Anybody use Proscout Video?

check out apex 3.0
you can talk in the info. if you use a digital camera it will automatically set play marks

great for doing highlight films at the end of the year.

I demoed the Apex 3.0 system last year and they didn't have the auto marking clips feature. Can't imagine they added it so quickly?

Honestly I thought the voice recognition stuff was a gimmick. They're not even pushing it anymore, because it really doen't save you any time at all. Ask waht you have to do if you or the software makes a mistake?

apex is only $2000

what does demoed mean?

i am no expert

the voice didn't help until we got the playbook set up then you can fly

that didn't happen until after the season

it definitely has auto capture for set points

We'd have to put some money into a new computer to go Proscout, so there's gonna be some investment there (although not as much), even with the free software. But we are also looking at a Landro, since the administration ok'd the money to buy one. The Landro looks the easiest to use, but we're wondering if it's worth the money ($5000 range) vs. the limited investment with the Proscout software.

The Landro is a one dimensional proprietary appliance. If you have coaches who are really afraid of computers, it may be the way to go. But just the fact you're on a discussion forum shows you're not computer illiterate. The problem with proprietary systems is if you don't like it/use it, your whole investment is gone. If you buy a computer and software you're safe... if you don't like the software you still have the computer and can buy different software.

That's why the Proscout solution is a no brainer. You spend the money on a good computer and use the Proscout software. If after a season (or just check it out in the off season) you don't like it, just get new software form DSV, Webb, etc. That was our approach last year, and we're staying with Proscout. We'll use the money saved to get another laptop or 2 for next season.

I strongly suggest you use a laptop computer. The portability lets you pass it around to different coaches. And anytime you have a question, you can immediately get an answer by just bringing up the video instantly. I can't tell you how many times on the field or in meetings, we were discussing an upcoming opponent and 2 coaches remembered a formation or play differently. Now we just open up the laptop and instantly find the play. Like the Landro, it can be used as the 'vcr' to show the players video -- just plug a wire into the back of the laptop, and put the other end into a tv or projector.

btw - Laptops only became an option in the last year and a half. Laptops cpu's and disk drives were not fast enough only 2 years back. Now you can get a high end Dell for about $1,200 with internal disk space to hold 10+ games. Let me know if you need any help or have any other questions.

We use Proscout and like it a lot. It does take some time to cut the tape but once you do so you can pull up all the same plays, formations, etc. and gives you about any printout of information that you need.

This is an issue, but with the rapidly dropping price of external hard drives you can always get memorey.

You can break down film of the same game on as many computers as you want. You then just merge the data together and put it back on all the computers. The DC and OC are reponsible for there own stuff, it works much faster because you're all doing it at the same time.
There's only one Landro system so only one coach at a time can work on it. Oh yea, I forgot... with Proscout you get unlimited copies to put on unlimited computers. For all the others, DSV, Webb,etc, it's $2-5000 for ONE copy/computer. Each add'l copy is ususally 50% of the first copy ($1-2,5000).



With a laptop you can only hold about 10 games internally. You'll also want to buy an external disk drive -- we bought a 320GB drive for $250. Whne the seasons over we burn a copy of all the games to DVD. This clears the disk space for the next season. Some teams just buy another external drive for each season. If you're looking to use video (self or opponent scout) from pervious years, that's the way to go. You can 'daisy-chain' (link togther) the external drives.

The old Pinnicle SportsEdit is really the top of the line, but was huge bucks. The company was based right up the street from me in Lowell Mass, until XOS bought them out last year. CoachComm sells a stripped down version (although I could never get them to tell me what they stripped out) that lists for $5,000 per copy. Their focus was on networking several computers together, while keeping all the the data current. That's why their market was the Pros (NE Pats use it), Div I and II colleges. A bit overkill for basic high school use... but if you got $$.

A few systems allow live cature (Webb,LRS,SportsEdit) but waht you lose is the auto marking of play clips. The way that works is every time the camara man hits pause it makes a note/mark on the film. Then whne you load the digital film to your computer, the program will read this marking. So if you capture it live, it's just one big video file with none of the plays marked (in and out). It only takes me about 15 minutes to mark the clips/plays with Offesne/Defense/ST - and that's without auto clips. During away games it's done on the bus back. With auto clips it's probably around 5 minutes. btw - I just spoke with Proscout, they WILL have auto clips in for the next release, due in March. And the free/donation program is on again this year. ..Unbeatable.

Just go to www.proscoutvideo.com

Check around then just fill out application to recieve the donated/free copy of the software. They'll probably get right back to you by phone or email. You'll have the software within days.

1st suggestion - work with it now in the off season while the pressure's off. Are you looking to self scout or scout opponents or both? Personally, I think scouting opponents is the 1st priority. The whatever time you have left, do your self scouting. Ideally you break up the work to a few coaches.

Anyway, the way it works:

1) Import video from camera into computer.

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If it's a digital camera, you just plug in a cable(Firewire) into both, rewind the tape, hit record in the program. If it's a Hi-8 camera you'll need a Canopus Converter (about $200). This small box (4x5 inches) converts the analog video into digital, so the computer can work with it. Note: with the new release of Proscout each play from a digital camcorder will automatically be split. Just be sure to have the person filming use the 'pause' button between each play -- that's what creates the split mark.

2) Decide what reports and cutups you want from the system.

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That will tell you what data you need to attach to each clip. Of course the more data you enter, the more you'll get out, but the more time it will take to complete a game. But don't worry - everyone thinks there's a lot of typing involved -- there's not. You only type the info once, then after that it's pulled from a list with your mouse.
Examples of what we enter:
For breaking down upcoming opponents we input:

general - down/dist/los/hash/pass or run/gain/coaches comments

for our defense - formation/motion/playname/result(inc-comp,TD,fumble,sack,etc)

for our offense - front/stunt/blitz/coverage - in our league we find most teams are very simple. You can get through a game pretty quickly.

3) Analysis -

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this is the phase where you analyze all of the video w/data looking for tendencies, etc. There's dozens of reports showing the offensive plays by many variables, such as: by formation, by down/distance, by field position, by personnel, ... After reviewing everything, you decide what reports and cut ups you want to show your players.

4) Report and cutup creation -

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We make printed copies of all relevant reports for each coach(they refer to them as their cheat sheets). We also create 10 minute cutups for each Varsity player to take home and review on VHS or DVD. Usually about 7 minutes of opponents offense and 3 minutes of defense. For our offensive players, it's a condensed video showing a few plays from the base D, some blitzing, stunting, and coverages. For our defensive players, it's the opponents best/top plays grouped by formation or series. Most teams either run the same plays but change the formation/motion/shifting, while others run sets(or series) of plays from specific formations. Based on our scouting, we present it logically grouped, condensed and simplified, to our players. During the week we quiz the players on who they're up against, tendencies, strengths/weaknesses,etc. You can quickly tell who's studied the film. We have post-practice light conditioning for players who 'fail' the quiz - they usually only fail once. Not because of the conditioning, but because they're being called out for not being prepared.

Note: The video comes out of your computer via an S-video output connection on the back computer (on the video card) or though the Firewire. The other end plugs into a VCR or DVD writer.

Let me know if you need any help when you get into this.

Mav

MAV,

Been having issues with Film already burned to DVD and using the computers DVD player...saving the film to the desktop and then trying to cut it up....I guess I must be doing something wrong...

B

The issue is Proscout(most others too) needs the film to be in microsofts avi format. DVD is a different format(mpeg-2). Like sls stated -- you need to convert this to avi. The best way to do this is with an application (like WinDVD Creator) used for creating digital movies and/or dvds. The other way is to just use a dvd player to play the game and capture it just like you would a vhs tape with a vcr... players attached to a Canopus Converter, then into your computers firewire port, then capture with MovieMaker.