54 SPONSORED CONTENT Sony takes live cine to F ew buildings carry the cultural and architectural significance of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família. Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece seamless, broadcast-quality production from one of the world’s most iconic landmarks. Its soaring interiors, ever- changing natural light and inaccessible camera positions demanded a deeply technical yet creative approach. As the Sagrada Família nears its historic completion, Sony’s Cinema Line helped elevate a global live broadcast into a cinematic spectacle
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.” A whole ecosystem Sony’s Cinema Line system was selected because each camera fulfilled a distinct production role. The VENICE 2 handled the principal cinematic shots, taking advantage of its renowned colour science and low-light performance during the evening light show, where illumination itself became the central character. The ILME-FR7 remote pan- tilt-zoom cameras enabled operators to capture inaccessible viewpoints in the basilica without disrupting the ceremony, while the compact ILME-FX6 units offered the mobility for dynamic moving shots. Maintaining image consistency across this diverse camera fleet was critical for a live HDR workflow, allowing operators to transition seamlessly between static hero shots, remote positions and roaming cameras without any noticeable shifts in colour reproduction. Sony Cinema Line cameras fed into PhotoCine’s OB3 mobile unit, working alongside a Sony XVS production switcher and Sony PVM-X and BVM-HX reference monitors to deliver an international UHD- HDR HLG feed. Project manager and production technical manager Hector Sole-Bradshaw Beltran describes how Sony’s ecosystem provided every component needed to realise the creative vision. “With its Cinema Line range, Sony is able to provide solutions for all the necessary segments of a project of this scale,” he explains. The VENICE 2 proved particularly valuable once daylight faded. “For the main cameras, the cinematic heritage of the VENICE and the 4000 ISO sensitivity of the VENICE 2’s sensor makes them the perfect choice for a nighttime spectacle where light takes centre stage.” Meanwhile, the smaller cameras ensured production flexibility without compromising quality. “The FR7 and the FX6 complete the line-up in roles where compactness is key, yet image quality and consistency are most important.”
has spent well over a century under construction, becoming one of the world’s most recognisable landmarks and a symbol of architectural ambition. On 10 June 2026, the basilica entered a new chapter in its history as Pope Leo XIV visited to commemorate the centenary of Gaudí’s death and officially inaugurate the Tower of Jesus Christ – the central spire that now stands at 172.5m – making the Sagrada Família the tallest church in the world. Naturally, capturing such a moment was never going to be a conventional outside broadcast. Having been tasked with delivering the live international HDR production, Catalonia’s national broadcaster 3Cat (TV3) opted to move beyond traditional broadcast acquisition, deploying around 20 cameras from Sony’s Cinema Line. The production combined ten VENICE 2 systems, seven ILME-FR7 remotely operated cameras and three ILME-FX6 cameras, marking one of the system’s most ambitious live uses to date. The event at the Sagrada Família, powered by PhotoCine’s live OB truck, delivered
According to Paulí Subirà Claramunt, director of photography at 3Cat, the broadcaster saw the production as an opportunity to push both creative and technical boundaries. “Catalonia’s national television broadcaster is always at the forefront of audio-visual technology so, on such a special occasion – the completion of a monument as iconic as the Sagrada Família – we had to rise to the challenge.” While 3Cat had experimented with broadcast cinematography workflows, introducing cinema cameras into a live production dramatically raised the stakes. “We produced the musical Mar i Cel in the broadcast cinematography format, gaining experience with the tools and workflows. The difference is that, with the Sagrada Família, the live broadcast adds an extra layer of complexity.” For Subirà, the technology became part of the storytelling. “When we began to bring the creative narrative to the screen, we saw clearly
Barcelona’s Sagrada Família is an architectural masterpiece. The Sony VENICE 2’s renowned colour science proved essential for capturing it in full splendour
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