UFC Heads to Saudi Arabia with Clair Global

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (August 2, 2024)—MMA is a worldwide phenomenon, so it’s not surprising that the sport’s most visible organization, UFC, recently hosted its first event in Saudi Arabia. UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Aliskerov attracted fans from far and wide to the Kingdom Arena, and much as it has for many UFC events around the world, Clair Global was on-hand to tackle the event’s audio.

The event made use of Clair’s growing Middle East inventory, opting for a Yamaha Rivage PM7 and a sizable in-the-round Cohesion PA. Overseeing the audio effort was Phil Campbell, joined by FOH Engineer Andy Banks; Clair Global Regional Manager, Stu Wright;  and others.

When talking about live sound systems, it’s easy to get wrapped up in speakers and consoles, but what may well have made the effort stand out was the planning that went into the project’s cabling. Clair Global UAE COO Al Woods explained, “Clair has deployed similar sized Cohesion systems in the region for both music and sporting events, but our UFC PA system differed due to the cable infrastructure. The Kingdom Arena has a height of 47m and an external dimension of 220m x 150m, so to keep the cables out of eyeline for the TV broadcast camera shots, the cable lengths and management system were both detailed and extensive…. Some of the runs were well over 100m in length. As with all Cohesion system deployments, Clair’s proprietary Hi-D cabling system was used. The Hi-D multicore’s non-conventional approach significantly increases damping factor and decreases frequency-dependent signal loss along long runs, which in this case was invaluable.”

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Designed by Clair’s Leon Fink, the system comprised two main hangs of 16  Cohesion CO10 to cover the two end stands and ‘pitch’ area. Meanwhile, at approximately 90-degrees to the mains, four flown out hangs consisting of a dozen CO8 boxes each provided coverage to the arena’s VIP and main stands. For low-end sub coverage, two hangs of Cohesion CP218 II+ with floor subs beneath the grandstands and a pair of CP118+ were deployed under the Octagon, enabling additional sub impact during the fight. For those in the front row, Clair deployed eight Cohesion CP6+ for down-fill. The system was controlled, tuned, and aligned using Lake LM44’s and Lab.gruppen PLM Series amplifiers.

Clair also provided RF, which was covered by 14 channels of Shure Axient with a Shure PSM 1000 IEM system.