What is the best way to capture multiple cameras simultaneously?

[SpikesWire]

Hi All,

We've finally been given the okay to possibly upgrade or purchase a new video capture system.

Any suggestions would be helpful, whether it be expensive or not.

Here's what is going on:
I need to record a test so that it can be viewed by lots of different people and can be stored for up to 30 years. The test is typically between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long and uses up to 4 cameras per sample.

Currently:
We have a system which uses 4 Canon GL2 camcorders to record to DV tapes, which we then capture one by one using DV Storm Edit software, trim the video, add a title/opening frame with test info, create the AVI and then we have to use canopus Procoder to convert the video using the mpeg4 codec.

Obviously, the current procedure is very time consuming and 5 years outdated. One option would be to continue to use the GL2 cameras, only convert to a tapeless system. What are the options out there to be able to capture 4 cameras simultaneously? I know that with most of the advanced software i could probably make a program to automatically add the title frame and dump the videos to the appropriate directories, but i am having a hard time finding anything that will capture all 4 cameras with sound.

Whatever the solution might be, wireless would be nice too, but i can't seem to find anything with good quality. There's just so much on the net to sort through i have never been able to find anything worth pursuing.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!!

[shulthise]

I am not sure about that, but Windows Media Encoder might support multiple data sources, and an output to disk/broadcast.
I just cannot remember if it does that simultaneously or in a queue.

Do you need to merge the entire thing into one target video, or separate videos will do ?
if it is the latter then you can just execute 4 instances of the same video capturing/broadcasting program, and each will write to a different disk.