The WEKA Data Platform Will Power the First Live Sporting Event at Sphere, Honoring the Contributions of Mexican Fighters to Combat Sports in Celebration of Mexican Independence Day
CAMPBELL, Calif., September 13, 2024 – WekaIO Inc. (WEKA), the data platform company for AI, announced today that it is partnering with UFC®, the world’s premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, to provide the underlying data management and infrastructure supporting its UFC 306 AT RIYADH SEASON NOCHE UFC live broadcast event at Sphere Las Vegas on September 14th.
NOCHE UFC is the first live sporting event to take place at Sphere. The one-day event will comprise over six hours of live MMA action and an immersive film with six chapters from award-winning filmmakers. NOCHE UFC is a tribute to the Mexican people and their culture, as well as a celebration of their fighting spirit and contributions to combat sports in honor of Mexican Independence Day on September 16th.
The UFC team has partnered with Silent House Productions to bring its vision for this groundbreaking event to life. In preparation for the event’s pre-recorded aspects, the Silent House team needed to render hundreds of terabytes of native 12K video and then prepare it to be displayed on Sphere’s 16K x 16K resolution screen during the live broadcast.
To support the massive data processing requirements of the production, the team wanted an experienced technology partner and a proven data management solution that could meet and deliver on its demanding performance and scale requirements. Following WEKA’s successful partnerships with U2 and Dead & Company, supporting their recent residencies at Sphere, the WEKA® Data Platform was the obvious choice to provide the foundation for NOCHE UFC’s live and recorded video and audio production elements.
“We’re breaking new ground by mounting a live sporting broadcast production at Sphere—it has been a massive undertaking. The sheer scale and scope of the venue’s state-of-the-art technology stack presents significant production challenges. With no room for mistakes, everything in your technology stack has to be rock solid,” said Baz Halpin, Founder and CEO of Silent House and a producer of NOCHE UFC. “We had less than four months to find a technology partner that could help us realize UFC’s creative vision and meet the Sphere’s performance and scale requirements. WEKA’s proven technology and expertise made them the obvious choice to help us conquer this new frontier of live sports broadcasting.”
For more information on the NOCHE UFC event at Sphere, visit https://www.ufc.com/sphere/.
About UFC®
UFC® is the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization (MMA), with more than 700 million fans and approximately 283 million social media followers. The organization produces more than 40 live events annually in some of the most prestigious arenas around the world while broadcasting to over 975 million households across more than 170 countries. UFC’s athlete roster features the world’s best MMA athletes representing more than 80 countries. The organization’s digital offerings include UFC FIGHT PASS®, one of the world’s leading streaming services for combat sports. UFC is part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO) and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC and @UFC on X, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok: @UFC.
About WEKA
WEKA is architecting a new approach to the enterprise data stack built for the AI era. The WEKA® Data Platform sets the standard for AI infrastructure with a cloud and AI-native architecture that can be deployed anywhere, providing seamless data portability across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments. It transforms legacy data silos into dynamic data pipelines that accelerate GPUs, AI model training and inference, and other performance-intensive workloads, enabling them to work more efficiently, consume less energy, and reduce associated carbon emissions. WEKA helps the world’s most innovative enterprises and research organizations overcome complex data challenges to reach discoveries, insights, and outcomes faster and more sustainably – including 12 of the Fortune 50. Visit www.weka.io to learn more, or connect with WEKA on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.
WEKA and the WEKA logo are registered trademarks of WekaIO, Inc. Other trade names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Media Contact
WEKA Communications
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