[Paul Buchan]

That’s a pretty loaded question.
I’d definitely look at Blackmagic Design for the production equipment. It offers a price point that you can’t really beat and while it is on the low end, it will still provide good tools for the students to learn on that translate to the rest of the industry. I wouldn’t look at their cameras, I’ve never been a big fan of them. There are a ton of options when it does come to the cameras I’d stick with the names you know, like Sony and Canon and aim for ones with professional outputs (SDI).
Lighting is a whole other beast. There are tons of options out there. Depending on your space there are lots of options. Take a look at Kino Flo’s, Lite Panels, Mole Richardson, Arri, and many many more. Again it depends on your space.
If there are any specifics that you need help with it probably help you get more responses on the board.

-Paul

[Paul Buchan]

GoPro does offer a solution but it’s a bit pricey… You might want to check out what Teradek has to offer. We use their Bolt with great success. It has virtually no delay and suffers no quality loss.

-Paul

[Paul Buchan]

You have some options when it comes to alternatives for satellite. We use fiber and IP lines to connect our facility to the world. Services like Vyvx, TheSwitch, and LTN are out there. Depending on what IP bandwidth you have at your location LTN would probably be the cheapest.
Since you’re only doing 4 or 5 a year my guess is that LTN may be to expensive, unless you’re planning on growing that business. LiveU would probably work in your situation. If I remember correctly they may have a non-mobile version that would work as more of a permanent install (rack mountable). They key would be contacting the networks that you usually work with and see what equipment they have for receiving. Another option might be Skype for Broadcast, but I’ve never worked with the broadcast side of it.
Hopefully that offers some insight.

-Paul

[Paul Buchan]

No you can not output from your Mac to this device without another IO card in the mix. It simply does live encoding.

-Paul