Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

UFC 306 at The Sphere: UFC Turns Up the Production and Operations Firepower for Historic Pay-Per-View Event

12/09/2024

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
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/09/12/ufc-turns-up-the-production-and...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

20/11/2025

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: NBC's New Three-Year Deal Covers Sunday Night Baseball,' Peacock-Exclusive Games, and More

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: NBC's New Three-Year Deal Covers Sunday Night Bas...

20/11/2025

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: New Deal Will Bring 30 National Games to ESPN's Linear Platform, MLB.TV Exclusively to ESPN App

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: New Deal Will Bring 30 National Games to ESPN's Li...

20/11/2025

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: Netflix Lands Opening Night, Home Run Derby, Field of Dreams

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup: Netflix Lands Opening Night, Home Run Derby, Field of ...

20/11/2025

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup Overview: ESPN, NBCU, Netflix Ink Three-Year Deals

MLB Media-Rights Shakeup Overview: ESPN, NBCU, Netflix Ink Three-Year DealsESPN gets new 30-game package, MLB.TV; NBC extends Sunday nights; Netflix adds tentpo...

20/11/2025

SVG Students To Watch: Henry Thuss, Indiana University

SVG Students To Watch: Henry Thuss, Indiana UniversityThe Southern California product has his goals set on the front benchBy Brandon Costa, Director of Digital ...

20/11/2025

Done+Dusted's Guy Carrington on Creating the Spectacular League of Legends World Championship Opening Ceremony

Done+Dusted's Guy Carrington on Creating the Spectacular League of Legends W...

20/11/2025

FIA Extreme H World Cup Host Broadcaster Aurora Goes Inside the Production of the Hydrogen-Fuelled Motorsport

FIA Extreme H World Cup Host Broadcaster Aurora Goes Inside the Production of th...

20/11/2025

Platinum White Paper: Amagi Utilizes Cloud Production for Sports Events - Multi-Camera Live Workflow with Remote Commentary and Graphics

Platinum White Paper: Amagi Utilizes Cloud Production for Sports Events - Multi-...

20/11/2025

2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Marc Herklotz, Steady Hand Behind the Scenes

2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Marc Herklotz, Steady Hand Behind the Sce...

20/11/2025

NFL Deep Dive: How 32 Cameras at Each Stadium Drive Virtual Measurement, Boundary Replays, and Skeletal Tracking

NFL Deep Dive: How 32 Cameras at Each Stadium Drive Virtual Measurement, Boundar...

20/11/2025

Zodiac Killer Project Refuses to Kill Its Darlings With an Avant-Garde Essay Film

Charlie Shackleton attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Zodiac K...

20/11/2025

5 Ways to Get More out of Your Playlists on Spotify

Your playlists are personal. They're the soundtracks to your road trips, your quiet mornings, and your biggest celebrations; collections of memories and dis...

20/11/2025

Spotify, Trk mziinin efsanelerine sayg duruu niteliindeki ICON Trkiye'yi duyurdu

Spotify, uzun s redir zerine al t T rk m zik k lt r n n ikon haline gelmi ...

20/11/2025

Spotify and The Hollywood Reporter' Partner on the First-Ever Podcaster Roundtable

For the first time, Spotify has teamed up with The Hollywood Reporter to cohost ...

20/11/2025

Spotify and the ARIA Awards Mark a New Era for Australian Music

This year's ARIA Awards marked a turning point for Australian music, and Spotify was right at the heart of it. For the first time in the awards' nearly ...

20/11/2025

Cracking the Code for Resilient, Secure Space-based Communications

L3Harris has achieved NSA Cybersecurity Directorate certification for its KSV-650 space hub end cryptographic unit, ensuring secure, adaptable communications fo...

20/11/2025

Continued Commitment and Investment in Poland

L3Harris is strengthening its long-term partnership with Poland through the opening of a new facility in Warsaw to serve as a central business hub for regional ...

20/11/2025

Cinegy wins the Swedish Hockey League

15 March 2012 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Cinegy and Vericom are pleased to announce the recent deployment of Cinegy Archive for production and as...

20/11/2025

2012

6 September 2012 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email FIC Turkey supplies media content to Pay TV under Fox TV Channel brands in Turkey. At the start of s...

20/11/2025

VIVA Indonesia broadcasting the World Cup Brazil 2014 with Cinegy

25 June 2014 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Last month VIVA finalized its Cinegy installation in order to produce and broadcast the World Cup Brazil ...

20/11/2025

2014

1 October 2014 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email With 5 locations spread out around Baden-W rttemberg, Schw bisch Media required a scalable end to end s...

20/11/2025

Strictly Come Dancing Goes with a Cinegy Workflow

27 April 2015 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Cinegy, which develops and produces media asset management products that are used in flagship production...

20/11/2025

Cinegy announces new Latin America partnership

12 August 2015 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany, 26 October 2015 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital ...

20/11/2025

2015

5 November 2015 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany 3 November 2015 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital ...

20/11/2025

Cinegy launches Cinegy Open' initiative

12 February 2016 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany 9 February 2016 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital...

20/11/2025

2016

22 June 2016 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany 21 June 2016 - Cinegy today announced that ABS BROADCAST, one of the largest independentl...

20/11/2025

Cinegy News - nominee of NewBay Media Awards 2016

10 January 2017 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Find us on page 12 of the Program Guide 2016 Tags NewBay Media Awards , Program Guide 2016 , broadc...

20/11/2025

Freeview Thailand deploys Cinegy Air PRO Bundles for multi-channel playout

15 March 2017 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany 15 March 2017 - Cinegy today announced that Thailand's Next Step direct-to-home Free...

20/11/2025

2017

12 December 2017 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany 13 December 2017 - Cinegy today announced that it is making its Cinegy Air Cloud Pack...

20/11/2025

2018

25 June 2018 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich 25th June 2018 - Cinegy today announced that Canada-based Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) has implemen...

20/11/2025

2019

27 May 2019 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email The best quality live video from the worst networks - Haivision Although DVB and the World Wide Web are...

20/11/2025

2020

24 November 2020 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email ATV Expand and Increase their Playout and Editing Capabilities using Cinegy Software Munich, Germany...

20/11/2025

Cinegy further commits to Eastern European market with new appointment

1 September 2021 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany, 1st September 2021: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for di...

20/11/2025

2021

20 September 2021 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email ElectronicVerve continues a strong history of supporting Cinegy customers in India Munich, Germany,...

20/11/2025

2022

1 November 2022 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany, 01 November 2022: Cinegy, a premier provider of software technology for digital video...

20/11/2025

Britt Broadcast implements Cinegy Air PRO at TBC (Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation]

31 October 2023 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Britt Broadcast at TBC...

20/11/2025

Oklahoma Community Television Overcomes ATSC 3.0 Translator Challenge

CINCINNATI Oklahoma Community Television (OCT) has selected GatesAir and Triveni Digital as key technology partners in an ATSC 3.0 deployment that establishes a...

20/11/2025

FCC Launches Wide-Ranging Examination of Network Affiliate Relations

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a wide-ranging inquiry into the relations between broadcast networks and their affiliates that could...

20/11/2025

IAB: Creator Economy Ad Spend Now Dwarfs Ad Spend for Total Media Industry

NEW YORK Ad spend in the creator economy has more than doubled since 2021 from $13.9B to $29.5B in 2024 and that amount is projected to reach $37 billion in 202...

20/11/2025

Graduate Spotlight: Krysta Mirsik DePuy

Graduate Spotlight: Krysta Mirsik DePuy The educator from Hackettstown, New Jersey, shares how it took her 11 years to find the right graduate program for her...

20/11/2025

Rise Awards 2025 Celebrate the Industry's Best

LONDON The winners of the Rise Awards 2025, which recognize women and companies whose achievements have stood out in the media technology industry, have been an...

20/11/2025

Lionsgate, Debmar-Mercury Launch MovieSphere Gold Diginet

SANTA MONICA & NEW YORK Lionsgate's Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury have launched MovieSphere Gold in more than 30 million homes....

20/11/2025

Clear-Com Unveils New 4-Channel HelixNet Beltpack

ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has introduced its four-channel HelixNet beltpack, a next-generation advancement of its widely used two-channel model, and anticipates...

20/11/2025

Kiswe Core Aims to Simplify Cloud-Based Streaming Distribution

NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. Streaming technology and services provider Kiswe has launched Kiswe Core, a next-generation cloud-based platform designed to simplify the s...

20/11/2025

Dolby Partners Up With Bay Area Super Bowl Host Committee

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the we...

20/11/2025

Telus TV+ Expands Distribution to Samsung and LG Smart TVs

STUTTGART, Germany 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) has announced that the Canadian multiservice operator Telus has launched its Telus TV+ entertainment platform on Sam...

20/11/2025

MLB Strikes Rights Deals With ESPN, NBCUniversal, Netflix

Major League Baseball has announced deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix covering 2026-2028 that make ESPN the exclusive distributor for MLB.TV, put regula...

20/11/2025

Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and GenNext All-Stars' Noel

Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and ...

20/11/2025

Space42 and EDGE Group Announce Strategic SATCOM Manufacturing Alliance at Dubai Airshow 2025

Dubai, United Arab Emirates [November 20, 2025] Space42 (ADX: SPACE42), the ...