The official Ladies European Tour production partner U.COM Media GmbH, together with LMC Live Motion Concept and the Swedish company Pro Tracer AB, are planning to demonstrate the next level of in-depth golf analysis at the Helsingborg Open 2014 taking place at Vasatorp Golf Club, between September 4th and 7th, 2014.
ProTracer AB is a Swedish based technology company specialising in Golf Tracking applications. The inception of ProTracer came from a Swedish golfer who had recently taken up the game – and was not altogether impressed with how golf was shown on TV. The main object of the game, the ball, was only visible on the green. Being a pretty poor putter himself, he wanted to ensure that the “game in the air” as Bobby Jones named it, was also made available to the viewer. The technology is based on real time object tracking and can be used both for LIVE and REPLAY during TV telecasts. When the player hits the shot the ball is identified by a tracking computer and a trailing line is superimposed into the live video feed. The highest accuracy and smooth animation of the line makes ProTracer both a stunning and informative tool for the TV audience.
LMC LiveMotionConcept GmbH is a German based company specialising in TV production services as well as manufacturing broadcast equipment. One of LMC’s successful technologies is the Antelope PICO, a POV-style UltraSlowMotion camera shooting up to 525 frames per second in HD. The size of the camera head as well as the easy integration into a professional broadcast environment makes it a great tool for golf applications. It has been used at major golfing events such as the Ladies German Open, the OMEGA Dubai Ladies Masters and the Duel @ Jinsha Lake. Completely new vantage points and perspectives are possible with the PICO due to its small size and light weight.
U.COM Media is the first production company to combine the two state of the art production technologies bringing another innovative angle to the Ladies European Tour coverage. For the first time at the Helsingborg Open, as a world premier, the Antelope PICO and ProTracer technology will merge together and take the next step in providing even more detailed and impressive analysis. An Antelope ProTracer system will be installed on the teeboxes of holes 12, 15 and 18.
During the live telecast, tee shots will be visualised from a down-the-line point of view, whereby balls in the air will have a trailing line attached.
The benefit of the upgraded system will be that the tee shot will be recorded with 350 frames per second using the PICO camera. This means that not only is the trailing line seen in the LIVE action shot, but the commentators can analyse golf swings using the Antelope PICO Replay.
They can discuss swing-plane, lines and angles, body position, ball position, swing tempo etc. and see immediate results when the ProTracer trailing line is superimposed over the ball flight in the same slomo replay.
A golf professional’s average time for the backswing is 0.80 seconds, with an additional 0.28 seconds to make the down swing to impact. That is an ideal ratio of 3:1. With another 0.70 seconds to finish the swing the total duration of a professional ́s golf swing is about 1.75 seconds.
With a normal camera shooting at 25 frames per second the golf swing is sliced into approx. 43 steps. When recording a golf swing with the Antelope PICO the number of steps increases to 612 steps. The result is a much smoother and much sharper visualisation of the swing, which reveals more detail giving the commentators more to analyse.
U.COM Media GmbH became the official production partner of the Ladies European Tour in 2011. Together with the LET, U.COM Media GmbH is evolving the “Ladies’ Golf” product from a tape recorded highlights product to a live sports product with a global distribution including coverage on all five continents and on all the main golf broadcasters around the globe.
To watch daily highlights and live coverage this weekend, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/ladieseuropeantour
