Newsletter 12: October 2007
Welcome | Technical Support | Products | Coaches Corner | Case Study
At the Rugby World Cup 2007 (France), Sportstec had 13 out of the 20 teams using our products for game analysis. Going into the finals, Sportstec had both finalists (England and South Africa) as customers.
Sportstec congratulates South Africa for its victory in the Rugby World Cup 2007.
Version 7 Sportstec Gamebreaker has been released during September and we are now finalising SportsCode Pro and Elite. We believe this release of Gamebreaker is the most thoroughly tested version we have released to date. If you do find a bug please let us know immediately and we will do everything possible to remedy it as soon as possible.
Sportstec limited is pleased to announce that its joint venture with The Sports People Limited has been renamed Sportstec UK Limited. Sportstec has increased its ownership in the company to 85%.
As part of our growth and commitment to our customers in Australia we are looking for a Sales and Support rep for the Australian market. This exciting role offers the right applicant an opportunity to work one on one with Australias leading clubs and coaches. For details of the position please e-mail Simon Jackson (simon@sportstec.com)
The Football Association (FA) in England is looking for another analyst. They require a person with strong SportsCode experience. For details of the position please email Stephen O’Brien (stephenobrien74@yahoo.co.uk).
Our Distributor in Singapore is looking for a sales person to cover Sportstec products for Singapore and Malaysia. They are looking for a user of Sportstec products who is interested in a career change (moving into sales) and also interested in transferring to Singapore as the role is based there. For further details contact BK Ang (bk@aboutpismo.com). Singapore offers a good opportunity for Sportstec products and Malaysia already has a solid installed base of our products.
Philip Jackson, Managing Director
In this months issue:
Technical Support
A new feature in SportsCode Elite Version 7 is remote communication. See all you can do with Communication windows in our Technical Support section.
Products
Sportstec has released Sportstec Exchange, developed to meet the needs of teams sharing videos for their League or Conference. Find out more about our first customer using Sportstec Exchange in our Products section.
Coaches Corner
In the Coaches corner, learn how to use SportsCode (emphasis on Version 7) to enhance the education process of elite academy football.
Case Study
Sports technology at Middlesbrough Football Club (UK). Read more
Technical Support
Communication window
A new feature in SportsCode Elite V7 is remote communication. The communication window allows us to send communication packets between 2 or more SportsCode systems over a network. You can send start, pause, resume, and end commands to control capture and send code button commands to remotely code a capturing or coding system.
There are many scenarios that can be configured. Here are 3 common ones.
In scenario 1, we have a main coding/capture station controlling multiple capture stations that mirror every click on the main computer. Note, the capture stations are “headless”, all control is done from the main station. This is a common configuration when using a firewire hub to distribute a video feed to multiple stations. The second the event is complete, each station has a complete coded timeline with video. So, post event review is ready immediately. This type of configuration saves a great amount of time because the main capture/coding station file does not have to be copied to each station after the event. This also, is a great way to create a backup copy of the event while coding.
Scenario 2 demonstrates two users sharing code input. When one user clicks on a button in the code window, the same button is clicked on the other station and vice-versa. Each user is focused on a particular aspect of coding which creates a higher level of accuracy for real time analysis. As the event unfolds, each user can access the others coded information in their own timeline.
In cases where capture is done in a centralized spot not in view of the event or completely off the grounds in another part of the world, we can configure scenario 3. You can have multiple coding only stations located around the venue or the world sending button clicks to a capture station collecting everyone’s code input for the event. Connected over the internet, a user could be watching the event from their home transmitting data back to the capture station. We will explore this configuration later in this article.
There are a hundred and one different scenarios. If you have a particular one in mind, please contact our support team to investigate the possibilities. For more in depth documentation on this topic, click here or log into the forum.
Products
 Sportstec has released Sportstec Exchange, developed to meet the needs of teams sharing videos for their League or Conference.
Sportstec Exchange has 4 products options to fill the requirements and financial budgets of the client:
- Sportstec Exchange incorporates league video management rule and utilises Aspera transfer protocols
- Sportstec Exchange (FTP) incorporates league video management rule and utilises FTP transfer protocols
- Sportstec Exchange FS incoporates simple league rules whilst also utilising Aspera transfer protocols
- Sportstec Exchange FS (FTP) incorporates simple league rules whilst utilising FTP transfer protocols
The first client for the Sportstec Exchange product is the French Volleyball League involving 42 teams. Initial reactions from the French Volleyball League are commenting on the access to this vast amount of information in such a fast time frame.
Olivier Lecat is Stade Poitevin Volleyball's coach and is the French National Men's Volleyball team assistant coach:
“Today, what a coach is worried about when preparing a game plan, is the amount of data he can get to set coherent tactical tendencies. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to have scouts on the different competition’s locations, which happens in certain countries or for more professionalized sports. In my opinion, Sportstec Exchange (video exchange solution selected by the 42 volleyball professional clubs in France) happens to be outstanding:
- Very competitive upload/download speed
- Video data bank + Mercury stats database (statistical analysis file associated with every single game)
- User-friendly and totally reliable
In conclusion, Sportstec Exchange is amazingly time saving and allows us to handle much more statistical data than the other tools available.”
The integrated results from the French Volleyball League can be seen on www.lnv.fr with all the stats and video generated by Sportstec Mercury and Exchange.
Coaches Corner
Using SportsCode (emphasis on Version 7) to enhance the education process of elite academy football
Within Football in the UK all Academy teams are required to provide a National Vocational Qualification. All scholars have to complete coursework and coaching qualifications within this NVQ. Currently Middlesbrough Football Club have decided to use 8 Gamebreaker Plus’s. The aim is to provide visual evidence for the NVQ, self-analysis is one of the key areas along with coach education providing evidence of coaching sessions undertaken which will be directly used as the assessment for the PFA Level 2 Coaching Award. Dave Parnaby (Academy Manager) added “Sportstec’s products will be critical in the development of academy football and will help to minimise the amount of paperwork that will have to be carried out for the NVQs.”
From this we can start to think how we can use SportsCode Elite’s new features within version 7. The coach can use the sorter window as an educational tool. Looking to add questions to a series of clips so that the players can interact and illustrate an understanding to what the coach is asking.
The coach would make the clips in the normal manner, highlight the clips he wants for his presentation and export them to the sorter window by clicking the sorter icon on the timeline.
Once these are in the sorter window the coach can add the question he/she wants to ask the team / player and enter this in the instance note column. From this, the coach can create an exam type criteria.
Click Synchronize which finds these clips in the timeline.
Tick Instance notes in the timeline bar then Make movie, this therefore makes a movie of the clips in your sorter window that have the questions on.
As above we can see that the coach is focusing on educating the players’ eye to extract the information from the visual clip using the question at the bottom. In a team meeting situation this will help spur along open discussions.
As part of the Academy NVQ process the coach can use this method for coursework. And the players can work in the analysis room and enter their answer into the sorter window at the end of the question, then save this sorter window as their project.
Then the players use the synchronise button to add their answers to the clips. Once they make the movie from the timeline it can be saved as a Quicktime file. The players can then produce their own DVD as coursework. This can be done using post production products such as iMovie or iDVD.
SportsCode Version 7 will be released very soon and has many new exciting features. If you have any queries regarding any of SportsCode’s features, contact your nearest Sportstec Representative.
Case Study
Sports Technology at Middlesbrough Football Club (UK)
The motivation to introduce this programme came from the Academy Manager, David Parnaby, who had seen a presentation at an Academy Managers' meeting. All the staff were present at a demonstration in our Academy and were enthused by the possibilities opened up by such a system.
The quality of the use is dependent upon the quality of the filming at matches and it is advisable to get as good a vantage point as possible to film games. Using a Mac system it is possible to record direct to the computer but it can be better to record to disc for ease of use and portability and, by networking a number of lap tops, it is possible to have a number of trainees using the same source material to observe and record from.
Trainees have found the system easy to use and once a "culture of use" is generated it is not unusual to see the trainees working alone to tabulate and record their own DVDs. An unforeseen spin off has been the "working with others" aspect of the system as often the trainees help each other and co-operate in recordings and it does generate interaction and dialogue. Despite initial apprehensions we may have had of a "glued to the screen" syndrome, naturally there is some of this but quality interaction does take place. The use of Gamebreaker has ensured high quality production of evidence for the players' NVQ Level 3 in Sporting Excellence.
The real bonus of this system is that it generates discussion between Coaches and players and what you have is a focussed and concentrated view of one player's play, depending of course on how wide he has set his parameters. The discussion is based on what went on in the game and does not rely on recall but evidence. It can generate quality discussion between Coach and player and not only with one Coach, the player can access any of the coaching staff to discuss and advise on performance.
Other advantages of the system are that the player has a live record of his playing performance which he can take home to enjoy or reflect on or share with his parents. The Coach has a record that he can refer back to, of not only the whole game but also of individual player performances which will help him in player assessment and of course team performance.
It can help with Coach education in that Coaches can record and study their own performance in coaching sessions, this could help them review their communication and organisational skills and to assess objectively session content and effectiveness and again can give rise to seeking advice or opinion from other Coaching staff in order to improve performance.
Having installed the gamebreaker system on 8 lap tops we are now working towards the idea of employing IT support in an attempt to enhance us further.
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