Thanks to advances in technology more and more decisions by referees in variety of sports with rapidly developing complex situations are made using technical means.
From May 28th to 31st in Markkleeberg, Germany at the European Championships in Canoe Slalom for the first time in the practice of canoe-slalom competitions a specialized video-judging system, videoReferee® by slomo.tv, was used. The trial was organized by Broadcast Solutions GmbH, exclusive distributor of slomo.tv products.
Canoe Slalom is very difficult sport and it very much depends on the quality of refereeing. Competitions are held on specially constructed water course, usually not higher 3rd degree of difficulty. The 250 - 400 m track with water flow of no less than 2 m/sec usually contains 18 - 25 gates. Depending on how the canoe passes the gate, the participant can be penalized - 2 seconds for improper passing and 50 seconds for missing a gate. Passing the gate not in upright position is considered as missing the gate. The Markkleeberg venue was equipped with 25 gates and videoReferee® was used for analyzing gate-passing controversial moments.
Debut of videoReferee® system in Canoe Slalom competitions was more than successful. Referee team led by Colin Woodgate, was quite impressed and satisfied with the system’s ability to assist in analyzing complex situations. Next the system will be used at the World Cup 2015, which will be held September 15-20 in London.
videoReferee®, a specialized multi-channel video recording system, is designed for on-the fly video analyzing in a variety of sports. The system can continuously record up to 11 channels of Full HD video. At the same time referee can select and search four or one channel or play one channel at different playback speed. The system allows bookmarking of interesting moments and comfortably navigates through the marks.
videoReferee® can be interfaced with timing and/or scoreboard control equipment and display received information synchronously with video. The system is controlled by a dedicated console with a simple, convenient and intuitive interface. At the end of a sporting event it allows you to create a video report on a DVD or as HD MPEG file. Currently there are applications for ice hockey, basketball, volleyball, judo, etc.
