DENVER and LAS VEGAS: Levels Beyond announced that Ultimate Fighting Championshipwill manage its worldwide video production workflow using Levels Beyond’s Reach Engine software platform. A key element of this transition will be the digital migration of UFC’s entire 19-year content library, consisting of 30,000-plus hours of content.
In addition to a global Pay Per View TV platform, UFC has a new home on Fox Sports Media Group, which includes Fox, Fox Deportes, FX, Fuel TV, Speed and all of Fox’s regional sports networks. This partnership will require original programming output of 350 hours this year, up from the 90 hours aired in 2011.
UFC needs to access its live and archived content on the fly in a myriad of venues, and push it to any partner or viewing device.Previously, the process required editors to remember thousands of hours of video and repeatedly upload content to finite working-storage drives, only to be deleted again when storage ran low. Now editors, production and distribution partners can use the Levels Beyond Reach Engine web interface to find and retrieve footage. This functionality allowed UFC to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to install tape machines, tape libraries, and patch systems in edit bays in its newest production facility inLas Vegas. These savings also include much needed efficiencies in distribution to existing technology partners, as well as enabling new revenue opportunities by outputting content to Xbox, Hulu, iTunes, worldwide broadcast partners and other emerging OTT partners.
