Leader Electronics’ PHABRIX Qx rasteriser and LeaderPhabrix LPX500 waveform monitor were employed during the live production of Pope Leo XIV’s recent visit to the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain.
The production captured a historic visit by Pope Leo XIV to the church, marking both the centenary of the death of the basilica’s legendary architect, Antoni Gaudí, and the recent completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ.
The broadcast production of the Jesus Tower inauguration was overseen by the national Catalan broadcaster 3Cat (TV3).
Production director Pauli Subira Claramunt worked to realise artistic director Igor Cortadellas’ vision of an event that encompassed both the interior and exterior of the church, and required cinematographic techniques and technologies, some of which — like Sony’s Cinema Line cameras — had not previously been used in a European international Ultra HD (UHD)/high dynamic range (HDR) live broadcast.
Hector Sole-Bradshaw Beltran, the broadcast engineering consultant who served as technical director for the project, said, “Regardless of the cost that UHD/HDR might have [for an event like this], the importance of the production and the relevance in terms of archival and distribution is so large that it doesn't really matter if it's more expensive.
“My primary hurdle was how to unify two fields of expertise — the broadcast engineering requirements of Tier One production, and digital cinematography tools.”
With so many technical challenges in play, it is not surprising that Sole-Bradshaw wanted to employ some of his enduring ‘go-to’ production tools — including two from the Leader Electronics product range.
“I always bring my PHABRIX Qx advanced rasteriser to a production,” he said. “It surely has a place in any high-end outside broadcast (OB) deployment in the world. What I tend to do is have a V-Lock battery powering the unit, so I don’t need to have it plugged into the mains.
“That allows me to move to different places in the engineering footprint and do the required testing and analysis.”
Sole-Bradshaw also brought along a LeaderPhabrix LPX500 quad 4K-input hybrid IP/SDI waveform monitor, which in this instance was used to display and monitor 4 x 12G-SDI signals.
“I was able to check a camera any time during the show or rehearsals, including both HDR and SDR sources,” he said. “Again, it’s another item of very reliable equipment that helped make the production run smoothly.”
