Around 20 cameras from Sony’s Cinema Line, including the Venice 2, ILME-FR7 and ILME-FX6, were selected to cover Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona on 10 June.
The production, led by 3Cat (TV3) – National Catalan Broadcaster – live and in HDR captured the audiovisual event as part of the proceedings for Pope Leo XIV’s visit on the centenary of the death of architect Antoni Gaudí, coinciding with the official inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ.
This production “furthers Sony’s position as a technological leader in the professional audiovisual sector”, it said.
“Deploying Sony’s Cinema Line equipment for a live, international HDR broadcast on this scale marks a significant achievement, establishing a new technical benchmark for events of this magnitude.”
More information – provided by Sony – is available below.
The unique architecture of the Sagrada Familia – with its variable natural lighting, hard-to-access spaces and the colossal scale of the site – placed exceptional demands on the team.
But both the creative and production teams rose to the challenge of using cinema cameras to cover this event, a spectacle of light and sound that combines cinematic language and live broadcasting with an unprecedented result.
The deployment of 10 Sony Venice 2 units, seven Sony ILME-FR7s and three Sony ILME-FX6s with Fujinon Duvo lenses and Sony E-mount lenses follows a carefully planned and coordinated production.
The Venice 2 delivers the highest quality image for the main shots, with exceptional low light response during the night artistic show, where the light is the main protagonist.
As remote-controlled cameras, the Sony ILME-FR7s allow for coverage of hard-to-reach angles without interfering with the proceedings.
The compact and lightweight Sony ILME-FX6s provide the mobility required for the most dynamic shots.
All three models share Sony’s colour science, ensuring total colour consistency in the final result and simplifying the live production workflow.
The technical deployment of Sony Cinema Line equipment was combined with PhotoCine’s OB3 mobile unit, integrated with the Sony XVS mixer and Sony PVM-X and BVM-HX reference monitors.
The technical direction of the project was led by British broadcast consultant Hector Sole-Bradshaw Beltran, with a team from the 3Cat (TV3) Technical Department (IDT).
Paulí Subirà Claramunt, director of photography at 3Cat, said: “Catalonia’s national television broadcaster has always been at the forefront of audiovisual technology and, as such, on such a special occasion – the completion of a monument as iconic as the Sagrada Familia – we had to rise to the challenge.
“We had previously produced the musical Mar i Cel in the Broadcast Cinematography format, gaining experience with the tools and workflows; the big difference is that, with the Sagrada Familia, the live broadcast adds an extra layer of complexity.
“When we began to bring the creative narrative to the screen, we saw clearly that the technology used had to be adapted to tell the story properly.
“Transporting the viewer to this very special moment, with an emphasis on aesthetics, using hybrid tools and workflows that blend television and cinema, and defining working standards at both national and European levels, has been a priority for the team and for the 3Cat group.”
