Anonymous wrote:Has anyone used or seen the seeusplay camera (https://www.seeusplay.com/)? The company is based in VA and the videos on their website all appear to be local games in the DMV area.

The concept is good and it looks like a great value compared to Veo (but without all of the features of a Trace). But they only provide short clips and almost every camera looks good in short clips.

Having two GoPros for other purposes is an added bonus.

Figured I would bump this thread to share my experience with SeeUsPlay, as there is very little information out there. So far I have been quite impressed. If your primary interest is in getting a camera that you can set up, leave alone, and that will produce a great video of the game, this is a great choice. They have also been incredibly responsive when issues have arisen.

Summary: A soccer camera system that does the job well at a price that is accessible.

Pros:
- Excellent video quality and tracking on par with more expensive systems
- Easy to use
- Less expensive than most other systems (currently $1,100/yr to rent or $650/yr if you own the equipment)
- Videos uploaded to YouTube for easy sharing/viewing
- Easy to make highlight videos through SeeUsPlay or using YouTube clips
- GoPro cameras can be used for other purposes when not recording games

Cons:
- Currently no advanced features (statistics, individual player tracking, etc.)
- Occasionally misses throw ins/corner kicks because tracking picks up movement off the ball
- Long time from upload to viewing (videos need to be uploaded, processed by SeeUpPlay, and then by YouTube)

Trace seemed to have a lot of potential but it was frustrating when not all players were tracked. I found the navigation really difficult when going back to watch. And if someone isn't intune with their methodology on how they calculate certain things people can totally get the wrong impression of what took place/how a player "performed". The coach(es) may need to build in 1-10 hours of additional time depending on how much they want to try and translate the information into action. It's very easy to go down rabbit holes and that time is further compounded by the non-intuitive way to navigate.

Anonymous wrote:Trace no longer requires the kids to wear the trackers in their socks. But if there are issues with IDs not being set up, that’s user error.

As far as live-streaming, it really varies depending on location and bandwidth. Our oldest has played all over the country and in Germany and it’s been a crapshoot. Sometimes the best result is if a parent uses Facebook live and narrates.

Our club uses Trace for the top two teams in each year, and the fees are added to our team fees. This will be our second year having it for our middle kid and we’re pretty happy with it.

If practice gets canceled for weather (lots of lightning in the summer and snow/cold in the winter where we are) our coach will meet with the girls at the club office to review film or give them “homework” where they need to discuss what was good and bad in their games. I know our coach watches each game multiple times too.

It’s also great for us because with two kids now playing there are a lot of weekends where our kids will be in different places so we can watch highlights of the kiddo that we missed. My husband was always wanting me to record and give him play-by-play reporting on the kid I was with and now I can enjoy the game in the moment and tell him to watch the film.

When my oldest was playing in AZ (he went to Barça residential academy as a junior during Covid—that’s a whole post in itself) they seemed to always have technical difficulties with Veo or the local company they used and the only time we got decent film was when it was offered as a package by vendors at tournaments. That was really frustrating because we were so far away and he really needed video for recruiting. Using Trace with our current club has been flawless in comparison but it’s also managed by the dad on our team who is a huge camera guy.

If you have time, please share the Barca AZ experience in another post.

Trace no longer requires the kids to wear the trackers in their socks. But if there are issues with IDs not being set up, that’s user error.

As far as live-streaming, it really varies depending on location and bandwidth. Our oldest has played all over the country and in Germany and it’s been a crapshoot. Sometimes the best result is if a parent uses Facebook live and narrates.

Our club uses Trace for the top two teams in each year, and the fees are added to our team fees. This will be our second year having it for our middle kid and we’re pretty happy with it.

If practice gets canceled for weather (lots of lightning in the summer and snow/cold in the winter where we are) our coach will meet with the girls at the club office to review film or give them “homework” where they need to discuss what was good and bad in their games. I know our coach watches each game multiple times too.

It’s also great for us because with two kids now playing there are a lot of weekends where our kids will be in different places so we can watch highlights of the kiddo that we missed. My husband was always wanting me to record and give him play-by-play reporting on the kid I was with and now I can enjoy the game in the moment and tell him to watch the film.

When my oldest was playing in AZ (he went to Barça residential academy as a junior during Covid—that’s a whole post in itself) they seemed to always have technical difficulties with Veo or the local company they used and the only time we got decent film was when it was offered as a package by vendors at tournaments. That was really frustrating because we were so far away and he really needed video for recruiting. Using Trace with our current club has been flawless in comparison but it’s also managed by the dad on our team who is a huge camera guy.

Anonymous wrote:are people generally happy with Trace? just started looking into the idea of recording for the upcoming season. thx,

My old club had veo, including the live version. New club has trace. I don't think the stuff with trace is necessary, especially if you want to watch the entire game. The live veo isn't worth it since the internet can be spotty.

Trace was ok when we used it last year, but, for whatever reason the IDs kept not being setup. The kids have to wear tags that are synced up in order for things like player stats to work.

Trying out Hudl this year...

are people generally happy with Trace? just started looking into the idea of recording for the upcoming season. thx,

Has anyone used or seen the seeusplay camera (https://www.seeusplay.com/)? The company is based in VA and the videos on their website all appear to be local games in the DMV area.

The concept is good and it looks like a great value compared to Veo (but without all of the features of a Trace). But they only provide short clips and almost every camera looks good in short clips.

Having two GoPros for other purposes is an added bonus.

If you are willing to put in the work, Trace is a far better option than Veo. The real bonus is that you can use your iPhone or a limitless number of iPhones from anywhere on the field - and it automatically syncs up to the main camera footage. Some larger academy teams (Alexandria, Bethesda, etc.) provide cameras for top teams. The talk of having it recouped by a college scholarship is just nonsense. Particularly for boys - there are hardly any substantial scholarships out there that are purely athletic. You're probably already spending $5 to $10K a year on club soccer - what's another $200 per family for the camera system?

Anonymous wrote:Our club provides them for our travel games

What club is that? Do they provide them for all teams, or only certain ages/levels?

Our club provides them for our travel games

it would be great, but VEO is really weird (at least from my experience) on teams sharing videos outside of their enterprise solution or team license.

Wondering how clubs/teams/parents handle video recording of games. Are clubs providing cameras for their teams? Or does it fall to coaches or parents to purchase?

If the latter, what made you decide to buy a camera? It seems like a great learning tool, but hard to justify the cost if my kids are not likely to receive college scholarships to help pay it back.

This also seems like one of the things more clubs should provide at their home fields. It would be nice to show up and have benches, tents, and cameras set up for the day with some way for all of the teams to tap into the video.