Automated capture: Keeping up with the pace of play

The puck transitions from offense to defense at breakneck speed, shots travel by in a flash, and masses of players are piling into a scrum to fight for possession. As an ice hockey coach, you often can’t rely on the eye test.

Suppose you’re not recording your training sessions and games. In that case, you’re passing up countless chances to finetune your tactical plans, assess individual positioning and movement, and avoid bad decisions that could cost your team points.

Full rink video is the ultimate power play, giving those who utilize video a significant advantage. But to capitalize, teams must first dodge a major body check: the capture process.

Video analysis is already a routine aspect of the sport for teams in ice hockey’s big leagues. However, for those lower down the ranks, the capturing process blocks teams from integrating game-changing video analysis.

With coaches occupied on the sidelines, recording footage requires a camera operator to manually track the team out on the ice. And often, given the compact rink and close contact between players, one camera falls short. While a sideline camera might offer a clear view of vertical spacing, assessing a player’s horizontal position requires an additional camera capturing from above the ice or behind the goal.

Hiring a camera operator to cover every angle isn’t cheap nor realistic, and utilizing analysts to record limits their time for analyzing footage and extracting insights.

Even for teams and leagues with the financial means to employ multiple camera operators, the close quarters of an ice hockey rink constrain the area available for capturing footage. With little room around the boards, operators must capture from a distance up in the stands, forcing them to pan and zoom to maintain focus — a feat that, given the fast pace of ice hockey, proves almost impossible.

The solution? Spiideo, an automated camera system that records high-quality, panoramic footage from multiple angles without any human assistance.

Offering an array of fixed and portable camera solutions designed to work around the limitations of any venue, coaches no longer have to settle for video captured from poor vantage points. Spiideo’s compact cameras enable capture from close to the ice, providing an optimal view of play. With a camera on the center line, one behind each net, supported by top down views above the ice, Spiideo seamlessly stitches every feed into one recording within Spiideo Perform, a pro-grade video analysis platform.

With the ability to pan, zoom, and focus in on any area of a recording, coaches get a clear view of every shift from the ideal perspective. It’s not just a snapshot of the game — It’s every goal, every pass, and every play, instantly available in crystal clear quality, from every angle.

Rather than relying on a human operator, Spiideo is powered by a unique AI AutoFollow, designed specifically to follow the back and forth of ice hockey and keep the camera view fixed on the action. In parallel, a full panoramic video is always available. All-in-all, providing the optimal viewing experience, it’s the gold standard of ice hockey video analysis.

But once a game ends, the clock doesn’t stop to allow time to turn footage into game-changing insight.

In the NHL, teams play an average of three games every week. For leagues with similarly packed schedules, the time-consuming process of transferring, processing, and sharing footage manually doesn’t cut it. To review plays, extract insight, and provide timely feedback before the next face-off, teams require automated workflows and a cloud-based ecosystem.

Spiideo’s lightning-fast low latency feeds provide playback, from anywhere, within seconds of an action taking place on the ice. Combined with the new Active Play feature, removing everything outside of active play, entire games can now be dissected within hours of the final buzzer. Once clipped, footage can be used to create powerful presentations, enhanced by data overlays and telestration tools, to give players the edge they need to put in top-shelf performances every game.

Spiideo isn’t just a coaching tool — It’s a crowd-pleaser too.

The same camera system used for analysis simplifies the production of fan-engaging broadcasts. Spiideo Play, Spiideo’s automated broadcasting ecosystem, enables teams, leagues, and media companies to break away from inefficient manual processes and begin autocasting games to fans, featuring time-based graphics and event-triggered replays, seamlessly managed by pre-created run sheets that keep fans on the edge of their seats.

Requiring no human camera operators or production teams, Spiideo is an equalizer for those with smaller budgets and fewer resources, making broadcasting ice hockey affordable and cost-effective for all. In fact, providing a way to stream ice hockey at an unrivaled scale, autocasting presents a valuable monetization opportunity for leagues and media companies — whether it’s selling access to fans, airtime to advertisers, or event data to betting firms.

Combined with Spiideo Replay Pro for in-game reviews, this versatile camera solution makes an impact across the entire rink. Referees can instantly review incidents while a game is in play, compare multiple angles in a side-by-side view, and keep up with the pace of play without slowing it down.

It’s a complete solution — powered by a single camera system — that hits the mark for coaches, analysts, officials, and fans alike, enabling all to keep up with ice hockey’s lightning-fast pace.