INTRODUCTION:

The Otago Rugby Union has partnered with Danish company Veo to offer our clubs and schools with a relatively simple and easy to use video camera to capture footage of their local rugby games for the purposes of analysing players and match official’s performance.

Unlike high performance sporting programmes with dedicated analysts using multiple cameras and drones to capture footage for players and coaches to use to analyse their performance on the field, Veo’s hardware and proprietary software is revolutionary as it does not require a camera operator.

The camera gets set up on the halfway line on a 3-metre-high tripod (included).  The operator simply starts the record button using an app just before kick-off and the camera records in a 180-degree field of view. The operator can just leave the camera to do its thing. 

At the conclusion of the match, the operator ends the recording, takes down the equipment and heads home or back to the club.

The camera is then connected to the internet and the footage gets uploaded to the club or school’s Veo account and this is where the magic happens. Veo’s artificial intelligence software has and is constantly being taught how to follow the play.  The “raw” footage is then converted to something that better resembles video of a rugby game with the camera following the play.  The team can then use the footage as an analysis tool, with Veo having a complete online analyst software programme included.