I’m trying to create a low cost bare bones Veo alternative. The ball tracking and auto pan-zoom fits in nicely. However, I’ve (already) opted for a cheap security camera (Annke FCD800, 8MP UHD Dual-Lens Outdoor PoE Security Camera, 180° Panoramic View, 90 euro) that already provides a stitched video.
Is it possible to provide an already stitched video, but still do the ball trackign and automatic pan-zoom?
I actually just submitted a pull request to handle viewing a 180 degree security camera video using the existing viewer: feat: add panorama viewer for pre-stitched 180-degree cameras by mblakley · Pull Request #39 · reco-project/video-stitcher · GitHub
That change alone won’t provide the functionality you’re looking for, but if the ball tracking gets implemented, it should allow that to work with existing 180 degree footage.
Sounds promising, thanks!
Hi @TomKamphuys and @Mark_Blakley ,
Thanks for the message and pull request. I’ll look into that asap and let you know.
Can you send me some footage you have so I try it with the pull request and try to see how does the AI handle it?
Unfortunately I have no footage yet. I just put together my proof-of-principle setup with 3d printed enclosure in my living room.
What kind of video are you looking for? For the panoramic viewer? Or some ball tracking?
Just the raw footage from your camera. Though @Mark_Blakley already sent me some footage from with ReoLink Duo 3 camera, I’ll try with it.
I have some very uninteresting footage of my garden. Where can I send it to?
I’m also interested in the differences between the Reolink Duo 3 and the Annke FCD800 footage. I’ve considered them both, but tried the Annke first because of its larger vertical FOV.
swisstransfer.com is good.
I’ve limited it to 1 download.
From my opinion and experience 20fps is not enough to have a nice and smooth video.
For survailance 20fps is enough but for sporting, you need at least 30fps or higher.
Does anyone know of a Dual Lens camera (ideally 180° view) that supports 30fps at full resolution?
Nobody makes security cameras with a high frame rate, at least not with a high enough resolution to pick up the far corners of the field. If you look at enterprise level cameras, you will end up paying more for the camera than you would pay for a Veo, or you could just buy 2 GoPros and stitch them at 60fps.
Security cameras provide a lot of value for the money, even at 20fps.
But then for most of them you can not use a battery right?
I have a powerbank with both 12V DC (camera) and USB outputs (router) :
NASTIMA 12V Power Bank 5200mAh 56.16Wh Lithium-ion Battery with 12V DC Output and 12V 5V USB-A QC3.0 45W Type C Triple Output for LED Strips, CCTV Cameras, Camcorders, Binoculars
More than enough to record a match.
I’m using PoE to the camera, using a PoE injector ( Amazon.com: PoE Texas DC-Powered PoE+ (30 watt) Gigabit Inline Injector Converts 12-60V in to 50 Volt IEEE 802.3at PoE+ Out - Variable DC PoE Injector for Solar & Battery Powered Installations, WiFi & More : Patio, Lawn & Garden ) attached to a battery pack. (Amazon.com: Shanqiu Mini UPS Battery Backup Uninterruptible Power Supply for Router, Modem, Security Camera with Input AC Output USB 5V DC 5V 9V 12V (74Wh) : Electronics)
I can record at least 12 hours between charges (basically a whole weekend tournament).
I tried the Reolink Duo 3 two summers ago and was very unimpressed. I used a portable UPS for the POE and portable wifi router with an ethernet adapter for my iPhone to log into the camera to start recording. The configuration I had worked flawlessly. The problem was the video captured from the camera was terrible. As others have said, 20 fps is not enough to record sports and have decent video. Anyone who has every watched a game streamed by livebarn knows how bad video looks when using security cameras. In addition, I discovered that in full sunlight the field of play really gets washed out. All the spectators in the shade looked ok, but the field and players were washed out and blurry. When I tested the setup before tournaments started, it was overcast and not that bad looking. I was really bummed by the whole experience and returned all the equipment as it was a failed proof of concept. Honestly security cameras were not made this application and it shows. I ended up getting the Pixellot Air NXT, with I have used for a year and continue to plan on using until there is an actual product that can compete with it and Veo.
I record lacrosse and gridiron football. I’ve tried Actionstitch with two GoPros in the past. The 180 degree videos are decent, but took foreve to stitich. Then there were no software options to autotrack those sports. Once AutoCam is good for soccer, but doesn’t support lacrosse or football. Nothing I could do with the videos. The Actionstich player had a record option but manually trying to track the video to record was difficult and frustrating.
I also tried the XbotGo Chameleon and I think I got a defective unit. it wouldn’t track anything and would lose the bluetooth connection every 15 minutes. That got returned too. I have purchased the XbotGo Falcon. Will test this spring. I am not getting my hopes up based on my previous experience and from user feedback on their FB group.
I am really hoping Reco v2 is a huge success, especially as it is an open-source project.
TLDR: Don’t use security cameras to record sports and the XbotGo products are not ready for primetime.
I guess we can agree to disagree - I found security camera footage to be good enough for looking at basic positioning and movement for soccer, and that’s what my players have needed the most feedback on. I’ve used both Dahua/EmpireTech at 25 FPS and ReoLink Duo 3 PoE at 20fps - in general I did prefer the EmpireTech camera, but I ended up with corrupted video (motion streaks between frames) any time I tried to download the footage through their API. The ReoLink seemed more washed out, but there were more horizontal pixels to work with.
It’s not broadcast quality video, but it’s fine for smaller fields (7v7, 9v9) or for looking at the basics - you’re spending around $150 for a security camera vs $800 for a pair of GoPros + figuring out a way to mount them. The cost makes it accessible for more people.
I recorded my first match this morning. It’s not as good as I hoped. I explicitly choose the larger vertical FOC of the Annke over the Reolink, but I don’t think it is needed and the Reolink might improve the detail a bit.
I think my biggest disappointment is caused by the lighting/dynamic range and the processing/encoding.
I’ve switched to my linux machine (with GPU) and tried to use @Mark_Blakley ‘s code there. Unfortunately I didn’t succeed. @Mark_Blakley Would you be willing to help me out and what would be the best way of communicating?
Hey @TomKamphuys,
When you say processing/encoding, are you talking about the Reco software or the camera you bought?
For now, the PR Mark did will just allow you to visualise the video, no processing whatsoever.
I can help you debug it if you want.
@TomKamphuys I’m interpreting your comment - If you’re just trying to combine the video without re-encoding, you can just use ffmpeg with stream copy (-c) for video and audio, which won’t re-encode anything.
The code in my soccer-cam repo is going through a bunch of revisions, getting ready for the upcoming spring season 
Feel free to reach out in chat if you have questions