When Major League Baseball expanded the use of instant replay for the 2014 season, America’s most nostalgic professional sports league became the latest entity in the sports industry to dive further into the ever-growing market of video technology.
Fluendo, a video technology company, is making that market accessible to professional and amateur sports teams with their LongoMatch video analysis software.
The program helps players and teams enhance practice techniques and prepare for future opponents.
Coaches can either record the game or watch it live “and then they work back on the video, they cut the video, they draw on it…” Fluendo CEO Muriel Moscardini said in an interview explaining LongoMatch’s many features.
Coaches then show the analysis to players to work on individual technique, develop team tactics and prepare for opponents, she said.
“LongoMatch is a great tool to increase the communication between my athletes,” Michele Santoni, assistant coach for Italian football club A.C. Cesena, wrote in an email. “I send video files exported from LongoMatch to the players. They have to choose every week … events contained that they want to discuss with their teammates.”
Aside from making it easier to communicate coaching criticism, LongoMatch’s compatibility allows coaches and players to share edited video clips across Linux, Mac, and Microsoft devices.
“First Longomatch is compatible with different platforms,” Santoni, who also works on the LongoMatch development team, shared with us via email. “When you work in a team and in a club where everyone uses his own computer this is important.”
In 2008 Longo Match was developed as an open source platform.
Fluendo – LongoMatch’s parent company, which specialized in video technology for more than 10 years before deciding to focus on the sports market – acquired the rights to the software, Moscardini said.
Fluendo kept the open source project alive, and users can download a free, basic version of the video analysis program.
LongoMatch also offers a 30-day free trial for its three pro-level programs, after which customers make an annual payment, ranging from $500 to $1500, to keep using the software.
The open source platform and affordable prices also make LongoMatch accessible at the amateur and collegiate level.
“The open source software has been excellent, but as the pro-features are still cost effective, upgrading makes sense,” Harvard women’s soccer assistant coach Chris Hamblin wrote in an email.
Now LongoMatch is crucial to the Crimson ladies’ preparation.
Hamblin wrote in an email he uses the software to analyze “tactical decisions and execution” and provide “insight into our opposition’s tendencies, strengths and weaknesses.”
FIBA and Euroleague referees also use the program to analyze plays during games and evaluate their officiating performance.
With more than 2,000 teams and organizations from around the world using LongoMatch in various sports – including rugby, soccer, volleyball, basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, and water polo – the software keeps growing in popularity and does not appear to be slowing down.
LongoMatch hosted the SVG College Sports Summit, a conference to “discuss the latest in college sports video production and technology,” this week, according to an SVGCollege.com article.
The summit was the latest move in Fluendo’s promotional expansion of LongoMatch.
In April Fluendo and LongoMatch were recognized for using innovative video technology with NewBay Media’s Best of Show Award and the first annual Best of SPROCKIT Award.
To take LongoMatch to the next level, Fluendo recently partnered with the Truth Media LTD to expand the software into China and Asia.
“With soccer being one of the most popular team sports in China, there is a need for innovative technology to help coaches and athletes improve performance,” Moscardini said in a press release.
“We’ve received very positive feedback in the U.S. and Europe from soccer and other sports enthusiasts currently using LongoMatch,” she said in the release. “The time is right for us to make our easy-to-use video analysis tool available for the Asian sports market.”
To learn more about how LongoMatch works check out iSportconnect TV’s BIG Interview with Fluendo CEO Muriel Moscardini:
