SMT Leverages ROOSTER' Workflow To Run Professional Fighters League Data, Graphics Ops Remotely SMT's team is stationed in Durham, NC, and the PFL fights are in Atlantic City By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Monday, May 24, 2021 - 2:26 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
SMT has been a key cog in the Pro Fighters League machine since it launched in 2019, capturing a tsunami of data from inside the SmartCage and churning out next-gen analytics that are among the most advanced in all of MMA. However, with the pandemic limiting the size of onsite crew for PFL productions this year in Atlantic City, NJ, SMT was suddenly forced to rethink its operation under a remote scenario. Enter SMT's new ROOSTER (Remote Optics Operator Staffing & Technology for Eliminating Risk) production model.
A total of 15 SMT personnel are working remotely from Durham, NC, for Pro Fighters League shows.
With the challenges posed in a COVID environment, we needed to come up with alternative ways to provide the same deliverables for PFL shows, says Robbie Louthan, SVP, business development, SMT. This particular event is unique for us because SMT has such a large amount of resources dedicated to every show. We typically have had 13 SMT support personnel for every PFL show, and trying to have 13 resources onsite in a COVID environment just wasn't feasible. It really was a unique opportunity for us to deliver the same product and service suite with minimal onsite footprint and minimal impact to the final on-air product.
Partnership Built on the Power of Data, Out-of-the-Box Thinking PFL's SmartCage is covered with sensors to generate its Cagenomics fighter-tracking data
SMT provides proprietary technology that combines live scoring with real-time biometric and positional data for PFL, which has made data-centric storytelling a priority in its broadcasts. Dubbed Cagenomics, SMT's fighter-tracking offers live punch-speed data (transmitted by SMT-developed sensors worn inside PFL gloves), power ratings, heart-rate tracking, and energy exerted. New in the data complement is Fighter Performance Rating (FPR), and the launch of a kick-speed metric is expected soon.
This data is displayed on the stats prompter for the commentators and integrated into on-air graphics. SMT's OASIS Platform seamlessly integrates and combines live scoring with this biometric and positional data to enhance the analysis, storytelling, and graphic presentation.
The PFL truly thinks outside the box, says Louthan. They know what has been done in the past, and they are trying to create a unique brand using technology, and their SmartCage is core to that mission. For us, it's a dream partnership in the sense that this is an organization that is open to any crazy out-of-the-box idea we want to pitch their way; nothing is off the table. So it has been a tremendous collaboration that allows us to come up with some very unique and cool things.
Professional Fighters League Executive Producer George Greenberg seconds that notion: SMT has been by our side since day one. Of course, there were growing pains, but, if there's a problem, they're going to solve it. Anytime we've had a crazy idea, they are smart enough and brave enough to go for it.
From Durham to Atlantic City: How SMT and PFL Pulled It Off Professional Fighter League data and graphics operations are handled remotely from SMT's Durham, NC, headquarters.
This season, due to COVID-related onsite restrictions, nearly all SMT personnel are located at its headquarters in Durham, NC, and its equipment is physically housed inside PFL's bubble in Atlantic City. As part of its ROOSTER workflow, SMT is using a combination of proprietary and third-party technology to bring back the UI, video monitoring, and comms to Durham in order to operate those systems remotely.
In Durham, SMT has set up five pods to keep the 15 operators socially distanced at its facility, including the font graphics coordinator, graphics ops, and data inputters. SMT initially deployed four people in Atlantic City for the ultra-complex set up of PFL's SmartCage but is now operating with just two crew members onsite (one in the truck, one cage-side).
We're doing almost everything remotely, including [calculating] strikes, strike speed, take-down attempts, submission attempts, kicks, power strikes, and all the traditional strike data, says Louthan. That is being collected and aggregated here in Durham through a video feed provided from Atlantic City. What may have been done in the past with a couple of people sitting cage-side watching the fight is now being done entirely in a remote environment.
In addition to providing data-capture/processing services and the scorebug graphic, SMT worked closely with Big Block to design and integrate the graphics package for PFL.
SMT made it one-stop shopping - not just from the technology perspective but for the creative side as well, says Greenberg. And I had so much confidence after seeing their work, I felt they could develop the necessary systems. And they came through with flying colors.
SMT's ROOSTER workflows allows the graphics coordinator and operators in Durham to communicate in real time with the production team at the front bench in Atlantic City 450 miles away.
It was a very different workflow for us this year, but, honestly, if you hadn't told that we were in a different state hundreds of miles away, I would have thought they were in the next truck over, says Greenberg. You just press the button, and it's amazing how it feels like they're right there.
ROOSTER: SMT Sees a Future Centered on Remote Operation PFL's scorebug showcases a host of fighter data provided by SMT throughout each fight.
SMT has built 16 ROOSTER production pods in Durham capable o
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
SMT Leverages ROOSTER' Workflow To Run Professional Fighters League Data, Graphics Ops Remotely SMT's team is stationed in Durham, NC, and the PFL fights are in Atlantic City By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
