top of page

Using VEO cameras with Nacsport video analysis software

Josh Bryan

Increasingly, I have seen more of our Nacsport video analysis users consider the use of the VEO camera setup, which enables automated filming. We all know that capturing footage is a huge and important part of sport video analysis and, like all styles of filming sport, VEO’s automated filming does have it’s place within the sports performance analysis hardware market. In this article, I look at the practicalities of using the VEO automated camera and how to use VEO with the Nacsport video analysis software tools.


Is it better to film sport with automated cameras or human control?

In essence, the argument for and against anything that’s ‘automated’ is the same. You save on human resource for completing a task, which is a big plus point, but what do you lose when removing the human touch?


I think it would be safe to say that having a person behind the camera will most likely always achieve a better outcome than most automated filming processes. A camera person can carefully capture all that’s needed using standard filming features to pan, tilt and zoom around the court or pitch – making your video better when it comes to the sport video analysis review processes.


That being said, if the human resource isn’t available or you wish to shift the human resource to another task to meet your sport performance analysis goals, it’s a great option.


Any video is better than no video!


Veo automated camera

Despite the positives of capturing video with VEO and saving on a human resource, there is a clear downside to using VEO’s automated filming solution if you are looking at utilising live capture and review. You cannot take a live video feed from the camera, meaning you can’t capture this into a laptop to create and share key clips in real time.


Luckily, in this article you will find out a ‘work around’ for using live workflows in Nacsport alongside the VEO camera.


As a comparative, our own sport camera system is the AP Capture IP camera solution, which is a completely different style of filming sport when compared to the VEO setup. AP Capture’s synergy with a number of performance analysis software tools like Nacsport (live and post event), integrated features for live streaming sport, sound synchronisation options, the AP Live app and more, mean it can provide a variety of filming and video analysis options.





However, the entry level analyst may not have the funds available to choose a complete IP Camera product such as the AP Capture IP Camera solution or even the VEO automated filming solution, so the more traditional methods of filming, i.e. the ‘handy cam’ and Avermedia device combo, are still a great option when looking for cameras to be used in sports video analysis at an entry level. Like the AP Capture solution, it means you can benefit from the human touch, enabling the video capture to be exactly as you need it to review your performances.



Using VEO cameras with Nacsport

To find out more about this, I spoke to Glenn and Jack Hodnett, who use Nacsport with VEO across a number of different scenarios and sports, such as Lacrosse video analysis and Football video analysis:


For us, the ability to concentrate on coding the game, knowing that VEO is capturing all the play is a game changer for us. The time saved after the game and enabling extra events to be coded whilst the game is on really does help. For an ultra portable setup like ours, the TagAndView app in conjunction with VEO is well worth considering.
After the game has finished, we upload the footage from the VEO camera to the VEO servers, which automatically processes the footage, and after 4/5hours we can download the footage in MP4 format, then sync the video with the XML file exported from TagAndView so it can be used in Nacsport for deeper analysis or and building presentations.
In VEO, you can also make clips then download them, which is really useful for training sessions or to track a certain player or groups of players to be used within Nacsport. We use this workflow with Hyde Utd FC, Stockport Lacrosse Club and England Lacrosse.

Interestingly here, Glenn and Jack talk about shifting their human resource from filming the event to allow more time on their tagging. As I said earlier, you cannot take the live feed from VEO into Nacsport, but there is a ‘work around’ for this.


You can start your analysis processes independently from the video capture by using the Tag&view iPad app. You tag your actions on the iPad against a timer, so that you can sync it up with the video inside Nacsport (once you get the footage down from the VEO platform a few hours after the event). You could also ‘register without video source’ using Nacsport on your laptop (available from the Nacsport Scout Plus version).



The reason why you would want to do this is because you can get a head start on opening up the world of video analysis tools in Nacsport that can be utilised to work with VEO. With your live data from TagAndView imported into Nacsport and synced with the VEO camera footage, you can benefit from reviewing interactive statistical dashboards, use the matrix tool, add further analysis and build feedback presentations with notes and even KlipDraw telestrations overlaid on your clips.

Screen shots of Nacsport video analysis software

Even without using the live processes mentioned by Glenn and Jack, Nacsport will open any video file, so you can start an analysis on the event with a customised buttons template to clip your key moments. This is the perfect workflow for a post event analyst or perhaps a coach without the time or human resource available to analyse the game live.


It’s worth noting here that you can also import data from a range of other sources to sync with video inside Nacsport: XML, OPTA, TLCODES, CSV and much more, as well as easily importing from Instat and WyScout, which is a popular workflow for football video analysis.

Nacsport will just bring everything together!



The only thing to note now is that when you are using a ‘normal’ conventional style camera or an IP camera with Nacsport, you can easily live capture the video into your computer and share video and data live to other devices, as well as having key clips and stats ready for effective half time review. If you are using Nacsport Pro Plus or Nacsport Elite, you can also scrub back through the video live on the machine and use the enhanced Nacsport Coach Station live sharing and review tool.


Glenn and Jack still also use the more traditional methods of filming along with their VEO camera, and incorporate both the Nacsport software and Tag&view app for live coding with all of their filming solutions.

Nacsport and Tag&view

So, a quick recap about using VEO with Nacsport

  1. Remember the value of having a person filming the game and some live video analysis processes that you will miss out on if using an automated camera.

  2. Use VEO as an effective filming method if the human resource isn’t available and/or you want to focus more on tagging the event.

  3. For live tagging with VEO, use the register without video source option in Nacsport Scout Plus or the Tag&view iPad app to create your live timeline of events to sync up later.

  4. You can choose to keep to post event analysis, by downloading the VEO video file, opening in Nacsport and using the tools available to make your post event sport performance analysis processes timely and ultra effective.


If you have any questions on the above and wish to chat to a Nacsport software expert, please get in touch!



Related Content:

Comments


bottom of page