UFC's IP-Based, State-of-the-Art Broadcast-Ops Center Goes Live at UFC Apex Despite Pandemic Originally designed for Contender Series, the facility handles major events, remote production By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, November 13, 2020 - 10:30 am
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Even before the pandemic, UFC's Craig Borsari and Tim O'Toole knew they had a monumental task ahead of them: launching an IP-based, state-of-the-art broadcast-operations center for the new UFC Apex facility that would fuel the company's production efforts for generations to come. Despite a global pandemic that wreaked havoc on the buildout schedule and the UFC event calendar, the UFC Apex BOC is now live and driving all UFC event productions.
PCR-A, used for world/English-feed production, is one of three control rooms at UFC Apex.
It's an incredible accomplishment that we were able to not only pull this off but do it in the midst of the pandemic, says Borsari, EVP, operations and production, UFC. We've already executed some major events and delivered content around the globe out of the facility. We feel that this is exactly what the company needs and our production unit needs for the future. It allows us to have full autonomy and full customization in the way we produce our content. We're incredibly proud of the entire team and excited for what the future holds.
Early Development: Committing to IP for the Future UFC Apex, which officially opened in June 2019, is a 130,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Las Vegas that contains more than 50,000 sq. ft. of production space and more than 70,000 sq. ft. of office space. Originally designed to serve as the home of Dana White's Contender Series, the building features a full arena for fights and multiple sound stages to produce additional content.
UFC opened the 130,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Las Vegas in 2019 prior to the launch of the Apex BOC.
This facility was always designed to host live events - specifically, the UFC Contender Series fights - but it morphed into something much bigger as we started to understand how we might be able to utilize the hundreds of square feet in different ways, says Borsari. We knew we wanted to future-proof the facility so that we could produce a wide variety of productions - including live content, studio content, and REMI content - and support whatever UFC might build out on the property in the future.
With that in mind, UFC teamed up with systems integrator BeckTV to design and build a fully IP-based 4K-capable (it's currently running at 1080p) broadcast-operations center based on SMPTE ST 2110 that would serve as the technical hub for the entire Apex facility.
UFC Apex is hosting not only the Contender Series but also major UFC events.
Whatever we decide to build out in the future, IP allows us to be able to scale up for anything that might come along, says O'Toole, SVP, event production, UFC. Instead of investing in other infrastructure throughout the property, we can produce anything and everything out of the Apex BOC. Scalability was the primary reason behind our decision to go IP, but we also wanted stay on the forefront of technology by going 1080p and having the capability to go 4K when the time comes.
The Apex BOC won't just serve as the home for productions in Vegas, however. It will also play a vital role in remote productions from UFC events around the world (when they resume after the pandemic subsides).
We're a global tour, and we currently travel our core crew to those locations, says O'Toole. We just spent five weeks on Fight Island, and we traveled a large crew from the U.S. to Abu Dhabi. In the not too distant future, [instead of spending] five weeks in a far-off location, the core crew could just come to Apex and produce the show from Las Vegas instead of traveling them halfway across the world.
Pandemic Impact: Remote Commissioning, Safety Protocols Keep Integration Rolling UFC and BeckTV had just begin commissioning equipment when the coronavirus pandemic shut down development for several weeks. However, after pausing technical integration and commissioning on March 13 because of the pandemic, UFC and BeckTV restarted work in early May following Federal Coronavirus Guidelines, instituting rigorous testing, and commissioning equipment remotely whenever possible.
The two audio-control rooms at UFC Apex feature Lawo audio consoles.
The challenge was that building out an IP facility is obviously going to have its share of bugs, even if you have your whole team onsite, says O'Toole. But, when you're encountering really complex issues with NMOS and PTP and things like that, working remotely makes it that much more of a challenge. But Beck deserves a lot of credit for sticking with this, and they were a great group to work with.
By the time the BOC officially went live in September (it was originally set to open in early May), Apex had become the de facto home of all UFC events because the pandemic had shut down access to arenas across the country. This also added to the delay in the BOC launch, because UFC and BeckTV had to up the technological ante to accommodate the needs of major UFC fights compared with the smaller Contender Series events.
We had to scale up to a major UFC-level event that typically is in a 15,000-seat arena, O'Toole notes. Obviously, that's not what Apex was designed for originally. Even though we're not having fans, a UFC show is significantly bigger than a Contender show. And so there was a lot more that we had to put on Beck's shoulders to get us to the level of a major UFC event.
Inside the BOC: An IP-Based Wonderland The SMPTE ST 2110 facility is built around an Evertz EXE 2.0-26 25GE IP router, which allows up to 520 multiview images (via a
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UFC's IP-Based, State-of-the-Art Broadcast-Ops Center Goes Live at UFC Apex Despite Pandemic Originally designed for Contender Series, the facility handles major events, remote production By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
