Spiideo: Improving S.S.D Ausonia 1931’s Video Recording & Analysis
One of Milan’s oldest sports academies, S.S.D Ausonia 1931 has been providing a place for the city’s amateur players to train and grow for the past 90 years. The club’s affiliation with the Italian National Olympic Committee and Italian Football Federation serves as proof of its success, as do the 27 players that have moved on to professional academies such as Inter Milan and AC Milan in the past four years alone.
But Ausonia is a club always looking to improve. Heading into 2021, Mario Di Benedetto, President of S.S.D Ausonia 1931, and his coaching staff were determined to improve the club’s facilities, focusing on ways to make video recording and analysis swifter and easier.
Previously, Ausonia was manually recording matches, but only when a parent in the crowd volunteered to act as a camera operator. Even then, with manual footage taking hours to transfer and prepare, coaches were unable to review and share footage at the scale they desired.
Recording, downloading onto a PC, decoding, exporting highlights of the critical moments… For a match, it took at least half a day of work. It was very time-consuming and we were unable to review events and situations daily.
Instant video feedback using Spiideo Perform
Di Benedetto started his search for a viable system that could streamline the video recording and analysis process. Seeking the advice of Inter Milan’s youth academy, Di Benedetto was recommended Spiideo Perform, a powerful recording system that effortlessly captures footage across the entire pitch.
Using high-resolution cameras, the Spiideo system autonomously captures a 180-degree view of the pitch and uploads it to the Spiideo Perform analysis platform via the cloud, allowing coaches to watch back at any moment instantly.
Ausonia has since installed Spiideo cameras on three pitches: its training ground, a 7 aside pitch and the P. Borsellino stadium. Other pitches will be added soon. During play, coaches use an Apple Watch to live tag from the sidelines. After the session, the technical staff use Spiideo Perform’s clipping, drawing, and telestrator tools to highlight key moments and make the feedback even more visual.
With an abundance of footage accessible through PC, iPad, or iPhone, coaches can now deliver valuable feedback before, during, and after games, which is proving key to the development of the club’s players.
The goal with Spiideo was the possibility of sharing positive and negative aspects of their performance with the players in an objective and not just subjective way. The use of video has had an incredible impact on the player’s ability to evaluate their behavior on the pitch and improve their game.
Connecting with fans through Spiideo Play
Spiideo was initially implemented at Ausonia’s Milan facilities for the purpose of video analysis, but the club soon discovered that Spiideo served a secondary purpose. Through a single camera setup, teams can both capture footage for analysis and live stream matches to fans and family members outside of the complex.
Spiideo Play, Spiideo’s automated live sports streaming solution, enables clubs to broadcast events over the internet, with underlying AI technology taking on the role of camera operator to follow the play. Through Cloud Studio, Spiideo Play’s production tool, operators can enhance feeds with graphical overlays, sponsor banners, and audio commentary.
Streaming games live has allowed Ausonia to stay connected with its fans during the pandemic, with crowds limited and many forced to stay away due to health and safety concerns and has also provided an additional source of income that will allow for further development of the facilities.
“The ability to stream matches and allow parents to follow their children’s football path, even from a distance, has been of great importance due to the pandemic,” Di Benedetto explains. “We can now offer great service to fans and family, and it’s also a source of income for the club that we can reinvest in the players.”
Helping the coaching staff and players in more ways than initially expected, Spiideo has received glowing reviews from those at Ausonia:
We are impressed with the quality of the system. Spiideo has the software that will allow our club to grow at both club level and our training methods.