Be it any sport (group or Individual) , the sheer number of cameras inside a stadium tells only part of the story of how imaging technology is changing how contemporary sports broadcasting captures the action on the field, pitch, diamond, or rink, and how it’s also influencing coaching, and the actual playing of the game.

Today, professional sports are much more than just a competition between players or teams. It has become a huge industry – with fans who are willing to spend a lot of money to be entertained and experience the action in the best possible way. Top sport clubs generate a big share of their revenues from TV rights and commercials, and the more interest they attract, the more money they can make. Consequently, clubs and leagues are open to investing in technologies that can help improve athletes’ performance as well as how audiences experience the events. Many pioneering companies in the world who are in the field of real-time sports analysis, offering comprehensive solutions to the growing demand for data collection and analysis in professional sports.

These Camera based Imaging Systems are used for BALL TRACKING, PLAYER TRACKING, MOVEMENTS, ACTIONS, FACILITATING DECISION MAKING FOR ON FIELD OFFICIALS, HELP COMMENTATORS TO IMPROVE ON THEIR FINDINGS etc.

Optical sports tracking can “guide teams to make important decisions that improve their athlete’s fitness level, reduce injuries, learn more about tactical decisions, and ultimately improve their chances of success.”

These Imaging systems use non-intrusive technology to assist coaches, physiotherapists, and managers in collecting real-time data for performance optimization and athletic engagement. Dedicated, static cameras in the stands of the stadium combine to deliver a unique data capture and analysis system capable of calculating player and ball position live. This data is instantly available for play-by-play video analysis and compelling graphical visualizations. 

These products include Super-HD cameras and image processing technology to deliver live tracking of all moving objects with extremely low latency and a less delay  Even stereo technology with two cameras seeing the event,  constantly captures on-field action from several angles. The system can scale to camera units on all sides of the stadium where the cameras can be positioned on the opposite sides of the playing surface and according to the sport/event. The combination of different angles with software can analyse every image to extract positions for each object on the field, resulting in two- or three-dimension tracking of all players, the referees/umpires, and the ball in real time on any sport. In games like badminton and Tennis, cameras are used to assist the referees/umpires and also recording of the player’s movements, ball/shuttle movements, bat movements etc., gives idea to coaches to correct the weaknesses and also avoid injuries. As the recording is done for all players – the opponents also, learning about the game of others would also be helpful.

Once Richard Hadlee one of the greatest fast bowler in Cricket from New Zealand said that he would be rewinding in his mind all the balls that he bowled on a day in the cricket match and if he has not taken the wicket of any player, then this rewinding would help him to get the batsman out the next day. These were characters of genius players. But now technology provides this facility to all players, and they can learn from their mistakes by viewing the videos.

These videos help Biomechanic reading and corrections for a player. With these systems coaches have lot of data about a player, about opponents, about ground condition etc., to coach the players better prepared for the next game.

Popular games like cricket now solely depends on technology on decision making. Hence the technology that Imaging technology is pushed to have cameras with highest resolution possible, highest frame rates possible.

This has pushed this industry to look out of Broad cast cameras, typical DSLR types and go for Industrial cameras and solution. Industrial cameras are apt for working on solutions based on algorithms developed and run on powerful host platforms.

We, Online Solutions, represent different companies from across the globe, whose products can be used for sports applications, and we have the expertise to help the developers from selection of cameras to putting the same to use in Sports applications.

The companies are listed below:

Teledyne DALSA was able to offer a broad range of industry-approved camera models that supplied the robustness needed for outdoor applications faced in sports arenas and that reliably worked within a wide temperature range and under changing light situations. The multitude of available cameras in different interfaces like 5GigE, 10GigE etc., also gave us the flexibility to easily diversify systems wherever needed, for example by using camera models with different resolutions or frame rates when required.

IO Industries another Canadian company that makes cameras that comes with very flexible Lens Mount systems, different interfaces and even with in built recording facility ( without compression). They also provide DVRs – Digital Video Recorders for long time recording of high-res high fps cameras with different interfaces.

Norpix is another company that provides the recording and other supporting modules in software for high-speed recording, analysing, time stamping, synchronizing multiple cameras etc.

Schenider-Kreuznach and Navitar are companies represented by us for Lens selections for different mounts on Cameras.

Midopt is a company that deals with different filters for cameras that help in proper capture of images at different lights and wave lengths.

With all these experienced companies, Online Solutions can provide apt solutions for any sports related applications and related analysis on software and also take them with 3D representation etc., to graphics domain for better study and enhance viewer experience.

Kindly contact us at [email protected] for more information and also visit our web site www.onlsol.com to know more about us, our products and solutions.

Note:

This blog also contains some compilation of different related Contents and Images from general purpose web sites or from the web site of the companies represented by us in India. Any one finding any objection to the use of the same can report to us at [email protected] and we shall make corrections as per legal requirements. This blog is more of informative purposes only.