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Cameras / recording for sports pitches


TomHoward

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I've been asked to look into a camera for initially recording, and then potentially in future streaming rugby matches, on a pitch which annoying currently only has 12V power. (Although a reasonably robust solar supply).

 

Ideas have been kicked around about installing a pole on the side of the pitch with a PTZ camera, or installing a Go-pro style fixed camera on the top of each goalpost and maybe recording locally, recovering the footage over Wifi after the match, and just running a cable up the pole for charging (maybe from a battery at the bottom). This would work for recording but doesn't expand to streaming very easily.

 

Alternatively we could run some PoE cameras, or try wireless / wifi with local battery power?

Or some CCTV style cameras with coax and 12v, with some kind of capture device?

 

Any suggestions very welcome as there's no doubt a ton of different ways to approach this

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If installing outdoors you're probably limited to CCTV style things for IP rating, unless you have proper budget? A few POE CCTV cameras going back to a switch in your shed where you could plug in a laptop with OBS would provide a reasonable image quality, though not what could be achieved with handycams/phone cameras on tripods that were setup for each game (avoiding the worst of the rain).

 

The permanent install is what will limit you here. For install I'd say POE CCTV cameras and OBS, for temporary I'd say handycams and an ATEM Mini.

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If it's on the goalposts it would be installed per season, as these are removed in the summer and it runs Aug-Dec or something. How that cabling would work I've no idea.

The handicams / Atem Mini the cable runs concert me - as we'd have to be running over HDbaseT or HD-SDI which are both basically a nightmare in that environment.

 

The pavilion / building / shed with solar is halfway down a long edge. I'll have to go play with what the view is like from each position

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I think your main problem will not be the power/cabling but getting any useful images from static wide angle cameras. Without a manually operated camera following the action it will just be distant blobs chasing a smaller distant blob.
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I agree with Tim. Covering sport like rugby ain't easy even with a full OB crew, though wide-screen & hi-def have dramatically changed the coverage; When I worked on MOTD it was mostly mid-shots, but these days it mostly tends to be on a high wide-shot. Your least-worse bet would be a manned camera with a really good zoom as high as you can get on your pavilion.
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I would have thought so but the commercial unmanned solutions are basically one static wide shot, either side or from a goal end.

If you ignore the PTZ / AI tracking / post processed AI pan & scan at the start of the video, most of it looks like this:

 

 

I think a lot of the commercial systems integrate scoring into the app, and then use that data to make an automated 'highlights' reel, ie the 60 seconds leading up to each goal score being registered.

A fair number of streams I've watched they don't actually seem to change camera and it's just one wide side or end view for the whole match

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You might just get away with a single fixed camera for games like football or hockey with fixed central goals but if you look at those linked videos the corners are missing. Wingers and rolling mauls need not apply.

 

Even for schoolboy games in Wales they start off with a high angle halfway line tracking camera, a long lens one alongside it for close ups and two hand held touchline cameras. You will only succeed in frustrating the customer so I would show them those videos then ask if they are prepared to invest the money for such limited results.

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People don't pay to watch it, it's mainly for post-match analysis for team training. If it's even broadcast at all, it's college / school sports so parents might watch it as much as they might watch from the sidelines usually.

We have one of those commercial systems on site on one pitch and we are looking to replicate it in-house for another.

 

Let's say if that were acceptable to you, how would you go about replicating it? I'm thinking PoE cameras and maybe OBS for recording, so that it can be replayed quickly and streaming could be easily added in future.

 

A bigger problem is the rugby goal posts are only installed in the winter months so they'd need to be rigged and struck with the seasons, with the implications for cabling. If I can perusade them to have the sideline camera (or even two, one in each direction, or at the corners) at least they could stay up all year.

This pitch doesn't have floodlights ether which is what most systems seem to be mounted on.

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Most ENG type cameras can run on 12 volts and I also have a Huwei B535 4G router that runs on 12v:

 

I personally have two Panasonic HPX 371 P2 cameras and their ENG style is ideal for following sports production and with 720p for streaming they give a good quality stable HD SDI output. If I want two or three camera coverage I use a 12v Datavideo vision mixer but for single camera I just go SDI into the streamer: https://www.datavideo.com/eu/product/SE-650

 

I also have a TBS SDI to ethernet streaming box that also runs off 12v so it is a good broadcast quality complete package that can all run off the camera V lock batteries or a larger battery box with a 12v 85ah car battery in it.

 

https://www.pciex.net/collections/hdmi-encoders/products/tbs2603au-ndi-hx-supported-h-265-h-264-hdmi-video-encoder-decode?variant=32571628060756

 

Following sport can be a challenge but with a decent ENG style camera it is far easier than a smaller or DSLR type with limited screen in daylight.

 

Most ENG type cameras can run on 12 volts and I also have a Huwei B535 4G router that runs on 12v:

 

I personally have two Panasonic HPX 371 P2 cameras and their ENG style is ideal for following sports production and with 720p for streaming they give a good quality stable HD SDI output. If I want two or three camera coverage I use a 12v Datavideo vision mixer but for single camera I just go SDI into the streamer: https://www.datavideo.com/eu/product/SE-650

 

I also have a TBS SDI to ethernet streaming box that also runs off 12v so it is a good broadcast quality complete package that can all run off the camera V lock batteries or a larger battery box with a 12v 85ah car battery in it.

 

https://www.pciex.net/collections/hdmi-encoders/products/tbs2603au-ndi-hx-supported-h-265-h-264-hdmi-video-encoder-decode?variant=32571628060756

 

Following sport can be a challenge but with a decent ENG style camera it is far easier than a smaller or DSLR type with limited screen in daylight.

 

A decent fluid head tripod is essential and a good zoom lens and my P2 cameras have Fujinon 17x zooms, I have also done single camera for ITV/ITN on football matches but we had 42x zooms on for those as we were way up in the gantry and you need a very stable tripod for that size of camera,

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Hm, interesting. I hadn't seen those auto camera systems before.

All the POE cameras I've used have quite a large (and unpredictable) delay on them which would be problematic if you had more than 1 and they weren't in sync. If SDI is not a possibility then I would be looking at analogue HD type CCTV cameras with some sort of capturing device. I have been having low-budget success streaming church services using Android phones as cameras over wifi with OBS-Droidcam, but it isn't very stable.

 

OBS is amazing for free software but it isn't the most robust thing if there are any connection problems - if you start losing signals then OBS often seems to give up and you have to restart it or go into the source and toggle some settings to get it back. Vmix seems to do better with that.

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Thanks,

We've seen some of those auto systems including the linked green one, and they have a couple of problems in terms of ongoing cost, and time for footage to be available - I don't think the camera is auto-tracking, I think it films a 4k panoramic and it is then post-processed on the manufacturer's servers to pan & scan according to the image, which means it sometimes isn't available for days to review is my understanding.

I believe the hockey one above does track In real time, though I'm not sure if it's automatic, I know the recording system is generally used in conjunction with the manufacturer's iPad app which may have something to do with the tracking or it may be automatic.

 

Just to clarify though, we have commercial solutions on some of the pitches, but not all of them, but what we're mainly trying to replicate is some of the basic functionality in-house.

 

GoPro on a pole would be great if it weren't for the HDMI output. I might look at SDI if we can put it permanently on the sideline - putting SDI up a goal post that gets removed and replaced each year is likely to be a nightmare.

I was also considering GoPro on top of the pole if I can get the signal out via Wifi as you can for the app, but it seems low res and pretty rough. You can get the footage off afterwards but the camera is quite tricking with being turned on/off and isn't as remotely controllable as some.

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to replicate is some of the basic functionality in-house

You're just not going to manage that in any meaningful way without shelling out a fortune - they just don't make stand-alone cameras that can cover the sort of area a pitch is; your only solution is about 2 dozen cameras around the perimeter producing terabytes of video files that will need editing to produce useful footage with vaguely appropriate close ups or one of the fancy auto tracking systems. There's a reason sports broadcasters still pay a human to point and zoom the cameras...

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