Another Three Choirs Festival is complete, bringing eight days of outstanding live music to a close – and another busy week for the Bubble Production team.
This was our fifth year providing live production support for the festival, working inside Gloucester Cathedral to help bring the performances closer to audiences throughout this remarkable historic venue.
Over the course of the festival, our four-person team worked behind the scenes to capture orchestras, choirs, conductors and soloists, producing live multi-camera coverage that was relayed to screens throughout the cathedral.
Now that the final performance is over and the equipment is packed away, we’ve brought together our series of behind-the-scenes films to show exactly what goes into filming classical music on this scale.
Watch: Behind the Scenes at Three Choirs Festival 2026
The film follows the Bubble Production team throughout the festival and introduces the different specialist roles involved in delivering the live coverage.
From reading the musical score to operating cameras high above the cathedral floor, each member of the team plays a very different part in the finished production.
Four People, One Live Production
One of the things that makes our Three Choirs Festival production unusual is just how compact the team is.
Four people are responsible for delivering the live pictures throughout the performances:
Music Director – follows the musical score and guides the Vision Director towards the important moments that are about to happen.
Vision Director – selects and cuts the camera shots, turning multiple individual camera feeds into one continuous live production.
Vision Engineer and PTZ Operator – looks after picture consistency and operates the remotely controlled cameras positioned around the cathedral.
Camera Operator – captures the performance from one of our principal manned camera positions, responding to direction while also finding the moments that help tell the story of the music.
Each role is different, but they have to work together continuously.
There are no second takes.
Filming Classical Music Is About Anticipation
Classical music presents a particular challenge for live production.
You cannot simply wait for something to happen and then point a camera towards it. By then, the moment may already have passed.
Before each performance, the musical score is prepared so our Music Director knows when important solos, instrumental passages and musical changes are approaching.
During the concert, the Music Director reads ahead of the performance and communicates with the Vision Director, allowing the next camera shot to be prepared before it is needed.
It means our coverage can move naturally with the music rather than constantly reacting to it.
For the audience, the process should be invisible. They simply see the right musician, soloist or section of the orchestra at the right moment.
Cameras Without the Clutter
Working inside Gloucester Cathedral also means respecting an extraordinary historic environment.
Our brief is to capture the performance without filling the stage and cathedral with cameras, operators and equipment.
For Three Choirs Festival 2026, our camera system combined remotely operated PTZ cameras positioned high on the cathedral pillars with discreet micro cameras within the orchestra and our principal broadcast camera positions.
This gives the Vision Director a wide choice of shots while keeping the production footprint around the performers to a minimum.
The result can move from a wide view showing the scale of the cathedral and orchestra to a close-up of an individual musician within seconds.
The camera cannot simply move to the correct position at the moment the solo starts. By then, part of the musical phrase may already have passed.
Bringing the Performance to 30 Screens
The pictures aren’t being produced simply to create a recording.
They form an important part of the live audience experience.
Our finished programme was distributed to 30 screens throughout Gloucester Cathedral, helping people in seats with restricted views follow the performance.
An additional 4 monitors are provided for performers with essential sightlines to the conductor.
That creates another important technical requirement: latency has to be virtually zero.
Even a small delay between the conductor’s movement and the image appearing on a monitor would make it unusable for musicians. Our video distribution system therefore has to deliver pictures around the cathedral effectively instantaneously.
Eight Days Behind the Screens
Audiences see the orchestra, choir and performers.
Behind those pictures is a small team spending eight days reading scores, directing cameras, matching pictures, operating PTZ heads and following every performance.
That’s exactly why we wanted to make this behind-the-scenes series.
The individual films have introduced each of those roles over the past few days. Our new film brings them together and gives a fuller picture of what happens behind the screens during Three Choirs Festival.
For us, it’s also a chance to recognise the people behind the production.
A huge thank you to the Bubble crew for another superb festival, and particularly to Jon Essex, who not only worked as part of the camera team but also created the profile films that have allowed us to share a little more of what happens behind the scenes.
And, of course, thank you to the Three Choirs Festival team for once again trusting Bubble Production to be part of such a special event.
Five years in, it’s a production we’re very proud to be involved with.
Need to Film a Classical Concert or Live Performance?
Bubble Production provides multi-camera classical music filming, live concert production, outside broadcast and big screen video relay for orchestras, festivals, venues and live events across the UK.
From historic cathedrals and concert halls to outdoor festivals, we can build a production around the performance and the venue – whether the requirement is live screens, streaming, recording or all three.
Talk to Bubble Production about your next live music production.
Take a look at the other profile films following our work at Three Choirs Festival here: https://bubbleproduction.co.uk/live-streaming-insights/
