Case Study:

Music Projects / Sony FR7 on stage

Over the years we have used a variety of cameras on stage to cover everything from large orchestras to solo DJ’s. The Sony FR7 now leads the way on stage. 

ISO, inbuilt ND and onboard recording, it’s our go-to camera for music shoots. We regularly integrate with OB and live environments, recording in camera 4k and monitoring HD which simplifies the infrastructure needed and helps keep costs down for multicam 4k production.

Summary of Production…

Type of Production: Live Music
Equipment Used: Sony FR7, BlackCam Tracking Camera, Autopod tower
Skill Sets: Live Music, Specialist rigging, Camera Ops

This show had a full celebrity audience and was put out on CBS, ITV and Paramount+. It received a Primetime Emmy nomination for best technical direction. We provided four Sony FR7’s for this shoot, two supplying high wides of the auditorium and two on stage. One of the stage cameras was rigged on a Polecam Autopod tower behind the drum kit to give a dramatic shot of the drummer in action. All cameras on this shoot were fitted with matte boxes with Tiffen Glimmerglass filters.
What a brilliant and very last minute job this was! Lola had just won a BRIT and this was her first return to stage after taking time away from touring in 2025. We used nine of our Sony FR7’s and two roaming FX3’s. Along with the Sony FX6/9, the FX3 are a great match for the FR7. We had two cameras rigged up high over the audience and stage, two in the royal box and two on stage – one using an Autopod baby tower. We cabled everything directly to our gallery under the stage whilst recording in-camera.
At this performance we installed four pieces of our BlackCam B20 track along the whole of the front of the stage. Using longer track gives great results as it enables us to utilise the high speed capabilities of the dolly. We also rigged three other cameras on stage and a wide of the auditorium. There was no OB truck on this job, so again we cabled directly back to our operator’s monitors and recorded in camera.
This was a big O.B and to compliment the Sony studio cameras we installed six Sony FR7’s, some on stage and some up high on balconies. This was quite an exciting project as the show was being cut and broadcast live to Al Jezeera via Prolink’s OB truck. Each camera had a CAM Racer which fed video feeds, timecode, Genlock and data between camera and O.B truck. Our operators sat behind the director in the O.B truck which was a definite upgrade on being substage!
In September 2025, we worked on stage with Damon Albarn and Gorillaz at their residency in the London Copperbox. We provided six Sony FR7, four Autopods and five Operator control positions. Each night they played a different album with slightly different camera positions. The performance of their triple platinum debut album in its entirety is up on YouTube. They still sound like the future, hard to believe this album is nearly 25yrs old!

Bespoke applications

We specialise in building one off rigs to achieve niche shots and most can be constructed in-house.

For more information on how we film live events and what equipment would be best for your event, please get in touch.

Some of the Equipment used on this production