For anyone who watched the nightly match between Carlos Alcaraz and Sebastian Korda on the telecast last Friday night in Paris, and who has seen the Zendaya tennis movie Contenders, you may have heard of it “People will have dazzling flashbacks.
A camera suddenly appears on the side of the court, just above the net, swinging back and forth as players battle for control of the net. Barely keeping up with their speed of movement and thought, the ball swerved from side to side, tracking it over the clay and down the white line before Korda, the 27th seed in the United States, held off the viciousness of the 2nd seed. The attack paused.
It doesn’t have the cheeky aesthetic of Challengers director Luca Guadagnino’s work, where the camera merges with the ball, but it’s a new look at a sport that TV coverage has given to The vicious spin and blazing speed employed by the best players hardly helps.
Innovation. pleasure. A little self-aware. It all makes many avid and casual fans of the sport cry.
And the technology – a small head-mounted camera worn by umpires at the French Open venue Philippe-Chatrier – may not have achieved its intended purpose.
— Bastino Media (@BastinoMedia) May 31, 2024
The world of invention is filled with products and gadgets designed to fulfill one purpose but adapted to another.
The foam packaging was originally supposed to be three-dimensional wallpaper. Viagra is a new blood pressure medication. Tights were a sure way to protect naval instruments in rough seas.
Referee Camera, welcome to the ranks of Unintended Consequences.
When the leaders of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) began to consider the idea of installing cameras in referee chairs more than a year ago, getting a close-up rotating view was an important idea. There was never-before-seen footage of forehands flying over the net at 80 miles per hour, so fast they seemed to drag the camera with them.
“Let’s face it, they do have the best seats on the court,” said French Open assistant referee Pascal Maria. No one can buy that seat, but the idea is that fans can experience that view.
From a television perspective, things mostly didn’t go well. For TV producers and fans, watching a high-speed spinning game up close can be quite a nauseating experience. Instead, the technology was repurposed to serve pedestrians, but at Roland Garros with a lofty goal: to allow everyone to see the same mark that referees see when deciding whether a ball is in or out.
Even so, the effect isn’t very good. As the referee climbs out of his chair to examine the ball mark to decide whether his colleague at the foul line botched his job, the footage is fleeting and largely useless, in part because the person wearing the camera is so good in most situations – They looked at them for less than a second when they recognized them.
“The replays are nice and slow, but it’s hard to cut into the live broadcast,” said Bob Whyley, Tennis Channel’s senior vice president of production and executive producer. “The umpire’s head is looking down at the mark. It’s too fast.”
Andy Murray asked on X if there was worse technology in sport. Victoria Azarenka questions why it works but something as mundane as line commentary doesn’t.
Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said officials gave up on the idea of cutting to live footage after just a few days.
“It’s a little tricky,” she said, but if there are good images, such as chatting with players or inspecting balls, those will be cut.
The French Open has even introduced its own cameras, while other Grand Slam tournaments have no plans to introduce cameras yet. This is largely due to the tournament Referee head cameras were introduced to check line calls, but instead it created a player’s perspective that will go down in tennis lore.
Specifically, referees view athletes worth tens of millions of dollars (or more) much like children begging their parents not to let them eat dessert or watch TV.
Without his Ump-Head, French men’s last hope Corentin Moutet pleaded for justice as he faced off against world number two Jannik Sinner on Wednesday night. Nico Helwerth, an experienced tennis official from Germany. He was angry when a line judge penalized him for a foot error on his favorite underarm serve.
He was wrong, he didn’t get justice, and viewers got to see for themselves what it really felt like to be yelled at by a sweaty, burly, giddy man. Depending on the level of swearing and the decisions of the TV producers, they can also hear exactly what the referees and players are talking about.
Corentin Moutet pleads his case (Eurosport)
The referee explained his reasoning (Eurosport)
Swedish referee Louise Engzell said she found herself feeling like the cameras were like a security blanket as players went too far and commentators inadvertently misrepresented their conversations with players.
“I would rather they understand what actually happened in a situation: why the referee made the decision and whether we were 100 percent right or whether it was a gray area,” Engelzel said in an interview. Said when on camera.
At least they know and can discuss the truth of what happened. This can only be good.
POV coverage has been successful in other sports – giving viewers a greater sense of the speed, effort and difficulty of the games they’re watching, which can sometimes be softened by the wide-angle perspective of television cameras.
During last summer’s pre-season match between Aston Villa and Newcastle United, Villa footballer Youri Tielemans wore a video camera on his chest, demonstrating the speed of thinking footballers have to display at the highest level – even if It was in a game where there was nothing dangerous.
The most common methods are to make it a stand-alone view (often outside of a live broadcast, as in Tielemans’ featured video) or rely on a stationary camera attached to a fixed installation. In tennis, a court-level camera can better show the incredible shape and intensity of a player’s shots, but it eliminates the angular context provided by a wider shot.
It also lacks the extreme movement of the POV camera, which makes a huge difference in helping split-second replays stand out.
Last year, Engelzel was involved in the first effort to equip referees with cameras at Roland Garros. French Open referee Jean-Patrick Reydellet said this would involve buying some GoPro cameras and strapping them to the referee’s chest. They did not share the footage with their television partners, but instead reviewed it after the game.
The results were not good. Some clear views of the course, but not a great angle. Additionally, the referee’s chest doesn’t move much, so there are a lot of shots of the top of the net and the referee operating the touch screen.
Engzel said breast cameras also embarrass female referees.
Redelt and his staff evaluated cameras worn by officials in the NBA, football and other sports. The ear setting seems to be the best. Referees who were willing to try these techniques during the qualifying rounds two weeks ago got a thumbs up, especially after they saw how accurately the cameras showed them how to check the ball mark by following its outline to see if it landed on the line. .
Corentin Moutet pleads his case, with referee cameras visible (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
This doesn’t really solve the problem. Part of the reason is that the referee only has to take a look, which makes the crowd giddy and nothing else. It also doesn’t do a good job of “selling” decisions to fans and players – football has had problems with video assistant referees (VAR) where referees change decisions without seeing them themselves.
“it This camera clearly needs to get better,” Reydellet said. “It could be smaller, it could be a longer-life battery, it could be a different setup that we can use.”
Part of the goal is also to show how complex the work is. Roland Garros hopes to use the footage to educate aspiring referees, educate viewers on everything a player has to do, and add a new level of transparency to the officiating process and its myriad tasks.
In an interview, Helworth went through a checklist he implemented at each point.
Check that the catcher is ready, that the ball boy is in place, that the line judge is where he should be, turn off the tee clock, enter the last dot on the tablet as soon as it’s on, check the crowd. When the game is over, look at the loser by that point to make sure they performed well. If they come over to talk, turn off the stadium microphone (not the head camera, of course) and then make sure you turn it back on.
“We were not bored there,” he said.
This year, the cameras are only being used on the home pitch, but it’s hard not to see them moved to other pitches in the future, especially after a referee ruled on one point at Simeone Mathieu after checking for the wrong ball mark after.
Maybe next year, people watching the monitors below the stadium can yell at the transmitter: “No, not that!”
That would be nice. Not as good as Mu Tai’s shot.
(Above: Eurosport)
