VAR control software: views, jog knobs, flags and playback speeds

How quickly a VAR incident is resolved depends heavily on the control software. If the technician has to find a play with a mouse on a 90-minute timeline, the match is held up for a long time.

The Sol26 VAR software is designed to be operated mainly with a controller of knobs and buttons, with the mouse as a secondary option. This article covers the three screens, the views, scrubbing, flagging, playback and sending images to the referee monitor.

Three screens and what each does

• Live screen: streams all cameras with under 1 second of delay, used to follow the match and flag incidents
• Replay screen: used by the technician or video assistant referee to scrub, play in slow motion and zoom
• Referee screen: placed at the touchline, showing the camera selected on the Replay screen full screen

All cameras are recorded and stored in time sync at a 16:9 aspect ratio. When scrubbing back on the Replay screen, every camera stops at the same moment.

Three views

The Live and Replay screens each have three views, cycled with the switch mode button in the order 4, 9, 1.

• A 2x2 grid of 4 cameras, the default. With more than 4 cameras, the system splits them across pages with a button to move between them
• A 3x3 grid of 9 cameras
• One camera full screen, with a list of all added cameras including any that have lost connection

The time jog knob

The Replay knob scrubs at any time. Turn it anticlockwise to go back and clockwise to go forward. After scrubbing, the video is paused. Pressing the knob changes the scrub speed.

• x50: 1 second per detent, the default for searching quickly
• x10: 1/5 second per detent
• x1: 1/50 second per detent, for finding the exact frame at the point of contact

With the mouse, the technician can hover over the timeline to see the time and a preview image, click to jump to that moment, or press and drag to scrub.

Flags and the flag knob

During play, whoever watches the Live screen presses the Flag button when a sensitive incident occurs. The system places a flag on the Replay timeline 5 seconds before the moment of pressing, so the build-up is kept. The Live screen keeps streaming.

The Flag knob jumps between flags, one flag per detent. Once at the first or the latest flag, turning further has no effect. After jumping to a flag, the technician uses the Replay knob to fine-tune frame by frame.

Playback, camera selection and zoom

Three play buttons play from the paused moment at x1, x0.5 and x0.1, alongside a pause button. While playing, another speed can be chosen and playback continues at the new speed.

Pressing a camera number button selects that camera. The selected camera is shown in single-camera view and sent to the referee monitor with the same moment and zoom level. Each camera tile can be zoomed up to 10x with the mouse wheel and dragged to move the view. Pressing Live returns to the live stream, resets the Replay knob to x50 and resets zoom on all cameras to x1.

A typical review

1. 1Press Flag on the Live screen when a sensitive incident happens
2. 2When the referee asks, turn the Flag knob to the matching flag
3. 3Switch to a camera grid to find the clearest angle
4. 4Select the camera, zoom on the contact area and fine-tune with the Replay knob at x1
5. 5Play at x0.5 or x0.1 for the head referee on the review monitor
6. 6Press Live to return to the live stream after the referee decides

Frequently asked questions

How many cameras does the software support?

The software records and plays 4 to 9 cameras in sync. The 9-camera grid shows them all on one screen.

Does the head referee have to operate the software?

No. The referee monitor only shows the camera the technician selected on the Replay screen, with the same moment and zoom level.

Why does a flag go back 5 seconds from the button press?

The person watching usually presses Flag after the play has happened. Going back 5 seconds means the review starts from the build-up.

Can the camera order on screen be changed?

Yes. The technician unlocks from the header bar, drags cameras into order and locks again. Other interactive functions are disabled while reordering.