Barcelona using AI technology to improve coaching and bring fans closer to action

EXCLUSIVE
Barca using AI to bring fans closer to the action
AFP via Getty Images
Ben Hayward14 September 2020

Barcelona are looking to assist their coaches and also bring fans all over the world closer to the action thanks to innovative artificial intelligence technology.

In July, the Catalan club signed an agreement with Pixellot, a sports technology company that specialises in audiovisual technology, to develop a system for automated recording and processing of images of the ordinary sporting activities that take place on the club’s premises.

The partnership will see Barca become a testing laboratory for developing new products for automated artificial intelligence-based viewing and recording of training sessions and matches, with the aim of offering an improved experience to fans and also to aid technical and tactical analysis by the managers of different professional sports at the club.

Standard Sport spoke to board member Marta Plana about the Barça Innovation Hub and how the new link-up will change the way fans and coaches watch games.

"Barca Innovation Hub has created an ecosystem to foster knowledge and innovation," Plana said. "It’s a lab that benefits not only the club, but society in general. So our goal is to have a model for which the club will be able to attract companies and entrepreneurs to develop new technologies that will help our athletes to be better and our fans and our followers to be part of Barça.

"Our main strategy is to create and co-develop products and services that will benefit not only athletes but also those partners that we’re speaking about to large startups that will help us scale. So we have different agreements with different startups, but with Pixellot, we meet one of the goals that we’ve been searching for a long time, which is to team up with leading sports tech companies where we will be developing products and services that will help us improve what we’ve been trying to do in sports, so supplying technology in the form of automated cameras installed at our sports centres, Ciutat Desportiva, and more recently the Johan Cruyff Stadium.

"As a result of this agreement, Pixellot will not only be able to be a supplier to Futbol Club Barcelona, but also an innovative partner, to make the club a leading centre for innovation in terms of automated recording sports activity."

So how will it work?

"Pixellot will be sending its own staff to work with the clubs’ coaches and analysts, identify improvements and develop new products to use in the Barça ecosystem and we will be able to basically research with data analytics of the athletes and to work with medical teams to make sure that we perform at our very best," Plana said.

Fans should soon be able to watch youth games which were previously not filmed Photo: AFP
AFP

"So Pixellot is now a partner and a supplier, but also an innovative technology startup that will make Futbol Club Barcelona a better centre for innovation when it comes to recording sports activity.

"Basically what we are trying to do; we are trying to have a culture of open innovation. So Barça Innovation Hub, our lab, will be sharing knowledge and adopting strategic positions of leadership with this company as well. So what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to exchange knowledge that allows us to be more flexible and allows us to be better when it comes to making the whole game another experience. So Pixellot is helping us to be more agile, more productive, and to have better knowledge of what fans and supporters want when they are on the game.

"So if you are thinking of an example of what two companies can do together, you’re thinking of Futbol Club Barcelona and Pixellot, which will be able to team up to be the sports tech company to co-develop products that will male your experience better on the field. And you will be able to have cameras installed that will be able to record the game or to make you feel as if you were at the stadium, so this is a first-time experience, and that is being done through data analytics and through a lot of technology that we’re both sharing."

The new technology will allow coaches to view matches from more angles and track players all over the pitch, while it is also expected to help prevent injuries.

"A coach, for example, used to have to use their gut to establish certain decisions, and now we’re taking this to the next level by knowing what exactly it is that the team needs or to improve the performance of 2,000 athletes in the club, and to prevent for example injuries," Plana said.

New cameras will be installed at the Johan Cruyff Stadium Photo: AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

"So we have more accurate and scientific information which is being translated because of agreements such as Pixellot, which is a very clear example of this collaborative model. So we’re definitely teaming up internally and externally. So it’s not only abut coaches, it’s about athletes, it’s about staff and it’s about the whole Futbol Club Barcelona including our fans, that will be able to experience a better game, because of Pixellot and its cameras too.

"We have two very clear goals: to optimise performance and to prevent injuries. This technology uses algorithms for tracking to follow the game flows inside in a high-resolution panoramic caption. So if you ask me, the fact that we can record the team for different perspectives, so that the same match can be filmed differently for fans, for technical staff or for coaches, makes a big difference when it comes to decision-making in all senses.

"The algorithms are different, meaning that the perspectives from the same match are different, depending on how it’s filmed, so it detects the ball automatically and the players too, so this helps you understand the match much better. So basically what you’re having is, through the algorithm of the Big Data, you’re having the same result, but the supplier helps you have an automated recording of the whole activity, so you identify improvements and develop new products for the use of Barça, so I think that will make a difference when it comes to the club’s academies and schools in different sports because at the end of the day you’re seeing the game from a more technical perspective, according to your needs, so the algorithm to me, is key to these new perspectives."

Fans will have access to games which were previously not televised, including the youth sides, and will be able to follow all the action from wherever they are in the world.

"We’re going to install cameras that will be able to record everything that is happening," Plana said. "And those cameras, you’re going to be able to see what goes on in another stadium. You’re not going to have to be there, but you’ll be able to translate that experience from your house. It’s basically services that will develop technology that will make you, through cameras, feel as if you were part of that stadium.

Pixellot is already working with the first team to offer a special tactical view to coaches Photo: getty Images
Getty Images

"It’s like having a camera and you’ll be able to see a panoramic view and the whole game and scenario in very good resolutions. So it’s us being there, and it’s Artificial Intelligence, and it’s Big Data, and it’s all being translated all at once for you to have a better experience.

"Right now we are covering 16 or eight pitches around the Barcelona complexes, so you are able for example to broadcast games that were never produced before, and engage the fans with for example Under-11 games, it’s very important for the families that were never able to see them, with Pixellot, you can broadcast them to the fans, to social media, to other platforms to create more content and engage more fans. And it’s not limited to football. You can do it with handball, you can do it with basketball, roller hockey, whatever you want."

Pixellot's director of marketing, Yossi Tarablus, explained how the images are created.

"We capture all the game in four separate cameras and the images stitched together," he said. "We create a very high-resolution photo or vision of the field, so you are able on an openlab or virtual reality to capture the experience of the game in 180 degrees, you can zoom into any part of the field that you want, you cam focus only on the goalkeeper, you can focus on the box, you can follow one player, this creates a range of opportunities that makes the audience their own directors.

"You are basically allowing the user to create his own personalised experience and this is something that has never happened before. That is one of the things we offer, we do, so the images that we create, can be manipulated or let’s say worked on in different ways, so it can be the tactical view for the coaches, the broadcast view for the audience, the panoramic view if you want to be your own producer, so it’s one image which can be played as you want."

The integrated cameras will be installed at Barcelona's Sant Joan Despi training base and also the Johan Cruyff Stadium, where Barca B and FC Barcelona Femení play their home games.

Pixellot already supports the first team with the tactical view, editing of training sessions and matches.

Barcelona players in training with former coach Quique Setien Photo: AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

"This helps the coaches gain deeper insights into the formation of the game, into how the tactics are being implemented on the field," Tarablus said. "And this creates an additional video layer to what was once a tactical view of a board with markers with an X and a 0, this is much more advanced, so the team is using Pixellot in a tactical view, which is a different angle to the broadcast view.

"The tactical view allows the coaches to see in real time the formation of the team, if there is any part of the team that needs to run faster, or if there is a gap in the defence, or if the offence is a little bit too far forward, this is the type of insights that the coaches get from the tactical view which we have developed together with the Barcelona people."

The Catalan club are excited about the link-up and Plana said: "We will do out best to integrate Pixellot in all 360 degrees Barça, but we hope it will be a fantastic experience at all levels.

"Barça Innovation Hub, which was launched three years ago, is a lab that wants to become a benchmark in the field of technology and innovation and education, and on the field of play, so Pixellot is a company that will help us to make that happen."

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