Newsletter: May 2006
News | Technical Support | Coaches Corner | Case Study | Product Updates
Welcome to this months edition of the Sportstec newsletter.
April was a great month for Sportstec with the high point being the collaboration of our global distribution partners and staff in Sydney; Australia, at Sportstec's Global Distributors Meeting. The 4 day event was a great opportunity for Sportstec staff and partners to learn, explore and grow. I personally learnt a lot from this event and would like to again thank everyone who made this event such a fantastic success.
Regards,
Philip Jackson, Managing Director
In this months issue:
News
During April Sportstec held its Global Distributors Meeting. The conference was a huge success with distribution partners from around the world joining us to share their insights, knowledge and expertise with each other.
One of the great ideas to come out of this event was to hold a Sportstec User Conference. Click here to read more.
Technical Support
The hot topic on the circuit right now is HDV, this month we put a spotlight on HDV and take a look at it’s limitations. To read more click here.
Coach’s corner
This month we are looking at the Instance Note Feature introduced in Version 6.0 of SportsCode Elite, Pro, and Review. Click here to read and learn more.
Case Study
SportsCode has become an integral player in the University of Bath’s unique contribution to British sport. With 63 sports on offer at the university, SportsCode has been enthusiastically embraced by a variety of codes in the push for sporting excellence across the Southwest region of England. To read more click here.
Product Updates
To find out what the current available versions of all Sportstec products are click here.
Sportstec News
 During April Sportstec held its Global Distributors Meeting. The event was a huge success with distribution partners from around the world joining us to share their insights, knowledge and expertise with each other. We are extremely proud that you can now find Sportstec products in over 30 countries around the globe!
A highlight of the event was the keynote presentation given by Mike Schrage from Duke University. The topic was focused around the importance of winning partnerships, preparation and commitment. I was personally honored that Mike compared Sportstec to Duke Basketball in terms of winning organization’s. Sportstec, like Duke strive to be the best; now and in the long term and there is recognition by both parties that this only happens through sheer hardwork, preparation and commitment to the task. It was great to hear first hand that the coaching staff at Duke believe they have a vested interest in Sportstec delivering great products because it challenges and enhances their performance.
One of the objectives of this global meeting is to investigate new ways that Sportstec can add value to our customers. Our distribution partners and sales people shared with us many great ideas around how to help you, our customers to get more out of your Sportstec investments. One of these suggestions was to hold a “Sportstec Users Conference”.
The aim of this event would be to give you; our customers, the opportunity to meet with like-minded people who are using our technology in different sports and environments to learn, share and explore opportunities to drive your own usage and applications into new and exciting areas.
If you think this sounds of interest, let us know (email: info@sportstec.com) and if there is enough demand we will put the planning into place.
Philip Jackson
Managing Director
Technical Support
HDV and its Limitations
 HDV is a tempting video format because it offers high quality video images at a fraction of the price of other HD solutions. However, creating the right HDV editing workflow for a particular project is a difficult task.
Native HDV Editing Drawbacks
A common misconception is that HDV is just a high definition version of the mini-DV format. However, the two formats are so different that about the only thing they have in common are the letters D and V. While DV or DVC Pro are very easy for the computer to edit, HDV in its native form is extremely difficult for the computer to handle.
Many native HDV software and hardware based editing solutions claim to have better quality than non-native solutions. However, even a simple cut in a native HDV editing system will cause some kind of change to the video. This means that new video has to be generated which taxes your computer's CPU.
More complicated things such as color correction, titles, and resizing video frames will cause all of the affected video to be re-generated. Therefore, in many situations, native HDV editing offers little or no advantage because so much new video needs to be created.
Another problem for native HDV is that HDV and DVD use the same video encoding scheme, and therefore have many of the same limitations. There are many types of scenes that HDV doesn't handle well. If you've ever watched a slow fade to black on a DVD, or that when the camera pans across a crowd, or a fast moving passage of play, you may have noticed that the picture breaks up into squares.
This happens because the video encoder has hit the limit on how much video it can compress. When this happens, it leaves ugly squares scattered all over the video frame. Editing in native HDV, forces these limitations on you. It will also adversely affect the quality of the cuts, effects, and transitions that you put in your video.
Get it into I-Frames
To avoid these problems, the best thing to do is convert HDV into an I-Frame based video codec. There are several good choices for this, such as DVC Pro HD, the Apple Intermediate Codec, and Uncompressed 8 bit and 10 bit.
Once the video is converted to one of these formats, editing becomes a lot easier. The computer doesn't have to work so hard decompressing the HDV video.
I-frame based codec’s don't require re-rendering when a cut edit is made.
I-frame rendering is a lot less CPU intensive and many effects can be done in real-time and displayed on an external monitor.
The downside of converting video from HDV to another format is that it requires more hard drive space and it takes time to do the conversion.
First the HDV video has to be captured to the computer and then converted to another codec. This conversion process can be very fast for codec’s such as the Apple Intermediate Codec or Uncompressed HD, but DVC Pro HD will take much longer because the video must be re-sized to fit.
While the HDV video file requires 14 gigabytes per hour of video, DVC Pro HD requires 4 times as much space for 1080i. Uncompressed HD requires as much as 500 gigabytes per hour.
However, the cost of the extra hard drive space may be trivial compared to the amount of time and money you save in editing and post production.
HDV Capture doesn't allow you to preview the video until it is captured
You will need a separate monitor to preview the video from the HDV device.
Working with HDV is very easy when you convert it to an I-Frame based codec. For monitoring HD, but to do so increases the number of steps and requires the use of other Video cards for monitoring.
It is possible to use a Black Magic Design Decklink HD card, combined with a Black Magic HDLink, connected up to an Apple Cinema display. This solution will display video encoded at 1440x1080 resolution and output it at 1080i HD (1920x1080).
If you have a Sony HDV camera, editing video at this resolution is ideal, because you don't have to re-size it during the conversion process. You can create a custom sequence in Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD or above and edit at 1440x1080, but see the video displayed at 1080i on an HD monitor. The Apple Intermediate Codec and 8 bit or 10 bit uncompressed both support the 1440x1080 resolution.
You can then use an application like HDVxDV to capture the HDV video from the camera, and save a QT Iframe file while viewing the camera output, using the Decklink card and cinema display. But then if you have this card you can capture an HD file directly.
So in conclusion HDV does not represent an easy video format for anyone to integrate into their application for “Live” Capture, Preview, and Coding
Coaches Corner
Adding Coaching Notes to Instances in SportsCode Elite, Pro and Review
It has never been easier to add coaches’ notes and instructions to individual clips than with the SportsCode’s new Instance Note feature. This great new functionality enables you to quickly write detailed notes to your athletes attached to the associated instance or “play”. The athlete can then simply play the clip and read exactly what you want them to watch and learn.
To Add an Instance Note do the following
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Highlight the Instance you want to annotate.
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Select “Edit” on the menu line, then “Edit Instance Note” (Command + Option + E). This will open the Edit Instance Note Window.
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Alternatively, select the Instance you want to annotate and press the “Control” key. This triggers the pop up menu.
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Select “Edit Instance Note”.
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To turn the instance note on, select the check box on your timeline window labeled "Insatnce Note".
Case Study
Team Bath (UK)
 SportsCode has become an integral player in the University of Bath’s unique contribution to British sport. With 63 sports on offer in the family of sports activities based at the university, SportsCode has been enthusiastically embraced by a variety of codes in the push for sporting excellence across the Southwest region of England.
TeamBath caters for all levels of sport and recreation from 'learn to courses’’ to training programmes for Olympic medalists with netball, rugby, football, swimming, badminton, tennis and judo being the main sports that extensively use SportsCode. It is gradually extending to other sports such as beach volleyball and squash.
“Since we have introduced SportsCode to our analysis package the uptake from different sports has been huge’’ said Anna Davidson, whose main role is to support university teams, NGB athletes, athletes, coaches and sports in the south west region with particular emphasis on providing performance analysis support.
”The general response towards SportsCode has been extremely positive from all coaches who have used the product, both in terms of its flexibility and ease of use. It has been used for both match analysis and technique analysis”.
'Using the matrix, coaches have been able to come in and review the clips they want instantly with simple reference to when actions occurred can be seen on the timeline. The movie organiser has been used by the coaches to make simple presentations to the players outlining the key points from a match.’’
Davidson said the main aim with the product had been to get coaches and athletes to take responsibility for their own analysis rather than an analyst doing all the work for them. Some university degree students had also been placed with sports to assist coaches with analysis.
”Currently we are working on our streaming system so that footage that is on our server can be viewed all over the university campus. The longterm plan is to stream over the internet’’ she said.
Former New Zealand netball captain and coach Lyn Gunson, who also went on to coach England and is now the Coaching Director of the England Netball South and Southwest region Performance Centre and has been a SportsCode user for four years.
Netball’s unit in the video analysis suite at TeamBath was set up two years ago and has been heavily used by the Superleague team which has since gone on to win the national title. The way the team has used SportsCode has varied, depending on what mode the team is in at a particular time.
”We use it for team and opposition analysis and on tour as a tool for player support” Gunson said. “In the analysis suite we use it for player and team analysis. We are beginning to use the distance streaming functions for players not on site to send coaching material to them for their use and for the education of coaches and umpires in seminars, workshops, etc.”
”Players are using their time more effectively and efficiently in analysis. They are more likely to respond to the clips and transfer that immediately onto the court.’’Gunson said the advantages of SportsCode were its simplicity of use and the ability to make up small movies with selected pieces being significantly time effective in reducing the need to search material for suitable examples.
“Because it is so effective and efficient we find the athletes use it more often and do not need constant supervision’’ she said. “It is not a big drama and it becomes a significant unobstructive tool. It is also making the coaching life easier and more time efficient.’’
Gunson said SportsCode was becoming an integral tool and the contribution to the Superleague programme was significant because of the nature of the team and its diverse make-up both in distance to training and availability.
Since SportsCode’s introduction to the University of Bath, judo is another to realise its potential to become a vital cornerstone in the development of the players, the programme and the sport itself.
The judo programme’s use of SportsCode is threefold, Team Bath Judo Video Analyst Katrina McDonald said. “Firstly, the development of players individually is essential -- the equipment facilitates coaches to work alongside players looking at their techniques, style and general fighting, either at the time of the action during training or preceding competitions.”
'The second phase of the progression involves the creation of a database. This can be placed on the streamer so access can be granted across campus and in the future across the world through the World Wide Web. The database will hold the analysis of techniques, so specific skills can be grouped together and regarded in a more generic fashion.
“Thirdly, the database will be used to create categories of styles, where different countries are examined and their general qualities phased together. This will permit coaches to examine the way a country fights and how this can be combated and then this can be fed directly back to the players in the way they are being trained.’’
McDonald said the advantages of SportsCode were vast and once the initial foundations had been implemented TeamBath could become one of the leading centres for the development of video analysis in judo. This would result in more technically sound players, with a far superior knowledge of other country’s styles and fighters, resulting in a greater likelihood of medal-winning potential.
For more info on Team Bath go to: www.teambath.com
Product Updates
To download the latest versions of Sportstec software go to
http://www.sportstecsupport.com
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