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Macs Keep Wasps Buzzing

In modern sport, playing the game counts but winning is the be-all and end-all, and sports technology is becoming an increasingly important tool for professionals in many different sports. Players and Macs are team-mates these days. As well as the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish national rugby teams, London Wasps rugby club has been using an innovative Mac-only sports analysis system, called SportsCode, to help improve team and player performance.

SportsCode is a video analysis system that lets coaches and players review match events in real-time, delivering essential data to help them make the right decision during a game, or to develop accurate, fact-based training plans to improve future performance. The system also helps assess the performance of opponents, identifying strengths and weaknesses.

The solution was used across fifteen sports at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, including hockey and netball. SportsCode manufacturer Sportstec’s managing director Philip Jackson claims: “We’re in every sport in the world at present”.

London Wasps' performance analyst Rhys Long uses the Mac and SportsCode to help the players get an edge over their opponents.	During the game, Wasps' video analysts are able to annotate the timeline with data to describe the game's events, such as pases, tackles, scrums and point scores.

Why is this solution Mac only? “Macs handle video better and faster than any other platform”, says Jackson. “Because it’s so video-based, this is a demanding application and needs a robust platform — a referee won’t stop the game because a computer’s crashed”.

So how does technology help? “We often say we are legal performance enhancement”, Jackson laughs. “SportsCode lets you play smarter, and smarter play can extend a professional career by two or three years”.

London Wasps’ performance analyst Rhys Long is equally enthusiastic about the solution. It’s not a platform-led decision — he wrote a comparative study of available sports technology solutions for his Masters degree, and is in no doubt that this solution is the best one for his players.

“The difference between SportsCode, which can yield exactly what you want to see from a game, and just watching a match on video, is incredible”, he says.

Wasps previously used PowerPC-based Macs, but the team recently acquired Intel-powered MacBooks and MacBook Pros to run SportsCode. Rhys is pleased with what he sees: “We use a certain video codec for recording games, so when it comes to burning a DVD of a match we have to change it to a different one. I have seen the time that takes reduced by 50 per cent using Intel Macs”.

Once deployed, how does his team use the Macs? During a match, the system captures video from two cameras. Both sit on the same tripod, with one set to cover the whole pitch, and the other focusing in on the action. “This is seen on a split screen, so the coach can see the action as well as the overall situation”, explains Long.

While the action is taking place, the analysis team inputs data to describe the game’s events such as passes, tackles, scrums and point scores. Logging activity in this way is essential to the system because these notes are applied to the video’s timeline. The data is searchable, so it’s possible to get the system to show particular activities, such as scrums or tries.

It means coaches can focus on the game, but can always call upon the searchable tagged video data when they need to understand something about the match to help their team win.
At the club level, Rhys believes Wasps are quite unique: “Not many teams are doing this, but we try to affect change during the game itself”, he explains. Coaches and analysts constantly monitor SportsCode data during a game, and are in direct radio contact with some players on the pitch, which means they can guide the team’s strategy during a match.

“You can’t substitute technology for individual skill; what we try to do is make players’ efforts more efficient. We analyse opponents during games too, so we can improve our strategy”, he adds. His motto is to “innovate, not imitate”.

SportsCode also delivers effective post-match analysis tools. The video is intact, tagged and searchable, delivering relevant replays on request, including footage of any earlier matches available on the system. Coaches and teams can examine each moment, pull it apart, discuss it, learn from it, implement change, and even burn a DVD using Apple’s iDVD or DVD Studio Pro software, so they can watch relevant moments later on. Matches are archived to an Xserve at headquarters. “We play up to 70 matches a year, so we need a lot of space”, says Rhys.

So how are the players taking to the system? Rhys explains: “We try to say that this is not a tool to highlight mistakes, but a solution to help make things better”.

Ease-of-use matters. “Macs and SportsCode are so easy to use”, explains Long. “We had some new players join us this year. We sat them down for half an hour and they really took to the system; I think maybe ten of our players have now bought themselves Macs. The less computer-literate players really like the ease-of-use and, of course, they all love the internet, so the lack of viruses is another bonus”, he adds.

The team’s IT consultant was a surprise switcher. “Our IT consultant was working with PCs, but as soon as the MacBook shipped, he bought one. He uses Boot Camp to run Windows on it”, Rhys smiles.

The team gets its first-line technical support from London distributor Computer Warehouse. Rhys says: “It’s great having them for support. They have been excellent, and they are just down the road”.

In the four years since it began using Macs and SportsCode, the technology has helped the team succeed. The club has a European Cup, has won the English Championship three times as well as the Anglo-Welsh Powergen Cup.

Rhys sums up what sports technology can do: “We’re trying to be the best on the field and to give London Wasps a chance to become the best team in England, perhaps Europe”.

Other Apple technology use is also in the pipeline. The club plans to give players video iPods so they can carry match videos with them. Wasps also plan a regular video podcast later this year featuring game highlights. And Sportstec will soon release a module to let users stream content from its application. “We’re hoping to make games available online”, says Long.

All this is a far cry from when Sportstec’s Australian pioneer Don Prior wanted to improve refereeing back in 1996. According to Jackson, he took an old PowerPC Mac, chopped it in half, put it in a suitcase, and the first sports analysis system was born.

Today’s systems are so versatile that the technology could soon be saving lives. “We have been working with the UK fire service, analysing situations to try to improve procedures”, Jackson says. “We have also been very successful teaching deaf interpreters to correctly use sign language”.

There are other exciting developments that could enhance sports fans’ experience of the games they love. “We will soon be doing real-time analysis, broadcast to the general public online”, he promises.