Canoe Slalom World Championships utilise videoReferee

During the Canoe Slalom World Championships, which took place in London at the Lee Valley Olympic Course this September, World Canoe Slalom Association ICF used the videoReferee system to support the judges during the tournament.

The 12-channel videoReferee video judging system offered reliable and safe decisions during the tournament, with 55 countries participating and thousands of visitors on site and at home. During the Olympic Games 2016 in Brazil videoReferee will also be the video judging tool for the Canoe Slalom tournaments.

For the first time videoReferee was used as the main judging system during a Canoe Slalom World Championship. The event took place at Lee Valley White Water Centre on the outskirts of London. On the race track that was used for the 2012 Olympics, 300 athletes from 55 countries were fighting for medals and positions. The videoReferee system enabled the judges to provide fast and reliable decisions.

Eric Lokken, ICF Canoe Slalom Technical Committee Member, comments on the use of the new system: “In the past we had to rely on a produced video signal and had to request a replay, which caused a delay of the final result for each athlete. We used videoReferee for the first time during the World Championships in London. The system was easy to learn and setting up the software plus learning how to use it took only an afternoon.

“During the competition, you can easily choose by touchscreen which cameras you want to look at. In most cases, we could review a penalty during the run and deliver a solid result before the athlete crossed the finish line. Using this new tool during the Canoe Slalom World Championships made a huge impact to deliver the results in time [without doubt].”

The videoReferee system was used as the final judging system, drawing on the signals of all cameras along the racetrack. All gates along the track were monitored with cameras that deliver up to four angle shots. Since videoReferee can easily be integrated in existing production environments, the system used in London also handled signals from the local TV host broadcaster to revert to the maximum amount of available signals.

Broadcast Solutions supported the tournament with two systems. The main system was a videoReferee MKIII with 12 channels recording simultaneously. A videoReferee MKII with up to 11 channels was used as a back-up system.

With the videoReferee system used in London the referees had access to up to 12 camera signals in HD quality. During the competition, all signals could be viewed and marked simultaneously throughout continuous recording. videoReferee offered the organisers and referees unprecedented opportunities to clarify controversial scenes, thereby ensuring more fairness during the competition.