In Broadcast - July 2020 - 38

38

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 10 - Issue 7 | July 2020

InStudio

Video Refereeing
and Technology
Igor Vitiorets, CTO at slomo.tv, examines the role
of video refereeing and the technology that ensures
fair play for all...

T

he use of technical means for
recording images to determine the
winners in sports has almost a century
and a half history. The first mention of
such device dates back to 1882. The
photo-finish was used to determine
the winner in races and calculate
totalizator payments.
It was the financial component
that played a decisive role in the
emergence of photo-finish technology.
In 1928, photo-finish was first used
at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam
in track and field competition. The
correct determination of the winners
is important not only from a financial
point of view but also from the fairness
point of view.
The availability of multi-channel
video recording and the desire of
athletes and referees to achieve fair
play became the driving force for video
refereeing.
Recently,
thanks
to
the
implementation of VAR in football,
this technology has become familiar to
almost all sports fans.
Ice Hockey First
Our company had been dealing
with video refereeing for over 10
years. Slomo.tv's system designed
for this task - videoReferee® was first
used in 2007 at ice hockey world
championship in Moscow. Since then
we have been able to accumulate a
huge technological experience. Ice
hockey, basketball, canoe slalom,
water polo, volleyball, handball,
fencing, underwater rugby, boxing every sport has required customization
of our systems. This allowed us to
create a solid technological backbone,
not only in hardware and software but
also in methodology.
The elements of a modern videorefereeing system are: well-developed
governing rules; qualified video
referees who understand the rules
and ideology of the sport and know
the equipment and its application; and
of course, the specialised technical
means that allow making the right

Video refereeing plays an
important role in sport
adjudication decisions

decision in the shortest possible time
with a minimal impact on the natural
course of the competition.
The desire to improve the accuracy
of decisions has led to an increase in
the number of recording channels. For
example, in ice hockey the number
of mandatory cameras has increased
in 14 years from 4 to 15. Now we use
a panoramic camera, 4 blue line
cameras, 2 sets of 3 cameras for goal
areas (behind, above and in-goal
cameras) and 4 field cameras for
violations.
Progress has also affected the
cameras themselves. From SD
cameras many sports are switching
to 1920x1080p50/p60 video. And
now there is an active discussion
of using 2x SuperMo cameras that
provide 100/120 progressive frames in
1920x1080.
Special attention is paid to
synchronization of video. It is
especially important for determining
the offside position. Frequently, when
Genlocked cameras cannot be used,
synchronization of video streams is
made in the videoReferee® server.
The slomo.tv team have developed
and implemented technology that
allows to synchronise video from
cameras 1920x1080p50 with an
accuracy of 10 milliseconds.
Since even this may not be enough,
because in 10 milliseconds athletes can
cover distances of 10-15 cm, which may
be critical. That is why it is best to use

2x, 4x, 8x synchronous Super Motion
cameras to detect offside positions.
In this case, the uncertainty of the
athlete's position is reduced to 5-7.5 /
2.5-3.8 / 1.25-1.9 cm respectively.
Background Analysis
The use of video-refereeing should
not greatly affect the action. In
football, for example, pausing for
video analysis of a situation can
dramatically change the whole game.
This can be avoided both at the
administrative level, and by using
multiple VAR+AVAR video referees
and video-refereeing systems with
multiple fully functional workplaces
with access to all cameras. The most
powerful slomo.tv systems provide
up to four such workplaces in one
server. This allows assistant VAR to
analyse all questionable moments
in the background, even before the

VAR decides to review them. In this
case, VARs will have their questions
answered by AVAR as soon as they
arise.
It is also important for the refereeing
system to have a simple, intuitive
and "native" control interface. This
allows a video referee to avoid voice
communication with the Replay
Operator and perform the necessary
actions, which include not only Zoom
In/Out, but also frame-by-frame
viewing and selecting the desired
camera. Implemented touchscreen
gesture control for its videoReferee®
system achieved all this.
Remote Console
The
feedback
from
our
videoReferee® users helped us to
develop a new remote console Control-VR. It allows VAR/AVAR
and RO to work faster with more
confidence. A new feature of the
remote control is the Virtual Offside
Line interface. This user-friendly,
comfortable interface allows you to
concentrate on analysing the moment
without being distracted by the
complexity of system controls.
However, any system means nothing
without the people - engineers,
technicians, RO and, of course,
video referees. In order for them to
work reliably, they must be properly
prepared. For that we have created a
special system - Academy. It is able to
emulate real matches and thus reduce
costs when preparing the referee's
corps to work together with VAR
operators.
The use of the Academy and the
prepared football video material
can significantly improve the skills
of referees and their psychological
readiness to work on complex games
and, of course, dramatically reduce
training time and costs.
We at slomo.tv have a great deal of
experience in video-refereeing and can
offer solutions for any sport and any
budget.
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.slomo.tv http://www.slomo.tv http://www.slomo.tv http://www.slomo.tv http://www.slomo.tv http://www.slomo.tv
In Broadcast - July 2020

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