I’ve been using Sportscode since 2002. Like many analysts around the world, I love the software and have found it incredibly useful. In 2014, I joined the Sportscode team to put my passion for sport and technology to work.
Today I’m the Product Manager for Sportscode, and lead the product team that’s spent the last 12 months developing a brand new Sportscode that better enriches the unique workflows of customers around the world.
In a nutshell, we’re completely rebuilding Sportscode from top to bottom and making it faster and more powerful than ever before. Maybe most importantly, the architecture of the new product is far more flexible, which means we’ll be able to quickly respond to user feedback and build new features. This product will continue to evolve to meet the demands of sport today, and in the future.
More than 100 different organisations have been beta testing Hudl Sportscode over the last several months, and their feedback has me really excited about where this new product will take sports analysis.
In this series of blogs I’ll go over some of the crucial changes we’ve made and how they will impact users. We’ll also preview the new Hudl Sportscode ahead of its release in mid-2019.
First up is the ability to record multiple angles of video, especially at training or practice.
As you probably know, multi-angle capture is currently possible in Sportscode. But it’s very difficult and a clear pain point for users.
Sportscode v11 (the current version) needs a separate computer to record each angle—so if you want to record five angles you’ll need five computers.
Most teams recording multiple angles at training tend to have the cameras set up and connected to several computers in the office, all recording one angle to each device. You can use the Communications Window to ensure all recordings start at the same time, but it's not a straightforward process.
Some teams stack video after training. This adds additional complications because you have to align the angles with each other, and also align the data with video. It's even more complicated on game day (we'll cover that in a later blog).
The good news is this process is much easier in Hudl Sportscode. You can now record multiple angles on a single computer. You just need to press record once at the start of training, and press stop at the end. It really is as simple as that.
At the end of training, all of the angles will be in one video package on one computer. The angles are aligned, and if you tagged any data during training, that’s also automatically aligned with the video.
We expect this to have a big impact on sports that traditionally use multiple angles, like football, rugby, AFL and field hockey. But it will also open up more analysis possibilities in sports like basketball, volleyball and ice hockey. And we have exciting plans for how this simplified multi-angle capture will work with other products in the Hudl Pro Suite.
Below are some screenshots showing how simple it is to capture multiple angles.
