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Intel’s multi-angle cameras come to three Premier League soccer stadiums
Intel's work in sports can be found across the world's best leagues, from the MLB, NBA and NFL in the US to Spain's La Liga soccer tournament. Over the past few years, it has been trying to make games more immersive for fans, using camera technologies that offer people more viewing options than a traditional broadcast, like enjoying matches in virtual reality or watching 360-degree video replays. And now Intel plans to bring this to the English Premier League. Through a new partnership with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City (three of England's biggest clubs), Intel will start utilizing its True View tech at their stadiums, which will capture "every match from every angle," the company says.
Wembley to host English football’s first video ref this week
The German Bundesliga uses it, the American MLS is on board, but never before has the video assistant referee (VAR) system officiated a formal match in the home of football: England. That changes this Friday when England plays Germany at Wembley Stadium in one of several international friendlies ahead of the FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia next year, which itself will adopt replay referees for the first time.
2018 FIFA World Cup will be the first with instant replay
Soccer (or, to the rest of the world, football) traditionalists have shunned video replay for years, claiming it would alter the sanctity of referees' calls. But well-documented flubbed calls like those that erroneously eliminated England and Mexico in the 2010 World Cup have nudged FIFA into considering the technology. At long last, after getting implemented at professional levels, it's headed to the game's biggest stage: On-field instant replay is coming to the World Cup for the first time in 2018, when Russia hosts the tournament.
NVIDIA's GeForce game sharing feature is available in beta
NVIDIA's GeForce Experience Share has been released in early access beta, giving PC gamers the ability to invite friends to take over a game or play cooperatively. Via an in-game overlay menu, players can use the "Shadowplay" option to continuously capture a stream, then broadcast it to Twitch, other players, or YouTube as an upload. NVIDIA said that the feature can save the last 5 to 20 minutes of game play at up to 4K (3,840 x 2,160) with very little performance hit. Players can also send a live game stream to Twitch via the "broadcast" feature.
Twitter scores NFL deal to showcase Sunday's finest instant replay material
Following a similar deal in May with the NBA, Twitter's Amplify program has landed an envy-inducing arrangement with the National Football League. As part of the new advertising partnership, the NFL will leverage Twitter to "package in-game highlights and other video content" inside sponsored tweets, which can be distributed via a marketer during games. Both Twitter and the NFL will take a slice of the profits, though neither side is talking specific terms. As of now, it sounds as if Verizon will be the "premiere sponsor," which grants it "exclusive sponsorship rights for Amplify ads during the Super Bowl next February." The upside? Easily tweetable instant replays. The downside? It might make you a shill. Them's the breaks!
Telestream announces Instant Replay system for NASCAR officials, gets the checkered HD flag
You may not love NASCAR or understand the sheer thrill of watching cars drive in circles for several hundred laps, but you've got to respect the technology. Today, Telesteam announced its Instant Replay system for NASCAR race officials. The multichannel video player, which will debut at the start of the 2012 race season, provides instant capture and display of up to 18 high-definition 720p camera feeds and will allow officials to quickly view detailed information about on-track aspects of the race. The system uses Telestream's Pipeline HD video capture system to simultaneously acquire multiple camera feeds in Apple ProRes 720p as well as other HD and SD formats before delivering them to shared storage. Once captured, the video streams can be viewed from different camera angles with quick locations being customized for each race. Telestream will be demoing the instant Replay system at the Sports Video Group's League Technology Summit in New York City this week, and to celebrate, the governor has mandated that all vehicles make only left turns through Sunday. Kidding.
Golf revises its rules to account for HDTV, DVR technology
You can watch the currently underway Masters Tournament this year in high definition and even 3D, but it will be a little harder to be a part of the action from your couch thanks to just-enacted rules by the United States Golf Association. Recently there have been multiple incidents of players being disqualified for not reporting breaches of the rules that were spotted and called out by viewers at home, equipped with HDTVs and DVRs able to detect minor infractions that might have otherwise been missed during play. Two examples specifically referenced are Padraig Harrington's disqualification at Abu Dhabi after his ball moved slightly when he replaced his marker (would be a penalty, but not a DQ now) and when Camilo Villegas moved a divot as his shot was rolling (still a DQ.) The rules are on the USGA website but you'll have to pardon us, we have some calls to make to David Stern about exactly how many steps you can take without dribbling the ball.
FIFA to again explore 'goal-line technology' after blown World Cup officiating (updated)
Maybe it's just us, and by "us" we mean the US -- a country accustomed to using technology as a means to validate human officiating during our professional sporting events. As such, it came as a shock to Yanks, many of whom were watching international soccer football for the first time, to learn that FIFA had no such system of checks and balances in play at what is without a doubt the Earth's most important sporting event: the World Cup. In particular, the USA, England, and Mexico teams suffered severely at the hands of FIFA referees... and the tournament hasn't even reached the quarter-finals. Today, FIFA President Sepp Blatter apologized to England and Mexico for refereeing mistakes that helped eliminate the teams from the competition. Importantly, he said that FIFA would "reopen the file" on the use of video technology when the rule-making panel meets in Wales next month, adding that it would be "nonsense" not to consider such changes. Let's just hope that a solution can be applied to keep the game beautiful without turning it into some kind of stuttering bureaucracy played by men in short trousers. Regardless, surely it's time to inject a little proven technology into the game instead of relying upon the hand of god to guide FIFA's officials? Update: The New York Times has a more detailed account of Blatter's statement that specifically excludes consideration of "video replay." According to the NYT, Blatter said, "The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goal-line technology. For situations like the Mexico game, you don't need technology." Okaaay, then what's the solution Sepp? Afterall, it was the video replay that instantly showed the world that Argentina's Carlos Tevez was offsides when scoring against Mexico, something your officials on the field missed completely. [Image courtesy of iA]
ACC, Big 12 upgrade to HD instant replay
We're still not sure which school in the conference is ready to challenge for a BCS bowl again, but the ACC is following the other bigs by upgrading its instant replay systems to high definition. Just like the Pac-10, Big Ten and MAC it's using DVSport equipment, while the Big 12 announced earlier this month its universities would follow the SEC and go with XOS Digital's technology to give referees a clearer second look at the action. We'll be keeping an eye out to see who gets the better calls this season and in the future -- or at least until one or more of the conferences no longer exists.
Pac-10 refs will see HD instant replays this season, find a new reason for blowing big calls
Just like the Big Ten and SEC, Pac-10 schools will be upgrading to DVSport's HD Replay system for the 2010 football season. They got a trial run this past weekend at the Oregon spring football game, just a bit too late to give Oklahoma back the ball in one of the bigger instant replay officiating mistakes in history. Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA -- you're on the clock.
Big Ten, MAC football get HD instant replay for the refs, but the SEC was faster
It's been a few years since the NFL made the jump to high definition instant replay, and it's absolutely time it arrived in college football as well. The SEC announced plans to switch last month and today the Big Ten and Mid-American Conferences mentioned they will upgrade their systems as well. The Pac 10 tested HD replays back in 2008 but is still mentioned by the provider it shares with the SEC, XOS Digital as a standard def conference, along with the Big 12, Sun belt and others. It's silly that we should have a better look at the action from home than the refs charged with calling the game so we hope they get new hardware soon, although they could always be waiting for the right time to put 3D glasses on the zebras before investing.
College football refs get a taste of HD instant replay tomorrow
A season after instant replay met the NFL, the Pac-10 is trying out high definition instant replay equipment from XOS Replay Systems during Thursday's USC vs. Oregon State game. The reason for the scoreboard packing higher res than the replay hood? After investing six figures in SD equipment four years ago, colleges are reluctant to spend the money all over again, but the All Things Trojan blog reports Oregon State's larger-than-normal replay room will give officials a chance to check SD & HD systems side by side, at which time the choice should become clear. Now, about that call during the Washington/BYU game...
Harris to hook 31 NFL stadiums up with HD instant replay
Although instant replay has its fair share of supporters and critics, it's here to stay in the NFL, and if you're hoping that the grainy SD playback that refs have to review might lead to a beneficial miscue, don't count on it. The NFL has teamed with Harris Corporation to install 33 NEXIO HD servers (plus 33 more for redundancy), an HD version of FORCE (Football Officiating Replay Challenge Expeditor) software, and routing / distribution gear that will enable officials to look back at questionable plays in "stunning high-definition." Every NFL stadium but three -- the ones "being replaced" in Irving, TX, Indianapolis, IN, and East Rutherford, NJ -- will be equipped with high-definition equipment and recabled "before the upcoming season." As expected, such (potentially superfluous) upgrades won't come without selling quite a few grossly overpriced sodas and soft pretzels, as it's estimated to cost each club around $300,000.Read - NFL Instant Replay becomes permanentRead - Harris to provide HD equipment to NFL
NFL considering HD instant replay...again
We're still missing our Sunday dose of NFL action, but as the offseason continues the league is once again looking into using high definition footage for instant replay. League meetings start tomorrow, and one of the changes being considered by the rules committee is a proposal to make instant replay a permanent part of the game, as it is currently a temporary rule, due to expire in two years. The leagues owners will only consider switching the instant replay equipment to HDTV if they are sure its here to stay, otherwise the ref could be stuck with a poor 480i feed for at least another year. Last year, the league looked at how NASCAR handles its HD, and that sport even has high def in-car cameras now. That instant replay should feature the highest quality available goes without saying, now we're looking forward to HD helmet cams.
Instant replay in QuickTime
Have you ever been listening to something (or watching something) in QuickTime and wish that you had an Instant Replay button that would jog the player back 8 seconds? Perhaps there was an awesome action scene, or someone mumbled something and you just wanted to see it again.Michael Mccracken did, and so he wrote a simple AppleScript which does the job (and you can even make it go back further than 8 seconds if you like). He went ahead and assigned the script to a Quicksilver trigger and now he can go back 8 seconds in a blink of an eye.
NFL is only now considering HDTV-based instant replay?
We're sure there are some Seahawks fans who think 1080i should have been in use during this past Super Bowl. Buried in this otherwise mundane article about the NFL considering more overseas games is a blurb about the director of officiating visiting NASCAR this weekend. He's checking out their on site HDTV displays that cover every camera angle shown in a race, and is considering switching to high definition for instant replays.We at HD Beat certainly appreciate the tough job referees have, but we think it would be much easier if for example during every instant replay, they went over to our friend Hoyt's theater to take a better look at things. We have much experience in these situations, and can say with absolute certainty that our blind mothers could call a game more accurately while sitting on the couch watching HD than (some) referees.Seriously, a 106" screen versus whatever little TV the ref usually looks at on the sidelines, its not even a comparison. Now the only question is what technology: projection, CRT, flat panel, plasma, LCD, DLP?
