
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
22/05/2026
Germany's Magenta TV, which will have 44 exclusive FIFA World Cup match broa...
22/05/2026
DAZN, the world's leading sports entertainment platform, has acquired global broadcast rights to the International Federation of American Football's ( I...
22/05/2026
ATHLOS, the all-women's professional track and field league, has announced i...
22/05/2026
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) today announced that the 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards and the 47th Annual News & Documentary Emmy A...
22/05/2026
Wooden Camera today announced the release of new accessories for the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive. The new lineup includes a redesigned Top Plate and Side Rai...
22/05/2026
YES Network and OTT Advisors have announced a sixth consecutive season of their streaming partnership, continuing their collaboration on the Gotham app. OTT Adv...
22/05/2026
NESN, New England's premier sports network, will again turn its camera to Fe...
22/05/2026
Dale Pro Audio is hosting an RF over Fiber Livestream Webinar on May 28 from 1-2:30 pm EST. With major sporting events and large-scale productions putting incre...
22/05/2026
Audio-Technica has announced key leadership appointments designed to further strengthen its sales organization and drive continued growth across the Americas. M...
22/05/2026
After nearly four decades shaping the global combat sports landscape, Scott Coker has announced a powerful return as he looks to build a new international mixed...
22/05/2026
Skyline Communications, the company behind the globally deployed DataMiner xOps platform, today announced the launch of xOps Vanguard Runway, a strategic accele...
22/05/2026
For the fully onsite production, 30 cameras - including a SkyCam and Megalodon - will capture the action in Texas
One of the world's biggest rodeo producti...
22/05/2026
Leading Argentina-based sports media company Torneos y Competencias S.A. has modernized its playout operations, implementing a fully redundant, multichannel env...
22/05/2026
As the 2026 Major League Pickleball season kicks off this weekend in Dallas, it ...
22/05/2026
Shure has become a minority investor in Edge Sound Research, a start-up company that is developing new experiential audio technologies that redefine how many au...
22/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into...
22/05/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Amazon Music announced that GRAMMY Award-winning superstar Jelly Roll will provide the official theme song of the 2026 Stan...
22/05/2026
David Pogue will keynote SVV Summer Camp and discuss Apple at 50: How the World...
22/05/2026
In its second year as rightsholder, FOX Sports goes bigger across the board for ...
22/05/2026
Heading into FOX Sports' second Indianapolis 500, Lead Director Mitch Riggin...
22/05/2026
Latest data reveals steady distributor rankings, a seasonal shift toward digital...
22/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/05/2026
Amagi Media Labs Limited (NSE: AMAGI, BSE: 544679), a cloud-native SaaS platform providing AI-enabled solutions to global media and entertainment companies, tod...
22/05/2026
An nima Post Relies on Cintel to Revive Classic Mexican Films
Brie Clayton May 22, 2026
0 Comments
Film scanner and DaVinci Resolve Studio help manage...
22/05/2026
Boris FX Sapphire Adds Optical Beauty and Hypnotic Textures
Jessie Electa Petrov May 22, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release introduces advanced defocu...
22/05/2026
Deployment Preserves Trusted Workflows While Enabling a Path to UHD and SMPTE ST 2110
Leading Argentina-based sports media company Torneos y Competencias S.A....
22/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/05/2026
Back to All News
Ex-Husband, Current Husband, One Wild Rescue: Korean Action Co...
21/05/2026
Game Creek Video Columbia and Celtic, NEP Supershooter 8 will house onsite produ...
21/05/2026
Freshly graduated, this upstart producer, director, and camera operator is already working as an AP on videoboard shows for the Philadelphia Phillies
In the li...
21/05/2026
Media Links has announced a channel partnership with Clearcast Asia, a broadcast...
21/05/2026
SiriusXM and NASCAR have announced a multi-year renewal of their broadcasting agreement. SiriusXM will continue to carry live broadcasts of every NASCAR Cup Ser...
21/05/2026
Audio-Technica held a demonstration event at its Technica House location in New ...
21/05/2026
Ateme has announced that RTL Deutschland has selected Ateme's software-based...
21/05/2026
LiveU has announced that BCC Live deployed the LU900Q intelligent production unit for the first time during the 2026 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas North Americ...
21/05/2026
ATSC has announced that Mark Aitken, President of ONE Media and Senior VP of Advanced Technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group, will receive the 2026 Mark Richer ...
21/05/2026
BBright has published a technical analysis of the Media eXchange Layer (MXL), de...
21/05/2026
The Esports Foundation has announced that the 2026 Esports World Cup (EWC) will be hosted in Paris, France, from July 6 through August 23. The event marks the f...
21/05/2026
Chyron has announced PRIME Scorebug, a scorebug solution built on the PRIME Platform for on-premises sports production, and has expanded Chyron LIVE with purpos...
21/05/2026
Media Links has announced the integration of its Xscend IP transport platform with Skyline Communications' DataMiner xOps platform. The integration will be ...
21/05/2026
As live sports productions continue to demand more flexible, scalable, and cost-...
21/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into...
21/05/2026
Hey Miami & Atlanta post-production folks!
Shade is hosting a free private suite at a Braves game (6/2) and Marlins game (6/5) and have about a dozen extra tic...
21/05/2026
The Suns and Mercury become the first NBA and WNBA teams to make games available under a single broadcast partner across both over-the-air and streaming....
21/05/2026
iPhones are part of the the regular production rotation for Friday Night Baseba...
21/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into...
21/05/2026
Heather Matarazzo as Dawn Wiener in Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse...
21/05/2026
SKY RAIDER II INTERNATIONAL's modular open systems architecture delivers expanded operational reach and mission flexibility....