Pixellot & Barca Innovation Hub Link Up For Automated Recording Development

Barça Innovation Hub and Pixellot to develop new systems for automated recording of training sessions and games

FC Barcelona, through the Barça Innovation Hub (BIHUB), has signed an agreement with Pixellot, the sports technology company that specialises in audiovisual technology, to develop a system for automated recording and processing of images of the ordinary sporting activities.

The systems will be used for games that take place on the club’s premises, mainly at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper training ground and in the Estadi Johan Cruyff.

Thanks to this partnership, the club will become a testing laboratory for developing new products for automated artificial intelligence-based viewing and recording of training sessions and matches, the aim being to improve technical and tactical analysis by the managers of different professional sports at the club.

These new products will also be used to support the methodology employed by the Barça Academy.

For the last three years, Pixellot has been supplying this technology to the club in the form of automated cameras installed at the Ciutat Esportiva, and more recently in the Estadi Johan Cruyff, which record all of the sporting activities that happen there without the need for any human intervention.

Now, and as a result of this latest agreement, Pixellot will not only be a supplier but also an innovative partner of FC Barcelona. Among other services, the sports tech company will be sending its own staff to work in liaison with the club’s coaches and analysts to identify improvements and develop new products for use in the Barça sphere, but which could also be sold to other clubs, academies, and schools in different sports around the world, thus making the club, in association with Pixellot, a leading center of innovation in terms of solutions for the automated recording of sports activities. 

Marta Plana, secretary of the Board of Directors and head of BIHUB, said of the partnership: “This agreement with Pixellot meets one of the goals of the Barça Innovation Hub, which is to team up with leading technology companies to co-develop products and services that can help to improve not just the club but also sport and society in general.

“In this case, in association with Pixellot, and through the use of artificial intelligence, we are developing an application for use both in the coaching and the management of sport.

This technology can, for example, closely monitor certain plays and movements, and the recording can then be automated, providing qualitative information of major value to our coaches and analysts.”

Alon Werber, CEO of Pixellot, added: “Our team is excited to be joining forces with the Barça Innovation Hub and accelerating the development and sales strategy for our entertainment and analysis solution.

“For the last three years we have been installing Pixellot systems throughout the club’s facilities, including the world-famous Camp Nou and the Palau Blaugrana, recording thousands of hours of entertainment and live matches.

“Our extended association with the club and the Barça Innovation Hub shows how interested elite sports are in improving on-field and on-court performance by using leading technologies.”