When a football program is
on the smaller scale, we have to imagine that when it comes time
for budgeting, there are certain items that take precedent. Obviously,
the team must be equipped with the proper tools: helmets, shoulder
pads, shoes and those items necessary to outfit a college or high
school football player. The next item that must take precedent is
that of the medical aspect. That is, to prevent injuries and when
they do happen being able to treat the injury so that the athlete
can soon return to competition. What this leads to is having video
be the lowest priority during budget times simply because of the
other items. There is no hidden agenda to not spend money on the
video aspect of football, but the other items have an obvious priority.
Where then does this leave you? You must learn how to prioritize
the resources that you do get for video for your program, and do
more with less. Every program is different, but to be able to realize
what is important in the world of video is crucial. Every coach
on your staff must look at video. Whether it is on a laptop, DVD,
CD, or VHS, they are going to look at it. This leads to what I feel
is the most important part of the process: the actual shooting of
the video. I am not necessarily talking about how the camera operator
shoots the camera although that is a vital part of the puzzle and
an article on its own, but the physical camera. In dealing with
some of the high school tape that we get in the recruiting process,
I feel as if there is too much priority put on the editing system
used or the DVD authoring when it should be on the initial look
of the video. If you start with bad video, perhaps a VHS consumer
model from a few years back, and then begin to make copies of that
tape or digitize it to your edit system, it is never going to get
better than the poor quality that it was to begin with. Upgrade
the camera. You don’t have to spend $15,000 or even $8,000.
With the way signals are being processed today, you can get something
great for about $2,500. Sony, Panasonic, and JVC all make cameras
that will do fantastic jobs. There are Division I-A schools that
shoot practice with these price point cameras utilizing them in
unison with the more expensive setups. There are cameras even less
expensive that will also do great jobs.
When you bump up to these newer models of cameras, you will also
reap the benefits of the newest features. One that is now standard
on almost all digital type cameras is the fire wire input/ output.
This is also referred to as IEEE connection or the 1394 connection.
It is a connection that will carry both audio and video in its signal.
What this does is eliminate the need for those clumsy conversion
boxes that you try to use to hook up your deck to a computer. It
is a one-cable connection that keeps the signal in a true digital
realm.
You will also find these cameras have the ability to move from consumer-type
thinking while shooting to a little more of a professional attitude.
They will give you the flexibility to white balance manually improving
your color as well as changing filters to fit the lighting situation.
All of these features and others offered will help to improve that
initial “acquisition” of tape.
What’s next then? You have spent money on a camera and now
you must give your coaches the ability to watch and study the tape.
It is so important that when you distribute the video to your staff
that you give it to them the best way possible. With the way digital
video has progressed, even the simplest video program can give you
the basics for your study. Remember it was only 18 years ago that
all this technology moved from film. On the film side we saw an
original and then from there a minimal number of cuts as the print
could only go so far. In any terms there are multiple software programs
out there that can get you your video intercut or single angle sorted
by offense, defense, and then special teams.
What do you want to do? Unless you have a large donor or a great
budget, chances are that you might not be able to afford a networked
type system. When we mention network, we are referring to having
a central server and clients (coaches stations) throughout the facility
that you will be able to watch video at, thus eliminating tape as
the prominent form of study. Most programs need to take the cuts
from the video system and put them back to tape or DVD so that not
all the coaches have to gather around a single computer screen.
So if the basics can be done by most of these systems, it’s
your job to choose whom you feel the most comfortable with. Check
the company statistics. How long have they been around, what type
of support do they offer, who is included in the customer list,
and what are they giving you for the price that you are paying?
Remember, though, that you are not buying the entire network so
some of the features mentioned during their demos may not be part
of the package that your program needs.
Work with the equipment that you have in the right way. So many
of the problems that occur with video equipment these days is not
understanding the basics of it. When you hook up your VHS decks,
or DVD recorders it benefits you to understand the best quality
that the outputted product can be. When selecting the cables to
use, realize that the s-video connection will be better quality
than the yellow (composite) or single bnc connector video cable
will be. Realize that when hooking your decks to a TV for display,
using the red, green, blue cabling (component) will be even better
than the s-video.
Other items to consider when outputting to tape is the speed that
your VCR or DVD recorder is set at. It is imperative to understand
the difference between the SP mode and SLP mode. Unless your outputted
video is over two hours you should always have your record machine
set to SP (on the DVD recorders you can even set the speed to record
at a superior one hour mode if your program allows).
What is happening when you set your speed to SP is that the tape
it is being recorded to is actually moving faster over the record
heads and, in turn, writing less information to each piece of tape
and producing better quality. It seems a little confusing but with
the mode in SLP you are stuffing more information into a smaller
area and thus, sacrificing quality. If you sacrifice the quality
on the initial output, by the time someone makes the second or third
dub, the video is barely recognizable especially when outputting
to a projector for team study.
One other helpful item that can improve your video is a piece of
inexpensive equipment called a distribution amplifier (DA). What
tends to happen when you have multiple decks hooked together without
a DA is something that we refer to as ‘daisy chaining.’
In basic terms it is output from one deck to input on the next,
and out on that deck to in on the next and so on. What is happening
when you do this is that the signal is getting weaker and weaker
as it is looped. What the DA does is take the original output and
send it out to the multiple sources with the same amplification
thus eliminating signal loss. You can pick up a DA for composite
(the single cable) or s-video from most vendors that you purchase
video from.
Where can you go for advice on these tough decisions or basic information?
Make contacts with the video directors at a school in your area
that employs a full time video director. These are people that deal
with video as their job on a full time basis and should be willing
and able to help you with these decisions. Many of these video directors
are members of the AFCA and listed in the directory. I know that
when we have high school clinics, I am more than happy to make myself
useful by answering a few questions about video and making some
basic recommendations to anyone that needs it. We deal with vendors
on a daily basis and can certainly help to point your program in
the right direction. The more resources that you have to help in
these decisions, the better off you will be able to justify the
money that you are going to spend. In the end you will hopefully
get the best video set up for your program.
Luke Goldstein is in his third season as video coordinator
for the Virginia football program. Goldstein previously served as
director of league video operations for the XFL. From 1998 to 2000,
he was the director of video operations at the University of Southern
California. Before that, he spent three years (1995-98) as assistant
video director for the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars and one year (1994-95)
as a video engineer with ESPN.
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