UFC 102 Live Weigh-In Tonight – Powered by Silverlight
It’s time! The Ultimate Fighting Championship #102 on August 29th will use Silverlight to bring the fights to online viewers at https://www.ufc.com. While this in itself is great news, there will be an exciting addition to the coverage – the pre-fight weigh ins will be covered LIVE on Friday, August 28th using Silverlight and Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming. Fans will be able to view the UFC 102 weigh-in, scheduled at 4 PM PST/7 PM EST on Friday, August 28 at www.ufc.com/live.
For anyone not familiar with UFC, it’s the world’s leading mixed martial arts sports organization. While UFC first became a hit in the US, recently it has become a worldwide phenomenon, and UFC fans are always looking to connect more deeply to the event and the fighters. The UFC leads the charge in providing innovative ways to bring UFC content such as the pre-fight weigh-ins to viewers.
UFC has partnered with CSG Systems to bring UFC to its viewers online. UFC (UFC.com) uses CSG’s Content Direct product, which enables content owners to monetize their content through subscription, pay per use and advertising model on both their sites, and their syndication partner site, to stream their pre-fight weigh-ins on UFC.com and many partner sites across the globe. UFC also uses Content Direct to sell, protect and stream their pay-per-view fights on UFC.com and other partner sites globally.
CSG implemented Smooth Streaming into Content Direct earlier this year, and is currently participating in the beta for Live Smooth Streaming with Microsoft and Akamai. Content Direct, using Smooth Streaming , will enable UFC to provide their customers with the best viewing experience possible, based on the customer’s available bandwidth and machine resources. This is important as consumers of this high-action, high-value content expect a great online experience, and expect content to be clear, stutter-free and be provided at the highest resolution possible. The content is being encoded into the Live Smooth Streaming formats by Origin Digital using Inlet Spinnaker encoders.
Check it out for yourself today at 4 PM PST/7 PM EST on Friday, August 28 at www.ufc.com/live.