Angénieux Zoom Lenses Capture Royal Wedding in 3D

posted:

07/06/2011

3 Element Technica Quasar rigs were mounted with 3 pairs ARRI Alexa cameras with 3 pairs of matching Angénieux Optimo lenses

Angénieux zooms converged on the Royal Wedding in 3D. As an estimated 2 billion viewers watched the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, three rigs with six Angénieux Optimo DP zooms recorded the event in 3D for broadcast on BSkyB in the days that followed. Three Element Technica Quasar rigs were mounted with 3 pairs ARRI Alexa cameras, 2 pairs of matching 16-42 mm Optimo DPs and 1 pair of matching Angénieux Optimo DP 30-80 mm lenses.

On Sight was the facilities company chosen by Sky to supply the 3D equipment and technical crews for the BSkyB Royal Wedding 3D production. The April 29th wedding was not broadcast live in 3D. The 3D material was edited and broadcast beginning Tuesday May 3rd.

Robin Broomfield, 3D Operations and Development Manager for Sky said, “We only had three camera positions. The choice of equipment was based on reliability and quality (it was obviously important to have a good archive as 'future proofed' as possible.) On Sight did a great job of providing the equipment and staff necessary to achieve this and were involved early in the planning stages.”

Sam Higham, Facility Manager of On Sight, said, “Filming a live event in 3D can be challenging, especially when it has such historical importance as a Royal Wedding. The brief from Sky 3D was simple. They wanted both the highest quality images with the flexibility to capture the widest variety of material during the event. For these reasons, and also because the time taken to change prime lenses would have meant the risk of missing an important moment, we chose 3D-ready Angénieux Optimo DP matched zoom lenses. The lenses performed brilliantly, allowing the operators to use multiple focal lengths, with the confidence the lenses would track perfectly for 3D. The results were stunning.”