UFC 246: Conor McGregor's Return to the Octagon Packs a Hefty Production Punch Production partner Concom rolls out high-tech show at T-Mobile Arena By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, January 17, 2020 - 12:15 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Conor McGregor's long-awaited return to the Octagon for UFC 246 tomorrow night is expected to generate plenty of fireworks and, judging by his history, even more PPV buys for ESPN+. With ample eyeballs expected to be glued to The Notorious's showdown with Donald Cowboy Cerrone Saturday, UFC's longtime production partner Concom has rolled out a large arsenal of production firepower at Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena, including a JITACam and augmented-reality graphics.
This is definitely one of the larger PPVs we have ever done, says Greg Louw, director, technical operations, Concom, and it would actually be even larger if we had more load-in time at the arena. Obviously, we've done [UFC events] in several stadiums where it's a larger show just because of the size of the venue, but this is definitely one of the largest PPV shows we've ever done at a domestic arena.
A Tight Timetable: Single-Day Set, Shoot, Strike
Concom, which has provided turnkey production solutions to the UFC for both in-venue and broadcast operations since 1997, facilitates everything from in-house lighting, projection, and PA to broadcast and transmission.
UFC 246 takes over T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night for Conor McGregor's return to the Octagon.
As UFC's schedule has become demanding and venues have grown busier, Concom is often forced to set, shoot, and strike PPV shows in a single day - as will be the case Saturday. Because T-Mobile hosted a Google corporate event on Thursday and a Tool concert on Friday night, Concom won't have access to the floor until roughly 3 a.m. Saturday morning.
It's an overnight load-in, which we've actually become accustomed to over the past few years, says Louw. These PPV events have grown over the years, and the biggest challenge now is trying to do more with less time allotted because the venues are so busy. Our goal over the past three or four years has been streamlining everything so the entire show is cleaner. That was the only way to make it sustainable, and I think we did a really good job of accomplishing that.
The Weigh-In: UFC Takes Over Park Theater
Vegas is already abuzz with excitement for the return of UFC's biggest star, and the festivities kick off at 6 p.m. ET with the weigh-in at the Park Theater, an MGM property adjacent to T-Mobile Arena (also an MGM property).
Concom has rolled out a separate mobile production unit, NEP's M15, at the Park Theater since its primary truck, NEP's NCPVII, will be prepping for the fight at T-Mobile Arena. Typically, Concom deploys three cameras for a weigh-in, but, with McGregor expected to draw a full house at the theater and countless more watching on the UFC YouTube channel, that number will double to six cameras (all Grass Valley LDX 86N's): three hard, two handheld, and a jib.
It will definitely be a larger [production] than a usual weigh-in, says Louw. Considering the size of the PPV and the full-house crowd [at the weigh-in], we're upping the ante on this one.
The live stream will also be fed to the LED ribbon board outside T-Mobile Arena and to the LED board in Toshiba Plaza (home to the Golden Knights) for crowds outside to view what is expected to be a lively weigh-in.
The whole environment in that area should be pretty electric, says Louw.
Inside the Octagon: JITACam, Sony HDC-4300's Play Key Roles
For the fight itself, 16 cameras will be arrayed throughout T-Mobile Arena with four cameras dedicated to the Octagon: a JITACam (jib in the air) system above, two Sony HDC-4300's (running at 6X slo-mo) on the left and right, and a Sony HDC-2500 reverse shot.
What makes our sport unique, Louw notes, is that we have the luxury of having all the action take place within a 30-ft. circumference around that Octagon, so we get really great coverage with just four handheld cameras. Two of them are 4300's at 6X speed, which account for 90% of our slo-mo replays. Those allow us to get those really dramatic shots of the fighters' faces and big hits off just two cameras, which is advantageous to us and makes for some really amazing pictures.
The JITACam has become an integral component of UFC coverage after Concom incorporated a 30-ft. rail system allowing the JITACam not only to rotate but also to travel back and forth across the Octagon.
We were the first to utilize the JITA in combat sports, says Louw, and that rail system has been a difference-maker for us. We use it as one of our four coverage cameras on the Octagon during the fights, and then it pulls back on the rail and spins around between fights to get wider shots.
Typically, Concom installs a DynamiCam mini aerial system for larger PPV events but opted not to for UFC 246 given the extremely limited load-in time.
The production team will also have at their disposal two RF cameras (one covering the crowd inside the bowl, the second serving a backstage Facebook Live show) and a robo.
Augmented Reality: UFC Gets Virtual With AR in Toshiba Plaza
Concom, UFC, and ESPN are also teaming up with Girraphic and Stype to create augmented-reality graphics for the event. The AR graphics will be featured on a jib outside the arena in Toshiba Plaza. This marks the second such collaboration, following a sizable AR deployment at UFC 243 in Melbourne, Australia.
We're really excited to be doing AR graphics; it's not something that we do normally, says Louw. We'll have a jib floating in the plaza over the crowd that [can be] cut to for AR graphics like tale-of-the-tape and [comparisons between] fighters. We
North America Stories
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
11/06/2026
Telemundo will launch its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Thursday, June 11 with...
11/06/2026
FuboTV Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with NBCUniversal. Fubo customers can now stream Telemundo and Universo, with NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced its in-app features for FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Spain...
11/06/2026
Roblox has released the 2026 Roblox Digital Expression Report: Wave 4 - Sports D...
11/06/2026
FIFA has unveiled DNA, the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, performed by A...
11/06/2026
ESPN will provide English- and Spanish-language news and information coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 across its U.S. media platforms from June 11 through July 1...
11/06/2026
The latest product of the outstanding RIT Sports Network program, this recent grad from Long Island is carving out a promising path in broadcast engineering
In...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced a multi-year agreement to make DSPORTS channels available to ...
11/06/2026
Laura Dern at the 1986 Sundance Institute Directors Lab (Photo by Eric Edwards)
By Lucy Spicer
It takes a village to bring together the Sundance Institute lab...
11/06/2026
MTI FILM acquires Mango/New Edit Posted by MTI Film on June 10, 2026
LOS ANGELES, CA - June 2026 - MTI FILM, the multiple Emmy Award winning Hollywood post-p...
UFC 246: Conor McGregor's Return to the Octagon Packs a Hefty Production Punch Production partner Concom rolls out high-tech show at T-Mobile Arena By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
