3 minute read
Seeing Success: A View from Above with Rangers FC
With more league titles than any other club in the world, they have a reputation to uphold. Here’s how smart cameras help Rangers maintain their status as a giant in the Scottish Premier League.
High quality footage is a prerequisite for coaches, managers and players. But now Rangers FC will get a view of the game they’ve never had before.
They’re embracing smart camera technology through Hudl’s IP cameras, which are capable of connecting to the internet to send and receive data. Why? Because high quality match footage being sent straight to their staff means analysis can happen in real time.
In their 50,000-capacity Ibrox Stadium, Rangers have a master camera providing a wide tactical view of the whole pitch, supported by two behind-the-goal cameras to capture specific actions such as team positioning, set plays and goalkeeper analysis.
Rangers first team analyst Bradley Wall explains how these enhanced views allow his analysis to have a bigger impact on match day.
“From what I can see from my vantage point within the stand, maybe the manager can’t see down there [on the touchline],” said Wall. “I will want to feed back information to coaches in-game or at half time and it’s key for me to be able to go in there and show them basically what I’m seeing in the tactical view.”
The traditional approach for analysts capturing match footage—a man operating one camera from the stands—is no longer enough. In some stadiums, the view can even be obscured. But hands-free, mounted Hudl cameras mean the best possible vision is available for Wall and his team.
“Your cameraman with the wide view on the gantry, he might be restricted to where he can stand. In terms of the Hudl camera, its positioned in such a place that you are always going to get the widest tactical view you can,” said Wall. “It also frees up anothe rpair of hands to do a more detailed code within a game, which adds another layer to our analysis.”
Opposing teams will often lean on defensive tactics against the Rangers, placing several men behind the ball in a low block formation. Cameras placed behind the goal supplement the wider view and play a key part in providing tactical feedback on how to break down defensive opposition.
“Tactically, it’s really good. We can use this view to work out how we can beat this block, where the spaces are on the pitch, and where players are moving, making runs and where they are not making runs,” said Wall.
“This would only be picked up by this view behind the goal and we would maybe not get this key piece of detail from the side view.”
Smart cameras are part of an effective end-to-end analysis solution for Rangers FC. The cameras automatically capture game footage, which directly feeds into Sportscode and uploads into Hudl. This is a real time-saver for Wall, especially during congested fixture blocks.
“It’s very important that everything connects, because football games come thick and fast and you want to be able to move onto the next thing, but also have focus from the game you just played,” said Wall.
“Having a lot of this done for you seamlessly enables us to debrief a lot quicker. You can sync your code straight away and you don’t have to worry about uploading after the game as you know it’s going to be there to share and push out to the players and coaches who can then review straight away.”
As Wall explains, existing video angles don’t give analysts and coaches the view they need.
“With broadcast footage, a lot of it is panned in on close-ups and replays so you miss certain bits in the game,” said Wall. “With this tactical view, everything is clean and you can see all of the pitch, getting those bits of extra detail that you might not have got before from traditional footage.”
Aside from challenging for a record 55th Scottish Premiership crown, Rangers FC are focused on how else they can improve their workflows. Up next, they’d like to expand their IP cameras to their training facility, which would enable them to streamline their analysis process to replicate their current match day operations.
