That's the Chicago area. Try to charge those rates in the Lincoln area and you'll be a very hungry videographer. :)

Lets look at this again.

If the final output totals 40hrs, then it most likely will take more than 40hrs to shoot, which means it could take more than a single work week.

For 40hrs of deliverable, I don't know anyone who doesn't watch the entire video PRIOR to delivering to the client. No editor or NLE is perfect and random mistakes/errors do occur. With that much video, it is easy for something to crop up. So post-production time should be far more than just 15hrs.

About the Tricaster: does it record all video inputs or just the one the operator selects at any given time? Is the $600 per day or 7 days? (you peaked my interest)

That's why my example price was so low, there is almost no post production work using the TriCaster setup I described. You are recording live - what you see. If you do a good job operating the TriCaster (and take notes where the video needs to be tweaked later in post) there's no reason to watch the entire thing.

I don't know what the rates are nationwide for TriCaster rentals, but at the rental house a few blocks from my office I can rent a TriCaster for $150 per day or $600 per week. It records only the selected input.

You're right, my estimate of 15 hours in post is probably low, but I also think the 40 hours of content is rather high. Every seminar I've attended has many breaks as well as table discussion time which would not be recorded.