiver (short DV cable and power cable will be integrated into one jacket) and then finish the big camera snake that will carry power and video from the camera back to the wall.

   

Updates to this project soon!