Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

Streaming of live video from all judges’ locations with the ability for replays will be available to spectators at the World Dressage Masters CDI4* in Roosendaal, Netherlands this week in an effort to improve transparency at dressage competitions.

The project implemented by the Dutch company Match through its VoGo Sport app for smartphones and tablets is being promoted as innovative by seeing rides “through the eyes of the judge.”

The app will enable switching between cameras at each of the judges’ positions, replays and ability to compare scores. The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Communications links from the Roosendaal show grounds, 28 miles/45km south of Rotterdam, are not capable of multiple video signals so the application will be available only to spectators at the venue.

A stand-alone WiFi network is being installed at Roosendaal to provide enough bandwidth so all the camera positions can be streamed simultaneously to a smartphone or tablet.

The rides will not be archived, but could be in the future.

The Roosendaal application is the latest effort to utilize technology in jury sports to provide more transparency and help make dressage more understandable to spectators.

The World Equestrian Festival CHIO at Aachen, Germany for the past two years has utilized a smartphone/tablet app developed with the international software giant SAP to enable spectators to view dressage rides and award marks for individual movements. A similar application was prepared by SAP for equitation competitions at the Washington International Horse Show in October.

An International Dressage Riders Club survey released early this year found that spectators consider subjectivity and lack of transparency in judging the biggest problems in modern international dressage.

Wim de Vrankrijker, Business Developer of VoGo Sport said: “We at MATCH, together with VoGo Sport, are always looking for innovative techniques to provide new and interesting information to visitors at events. This will make a sport, especially sports that involve judging, much more transparent for the spectators.”

Match has been involved in several sports at local up to continental and world championship levels in Europe and North America.

The VoGo app, Wim said, has up to eight inputs and replays are available for all camera positions.

Development is underway in another sport to display animation of an exercise, an aspect that has been talked about for dressage to show how a particular movement should be performed on a split screen of an actual performance.

“There are all kinds of ideas and existing applications,” he said. “The biggest problem is the way it can be published for the spectators. By using the VoGo app this part is solved.”