"I was interested in how the data for the top teams at the World Cups are prepared and how the preparation for the matches is done. I approached Václav Berčík from Beach Data with the idea of automating these processes and my proposal was met with enthusiasm. We agreed to combine the research with my thesis," says Justýna. Beach Data specialise in data collection and analysis for tactical team preparations.
So far, the data is collected and the videos are manually edited by so called scouts, mostly current and former volleyball players. However, this process is time and money consuming. In her work, Justine Fromm has developed a system that automatically recognizes game exchanges and removes idle parts of the footage, such as pauses between exchanges or team timeouts. The result is significantly faster match analysis and data preparation. This process saves up to 50% of the scouts' routine work, allowing them to focus on more detailed analysis using their volleyball experience.
To automate video editing, Justine Fromm used a neural convolutional network (EfficientNet) with a classification head that can recognize the beginnings and ends of exchanges based on frame analysis. Based on this data, she created a program that defines time tracks and automatically cuts the video in production accordingly.
The results of the thesis are ready to be deployed into the Beach Data application. Even after the completion of her master thesis, Justýna Frommová continues to work with Beach Data on a research project at TAČR that addresses the full automation of video information collection for professional beach volleyball. The data preparation including videos is already available as an annual license and clients include world champions Ondrej Perušić and David Schweiner, American teams and the Canadian Beach Volleyball Association.
Justýna Frommová and her teammate Jaroslava Marcelová won the fourth place at this year's Czech Beach Volleyball Championship. "Tactics play a key role in beach volleyball and it is thanks to data and videos that we can improve the preparation of teams for matches, as we tried it at this year's championship," concludes Justýna Frommová.
In the future, the plan is to expand the system to help teams not only with strategy development, but also with analysis of game patterns and individual player performance to support improvement in specific game activities.
Ing. Justýna Frommova´s diploma thesis: Automatizovaný střih videa zápasů beachvolejbalu
