UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and Sphere Entertainment have announced that UFC 306 at the RIYADH SEASON NOCHE fight evening, held on September 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas, was the highest-grossing UFC event of all time and highest-grossing single event at Sphere, with a gate of $22m and a sold-out crowd of 16,024.
The mixed martial arts event was the first live sports event at Sphere, and capitalised on the venue’s audio and video capabilities. The UFC 306 at RIYADH SEASON NOCHE UFC was also designed to celebrate Mexican Independence Day weekend, including a celebration of the Mexican fighting spirit and contributions to combat sports.
UFC 306 featured the premiere of the film For Mexico, For All Time as told in six 90-second chapters woven into the event presentation shown on the interior display plane of Sphere – the world’s highest resolution LED display – throughout the pay-per-view portion of the event, with each chapter focusing on a different period in Mexican history and its influence on the makeup of Mexican identity.
The event took advantage of Sphere’s advanced technologies. For example, it boasted a novel use of Sphere Immersive Sound powered by HOLOPLOT audio systems. UFC and Sphere’s audio team deployed audio beams 360 degrees for the first event held in the round at Sphere.
The tech team deployed 37 microphones: 32 directional microphones were installed in the seating area of the venue to pick up ambient sounds and five “thump” mics were placed under the Octagon to power Sphere’s haptic seating experience. The audio team provided force feedback to the venue’s haptic seats based on the action in the Octagon using both automated and manual cues, a first for a UFC event.
The event also deployed 48 cameras and six broadcast mobile units. Select fighters’ heart rates were tracked, analysed, and displayed in real time on Sphere’s interior media plane and on the broadcast, and UFC made use of Sphere’s “pass-through” lighting capability by installing 80 light fixtures behind Sphere’s interior media plane that projected light on the Octagon to replace UFC’s traditional hanging lighting truss.
Other innovations included four in-arena streaming audio channels, including Spanish and four unique transmissions to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France produced live from a single control room at the Broadcast Operations Center, at UFC APEX, in Las Vegas.
In lieu of not being able to rig mics over the Octagon due to the absence of the traditional UFC lighting truss, UFC installed ‘Shure digital microphone array technology’, an audio product not yet available on the market, under the four camera platforms on the Octagon.
