NEW!
Firmware upgrade for existing Sport Replay Systems adds important new features!

Slow motion instant replay works best when done in a simple way. Lots of features look impressive during a demonstration, but tend to overwhelm operators, bogging down the important tasks. A relatively simple set of basic features are what the operator really needs and will actually use in practice. Having too many bells and whistles is like packing too much for a quick trip. In live production, especially instant replay, speed is of the essence.

BUF Technology’s "Sport" replay systems implement a basic set of tools most useful to the job, and present more advanced features in an inherent way that keeps the complexity mostly hidden from the operator. The result is very fast and effective live replay, and effortless creation of highlights packages that are ready to play at any time. Sport is easy to learn, making it ideal for student operators, where operator turnover tends to be high. And Sport performs better than any other replay system on the market, and at an affordable price.

Editing is complicated and takes time, so is best done post production when time is available. However, for highlights creation purposes, basic editing is beneficial to the replay process as long as it doesn’t take too much time and attention away from the primary task of live replay. Sport makes it practical for the live replay operator to create the highlights package by simplifying the way it is done. Two basic tasks are required to create an effective highlights package, marking clips (cue points), and placing them in the timeline of the highlights package. Sport implements the marking of clips in a highly effective way, and facilitates placing them into the highlights package inherently in chronological order.

Making the highlights is easy, Sport allows the most recently created clip to be placed at the end of the clips already in a particular playlist of clips with a simple keystroke sequence, namely hold ENTER and hit PLAYLIST. This results in a natural order of highlights elements with very little effort. When a clip is entered into the playlist, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Sport makes it easy to tweak afterwards, while it is being played live for replay. So the operator needs only to decide whether the action being viewed is worthy of inclusion in the highlights package and add it to the playlist. The real time consumer (normally) is getting the clip just right.

Clips, or cue points, are snippets of action defined by timecode beginning "in" and ending "out" points. Although these points are referenced internally by timecode numbers, the operator makes these decisions based solely on the visual action and need not be concerned with timecode. A MARK key creates a new cue point, or clip, at the current playback or record position (the displayed video frame). Since action worthy of replay can’t be known until after it has begun to occur, marks made during recording must be trimmed back after being marked. Normally this is done by cueing to the marked point, backing up, then re-marking the point. To save time and make initial marks more accurate and often perfect, BUF Technology proudly introduces Variable Mark Backtiming or VMBT. VMBT uses a simple technique to allow the operator to back-time the point being marked by a variable amount. When the MARK button is first hit, it captures the current timecode as usual, but if it is held down, the duration of time it is held is measured and subtracted from the initial timecode to create the back-timed point. Essentially, the timecode runs backwards while the button is held down. VMBT takes advantage of the human mind’s ability to estimate how long ago something happened and to duplicate that period of time fairly accurately. This feature works very well with little practice, allowing operators to make perfect cue points on the first try most of the time. Even when imperfect, marks tend to be close, speeding up the time required for trimming.

Playlists - Fast and Easy Highlights

You may or may not already use the playlist feature of your Sport or Sport-HD replay system.
These simple steps can help you to streamline the way you use this powerful tool:
1. During recording, when you see action worthy of the highlights package:
Hit MARK, then hold ENTER and hit PLAYLIST - this makes a clip and puts it into the highlights playlist.
2. Once the action is over, hit CUE or PREROLL to cue for replay. Turn the knob (jog) to tweak where the clip should ideally begin.
3. Hold ENTER and hit MARK (see NOTES below) - this changes the start of the clip to your tweaked location (IN point), and inherently also fixes it in the playlist.
4. Play the replay (on air). If playback doesn't stop at the ideal time, hit STOP and jog to a better location, then hold OUT and hit MARK - this tweaks the OUT point.

By following these steps while doing replays, a "cuts-only" highlights package will be ready to play as soon as the game is over (just hit PLAYLIST, CUE, PLAY and ride speed as desired).

Capturing for Editing and Streaming

The fastest and easiest way to get video from Sport into your editing system is simply to capture the playback of a playlist of selected clips. If you use any slow motion effects in your edited piece, you can improve the look of your product by taking advantage of Sport's capabilities: After you capture the playlist, capture it again while playing the playlist at half (50%) speed. Name the slow motion clip with the same name followed by "slow" or "50". When you want to edit a slow motion segment, rather than slowing the segment down with your editing software, use the already slowed down version from the slow motion clip. It will be located at the normal speed clip's TC times two, so if the full speed segment starts at 00:01:20:00, the same segment on the slow clip will be at 00:02:40:00. If you want to slow it down further, use the editor to slow down the 50% footage (e.g. slow to 50% to get 25% of real time). The idea is to use all the pictures that the camera provides.

Why bother to do it this way? Because most video capture systems only record 30 frames per second, so when you slow to half speed for instance, you get a jerky and amateur looking 15 FPS. BUF Technology Sport replay systems record all sixty pictures per second that the camera provides, so at half speed you get a smooth looking 30 FPS. By capturing Sport's half speed playback, your slow motion edited segments will have that same professional look and feel.

NOTES:

For step 1 above, you must first make sure the "setup playlist" is the same one you will be using for highlights (typically zero). There are ten playlists, any of which can be selected independently for "setup" and/or "playback".
To select a playlist for setup:
Hit SETUP, a keypad number 0-9, then PLAYLIST. Anytime you hold ENTER and hit PLAYLIST, the current cue point (the one on the MENU display) will be added to that playlist. You can also hold 0-9 and hit PLAYLIST to add the current cue point to any of the ten playlists. While in playlist setup mode, follow the icons to change the displayed step, delete a clip, or add a "still" step. A clip can be added at any step by simply entering its number. When done, hit HOME to exit the setup mode.
To select a playlist for playback:
Hit a keypad number 0-9 (don't hold it in), PLAYLIST, then CUE. The selected playlist is cued for playback. Hit PLAYLIST again to exit the playlist mode. The next time PLAYLIST, CUE is hit (without hitting a keypad number first), the last used playlist will be cued for playback.

Step 3 above - Hold ENTER and hit MARK: This works only with newer firmware versions. Previously, you had to hold IN (UP arrow) and hit MARK - the new way was added because it is easier to reach.

Refurbishment

If you carry your PC around to different facilities, you'll want to upgrade to the latest version of the (FREE) BUFclips utility. 
Why?  Because the latest firmware versions in the VQC-3000 and VTC-4000/RM-4000 controllers use 38.4K BAUD for the RS-232 serial interface, but many of the controllers you encounter at facilities still have older firmware that use 9600 BAUD. 
As of version 100510, BUFclips now has a BAUD button that switches BAUD rate instantly, saving you from having to edit files.