Josep Escoda presented the fourth keynote of the IASI conference: Barcelona to London: A Broadcast Science and Training Experience
Introduction
Josep identified the three high performance centres in Spain and four single sport centres. Josep is based at the Centre d’Alt Rendiment CAR . CAR aims to provide and integrate services to high performance sport. CAR was established in 1987 in time for the Barcelona Olympics. It was established as a public company that used existing facilities. The public nature of the company gave advantages leading into preparations for Barcelona.
Josep noted that the workflow at CAR was focussed on integration. CAR has a 12 million euro budget that is sourced from the Catalan Government, the Spannish governments and income generated by CAR’s own income. There are over 200 staff at CAR. There are 400 athletes and 600 students at CAR. They participate in 26 Olympic and non-Olympic sports. The most recent inclusion has been sport dance.
Work at CAR
CAR is the host of the International Association of High Performance Sports Training Centres (IAHPSTC). Josep outlined the development of forums to share experience. One example has been collaboration with the International Council for Coach Education ICCE.
International Projects at CAR have included:
- 3D Motion Capture
- Long Jump Technology Development
- Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System
- Speed Glues
- 3D animations of jumps at Barcelona.
- Atlanta 1996 digital motion capture.
- 2003 FINA Championships and Image System for Swimming Events. (This system included a four-camera, real time autotracking system to produce average velocity, turns, stroke length and frequency.)
- Beijing 2008: interactive tracking of Catalan athletes. (Web links, digital TV recording and data stream, SMS platform for results and sharing information.) Note that TV recordings were geolocalised to comply with IOC rights.
Future Plans at Sant Cugat
Josep discussed the new facility being developed at Sant Cugat. He outlined a new technological approach to inform the building process. There is a 36 million euro investment to deliver a facility in 2011. This new facility will be state of the art and built upon principles that include: health and life balance, modularity, integration, non-invasive, instant feedback, control, quality, and ecology. There will be generic technology requirements that include.
- Ubiquitous access
- 10G technology
- Integration of IP V6, Advanced XML sport standards and Mpeg7, full HD High Speed IP Cam.
- Videoconferencing
Josep indicated that this system will be housed in a unified system with one interface. He demonstrated the concept of the hand held control room for the new facility. The new facility will involve a partnership with CISCO and Dell with a 10 years’ expected life cycle. All this within secure control access.
Josep concluded his presentation with a video animation of the new facility at Sant Cugat.
