System and method for optical player tracking in sports venues

A system for automatically capturing broadcastable video of a sporting event within a venue, the system comprising:

• at least one fixed tracking camera configured to capture tracking video of players in the venue;
• a broadcast camera configured to capture the broadcastable video of the sporting event, the broadcast camera being remotely controllable to adjust pan, tilt or zoom of the broadcast camera;
• and
• a processing system operatively coupled to the at least one tracking camera and to the broadcast camera, the processing system configured to:
• divide the venue into a plurality of zones of interest;
• optically track individual players in the venue by determining respective positions of the individual players within the zones of interest using the at least one fixed tracking camera;
• based on the respective positions of the individual players, perform a cluster analysis to identify player groups within the zones of interest;
• determine a given one of the zones of interest containing the most number of individual players;
• analyze activity of the individual players and player groups within the given one of the zones of interest to select a current gameplay scenario corresponding to said activity, said current gameplay scenario being selected from a predetermined set of gameplay scenarios;
• and
• based on the current gameplay scenario, adjust a pan, tilt or zoom of the broadcast camera in real-time, thereby changing a field of view of the broadcast camera and capturing the broadcastable video of the sporting event.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors operatively connected to at least one tracking camera and a remote-controllable broadcast camera in a venue during a sporting event, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

• dividing the venue into a plurality of zones of interest;
• optically tracking individual players in the venue by determining respective positions of the individual players within the zones of interest using the at least one tracking camera;
• based on the respective positions of the individual players, performing a cluster analysis to identify player groups within the zones of interest;
• determining a given one of the zones of interest containing the most number of individual players;
• analyzing activity of the individual players and player groups within the given one of the zones of interest to select a current gameplay scenario corresponding to said activity, said current gameplay scenario being selected from a predetermined set of gameplay scenarios;
• and
• based on the current gameplay scenario, adjusting a pan, tilt or zoom of the broadcast camera in real-time, thereby changing a field of view of the broadcast camera and capturing the broadcastable video of the sporting event.