With a recent software update, Broadcast Solutions has added a new feature to its VideoReferee judging system – displaying scoreboard data during replay. In order to make the scoreboard available to the judges, a selected portion of the scoreboard can be included as a picture-in-picture during search and playback. This image can be selected from any recording channel containing the scoreboard or from a separate channel dedicated to scoreboard recording. With this new feature, VideoReferee, which was recently used as the main video judging system during the IHF 2017 Handball World Championships in France, is following the demands of video judges.
During most competitions where video-assisted judging is used, the VideoReferee system is usually connected to the arena scoreboard controller for receiving the pertinent data (time, period, score, etc). Quite often there are situations when, for some reason, such direct connection cannot be accomplished but is critical for synchronizing video and scoreboard timing. A typical example is judging the validity of a throw in basketball at the end of shot clock. Only if the throw was made before the end of this time-slot, the throw is valid.
In order to deal with such situations, a new feature was added to VideoReferee – displaying a selected portion of the scoreboard as a PIP during search and playback. The operator can select the scoreboard area to be displayed at system setup. During playback/search of any channel, this part of the scoreboard will be displayed in the corner of the screen.
For systems with a limited number of channels, there is a special scoreboard camera option, providing an additional external input channel via the USB interface. Any camera with SDI or HDMI output, or even consumer camcorders, can be used to capture the scoreboard.
March 1, 2017
