UFC 306 at The Sphere: UFC Turns Up the Production and Operations Firepower for Historic Pay-Per-View Event Production honors Mexican culture; one-of-a-kind venue challenges operations team By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Thursday, September 12, 2024 - 12:40 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The UFC has adapted and evolved to create memorable broadcasting innovation since the COVID-19 pandemic, including Fight Island in Abu Dhabi and the opening of its Apex facility in 2020, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023, and producing its 300th pay-per-view (PPV) event this past spring. All these moments have led to UFC 306: Noche UFC on Sept. 14, which will be the first sports event in the short yet exhilarating history of Sphere in Las Vegas. The mixed-martial-arts company's biggest production to date is considered a once-in-lifetime opportunity for the production and operations teams and the start of a new era for the company.
UFC 306 will honor Mexican Independence Day and the country's impact on the MMA community. (Photo: Zuffa LLC)
There's a lot of excitement because the entire company has been working hard to be ready to pull off this event, says Craig Borsari, CCO/executive producer, UFC, but now that we're in the final stage of preparation, there's also pressure to complete everything that we want to share with the world. We had limited time to rehearse, so the shift has gone from content creation to how we're going to execute our show.
Quick Drive-Away: Crews Visit Sphere To Plan Creative Elements, Tech Infrastructure After attending a show during U2's short-term residency at the venue that has taken the live-entertainment industry by storm, UFC President/CEO Dana White knew that he wanted to host an event there. Uniting a vision of being the first to produce a sports event there and to pay homage to Mexico's contributions to the MMA community, the marquee main event will take place on the Saturday before Mexican Independence Day Monday, Sept. 16. To make the PPV a love letter to the nation, according to White, Borsari has worked closely with others in the production department and external partners - including Segments Director Carlos L pez Estrada, who provided his talents to such projects as Encanto and Frozen II - to create a stunning narrative honoring Mexican culture.
Carlos oversaw the production of six, 90-second films that will run as our primary storytelling device, says Borsari. We don't want to take away from the elite athletes performing in the Octagon, but, at the same time, we don't want to remove people from this bigger story that we're telling throughout the evening. It was a real balancing act to figure out exactly how much we should lean into unique media content that we're creating as well as cover the fights.
Six separate vignettes were developed for the show by independent artists:
Chapter I: In the Beginning - directed by Joe Sill and Brian Tang, co-produced by Impossible Objects
Chapter II: Early Civilizations - directed by Saad Moosajee, co-produced by Analog Studios
Chapter III: Rituals & Traditions - directed by Paul Nicholls, co-produced by Factory Fifteen)
Chapter IV: Battle for Independence - directed by Diego Huacuja, co-produced by Basa Estudios
Chapter V: Fighters & Heroes - directed by Shynola, co-produced by Nexus Studios
Chapter VI: Mexico Today and Tomorrow - directed by Paul Trillo, co-produced by Factory Fifteen
Borsari was assisted by SVP, Production and Programming, Chris Kartzmark on the overall direction of each piece; by SVP, Global Brand and Creative, Heidi Noland with the event's visual identity and on-screen aesthetic; by SVP, Originals Production, Tucker Greene, who gave input on the six films; and SVP/Coordinating Producer Zach Candito, who's responsible for stitching together the show at the front bench.
Fresh off Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour, Silent House Group has been brought in to produce the in-venue show. Its team includes CEO/Founder Baz Halpin, CCO/Head of Production Linda Gierahn, and President Mark Bracco as producers and Coordinating Producer Vincent Richards.
Heidi Noland (left) and Dana White confer during the planning phase.
Borsari is also leaning heavily on other personnel outside UFCi. Oscars and Emmys director and executive producer Glenn Weiss will direct the entertainment aspect of the show on ESPN, and Segments Producer Valerie Bush will work alongside L pez Estrada. BLINK Inc. President Tom Colbourne as screen content director and BLINK Post Production Supervisor Richard Cullen as screen content producer will get the elements on the massive 160,000-sq.-ft., 16Kx16K-resolution interior LED Media Plane. Also helping will be artist contributor/consultant Jorge Gutierrez, who served as a creative consultant on 2017 Disney hit Coco.
Another wrinkle to this show is worth noting from a technical angle: this will be UFC's first show on ESPN broadcast in 1080p. That aspect alone is a new element to be fleshed out by the operations crew, but adding that to the operations needs for a production in a venue that has never hosted such a production before is a challenge. Luckily, UFC has SVP, Event Production, Tim O'Toole and Director, Technical Operations, Greg Louw, who know how to solve those problems. For this hefty lift, they're rolling in UFC's typical truck, the A and B units of NEP NCP7, for the weigh-in and press conference the night before the fight. The scale of the show also required the A and B units of both NEP EN3 and Denali Summit for production of the fight.
We can't produce our press conference and weigh-in normally out of our event truck, says O'Toole. They're happening in the parking lot [of Sphere], and there's no connectivity between the facility
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
01/12/2025
Many industries have seen big-ticket hardware turn into software. Switchers, though, demand a combination of real-time performance and sheer bandwidth that has ...
01/12/2025
GENEVA Shanghai will host the next quadrennial Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27), Oct. 11-Nov. 12, 2027. This...
01/12/2025
NEW YORK Just in time for Giving Tuesday tomorrow (Dec. 2), the Broadcasters Foundation of America is seeking out donations to help television and radio industr...
01/12/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Net Insight CEO Crister Fritzson has informed the company's board that he will retire from the video transport and media cloud technology ...
01/12/2025
01 Dec 2025
Kyivstar and Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation Select Go...
01/12/2025
The prequel to the global hit Sky Original mob crime saga, Gomorrah' is a s...
01/12/2025
Featuring Florence Welch, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Flea, designer Bella Freud...
01/12/2025
Back to All News
A Down to Earth, All Too Relatable Hero: Cashero' Teaser ...
01/12/2025
In the rush to deliver content to every screen, many broadcasters overlook one of the most crucial steps in the workflow: format and frame rate conversion. Get ...
01/12/2025
Fox Corporation Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic to Participate in Upcoming ...
01/12/2025
Arvato Systems' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Receives BSI C5 Certification (T...
01/12/2025
Summary This short video gives you an summary of the changes in under two minutes.
--...
01/12/2025
As the festive season approaches, RT Supporting the Arts is proud to showcase a...
01/12/2025
Researchers worldwide rely on open-source technologies as the foundation of their work. To equip the community with the latest advancements in digital and physi...
01/12/2025
Festive specials of Christmas in Kilmainham presented by Marty Whelan, High Road Low Road, Callan Kicks the Year and Keys to My Life
Ring in the New Year with ...
01/12/2025
Architect and television presenter Hugh Wallace, best known to RT audiences as a long-serving judge on Home of the Year, has died at the age of 68.
In a state...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
UFC 306 at The Sphere: UFC Turns Up the Production and Operations Firepower for Historic Pay-Per-View Event Production honors Mexican culture; one-of-a-kind venue challenges operations team By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
