United World Wrestling Selects Slomo.tv Video-Refereeing

For the last two years, UWW has been cooperating with slomo.tv on the implementation of video-refereeing at its international competitions. To date, the systems have been deployed at more than 20 world competitions and will be used for Olympic cycle through 2024.

After making the decision to implement video-refereeing, UWW tested systems from various manufacturers before selecting thevideoReferee®-SR. The system’scompact size and lightweight was a significant factorneeded to transport between competitions in many different parts of the world.

Greco-Roman, freestyle and women's wrestling competitions have unique features, so the requirements for video judging differ from other sports, such asice hockey, basketball and handballthat use the technology. It is frequent for competitions to have simultaneous matches on nearby mats, so the video-refereeing system needs to cover two mats, each with four cameras. In response, slomo.tv modified the videoReferee®-SR system, designed to work with 8 HD cameras, adding the ability to cover two independent matches with four cameras each by one compact 1U server.

“While looking for solutions to increase the fairness of the refereeing during International Events, United World Wrestling found Slomo.tv to be the ideal solution. Increasing the numbers of cameras (angles) gave our referees a better tool to make the correct decision. Also, the stability of the system’s software allowed us to respond to 100% of the challenges (replays) requested by the coaches in the last two years,” explained Sébastien Guenat, Director of IT department at UWW.

Since 2018, the International Federation has been actively using videoReferee®-SR systems at all international competitions, including the Senior and Junior World Championships 2018 and 2019, Senior European Championships 2019, Senior Asian Championships 2019 and World Cups 2018 and 2019 in Greco-Roman, Freestyle and Women's Wrestling.

Positive users experience and comfort with the equipment throughout this period a key driver for purchasing additional systems: now UWW has five suchsystems.

Wrestling is a dynamic, spectacular sport that attracts the attention of people around the world. As in other sports, the International Federation is interested in objective and fair refereeing. Sometimes in a matchthere are instanceswhere it is difficult to make an objective decision. In this case, they come to the assistance of a special tool - a multi-camera video-refereeingsystem, which allows instant reviews of the incident from several angles, both with adjustable playback speed and frame-by-frame.

Sébastien Guenat expressed satisfaction with the slomo.tv solution. “It will be the main replay system used during the Tokyo Olympic Games and beyond,” Guenat explained.

“We would like to express our gratitude to United World Wrestling. We are pleased to continue our cooperation in the implementation of video-refereeing systems in Wrestling,” stated Michael Gilman, CEO of slomo.tv.