Everywhere in sports there are constantly arising issues: whether puck crossed the goal line, and if so, whether there was violation of the rules; was there a false start; who crossed the finish line first; was the net touched; was there a foul; was the lane changed correctly? The price of an error could be a gold medal, place on the winner’s pedestal, or elimination from a tournament. Quality of sport judging is in everyone’s interest - fans, players and athletes, club owners, sports federations.
The required level of sport officiating at today's speeds and intensity is essentially unattainable without modern technology. Our system for sports video judging - videoReferee® is designed to provide foundation for objective error-free analysis of questionable moments.
For an advanced technology company with a substantial practical experience in the field of sport video replays, creating a video-judging system should have been a routine job. However, we had to solve fundamentally new problems. While the user of our traditional systems is a director or videographer, the user of the video-referee system would be a person without experience in multi-channel video recording or in working with sophisticated equipment. It was necessary to come up with a simple intuitive mode of operation, which at the same time would provide functionality for analyzing any video fragment of interest. This problem was solved. Any referee can now learn the operation of the videoReferee® control panel in less than an hour, and after a couple of hours practice, will be able to focus exclusively on the multi-screen action for making the right call.
A referee’s workplace is equipped with a multi-screen monitor and control console. By the way, the system can support two such sites.
The videoReferee® system allows monitoring of the action in real time or on recorded video by switching from one mode to another. All significant moments can be marked live and then quickly found on recorded material. Some events, like score changes, can be automatically marked by integration with scoreboard controller. When multiple cameras cover the same area, like it is often done in ice hockey, the episode can be viewed from different angles one by one or four at a time, including in slow motion or using the zoom function.
videoReferee® provides referees, goal control judges and other sport officials the opportunity to work with video coming from up to 11 cameras. Thus, the current requirements of NHL regulations can be met by a minimum of seven cameras: two goal net cameras (one in each goal), two cameras behind the goal, two over the goal areas, and one panoramic camera. Additional 2-4 cameras are a welcome addition for monitoring the game situation in such a dynamic and powerful game as ice hockey.
After the game a video report based on marked during the game moments can be generated and burned to DVD or recorded to a removable media. The video report can also include the complete recording from the panoramic camera.
The videoReferee® can transmit its video for use in broadcast. When viewed by the audience, this can contribute to a better understanding of referee’s decisions.
