Netflix’s new reality series has a retro-futuristic chocolate factory, a licensed AI recreation of Gene Wilder’s voice and a cameo from Rusty Goffe, who appeared in the original 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It also has 80 robotic cameras tucked into the set. Here is how the crew pulled it off.
The show
Wonka’s The Golden Ticket premiered on 23 September 2026. It puts 12 contestants and their partners inside a factory inspired by Roald Dahl’s universe for a high-stakes competition. That makes 24 people moving around a big, busy set, with surprises around every corner. The crew needed angles viewers wouldn’t see coming, and cameras that stayed out of everyone else’s shot.
The team behind the lens
Australian specialists Cutting Edge Technical Services (CETS) supplied the remote camera side of the production. They have supported the local industry since the 1990s, and they cabled everything back to a central control room, where seven hot head operators and two CCU positions ran the show.
The Sony camera line-up:
- 50 Sony BRC-AM7 cameras covered the living area
- 30 Sony ILME-FR7 cameras covered the challenge sets
A last-minute swap
The original brief paired Sony FR7s with Panasonic AW-UE150 cameras. After testing, CETS worked with the production team and brought in the new BRC-AM7 instead.
Ray Martin, Head of Business Development at CETS, says the AM7 beat the Panasonic in several areas. It also shoots S-Log, which matches the FR7 and the rest of Sony’s range. That means every camera on the production, from a Sony VENICE down to a BRC-AM7, can shoot S-Log, which keeps the look consistent in post.
It was a big first outing, too. Rolling out 50 BRC-AM7s on their first project was a major step for CETS.
The FR7: small camera, big sensor
The FR7 is the star of the challenge sets. It is the world’s first full-frame interchangeable-lens camera with remote pan, tilt and zoom. Inside is a back-illuminated 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor, BIONZ XR processing, 15+ stops of latitude and compatibility with Sony’s E-mount lenses.
In practice, the crew could hide cinematic, shallow-depth-of-field cameras inside set pieces, in spots a bigger camera would never fit. Martin calls it the biggest utility camera on the production: “If you needed to find an angle, put an FR7 in there.”
The crew kept finding more places for them. Some setups planned for three FR7s ended up using ten, because the cameras captured angles nobody had thought of during planning. The FR7s also output 1080 on SDI while recording UHD internally, and for graphics-heavy sequences, selected cameras recorded UHD in-camera to give the graphics team richer source material.
The BRC-AM7: the one that follows the action
The BRC-AM7 is an advanced PTZ auto-framing camera. It shoots 4K 60p across a 20x optical zoom range and supports S-Cinetone and S-Log3.
With 24 contestants on the move and 50 PTZ cameras recording to server, the auto-follow tools and web interface did a lot of the legwork. Martin says the hot head operators became “camera conductors”, keeping broad coverage of everyone without losing image quality. The client noticed the picture quality too, just as the CETS team had in testing.
Why this is a Golden Ticket for TV
Producers want more angles, faster setups and smaller footprints, and they want acquisition and post to work together. This show is a good example of remote camera tech meeting all of those needs at once. For viewers, it supports the polished, inventive look you’d expect from a big Netflix reality event.
Martin sums it up: “These Sony cameras gave us the freedom to capture more, hide more, move faster and keep everything aligned across the production.”
Where to watch
Wonka’s The Golden Ticket is streaming now on Netflix. You can watch the official teaser on YouTube before you press play.
