Liège, Belgium, 12 July 2016 – EVS, the world leader in live video technology for broadcast and new media productions, has supplied FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, with its Xeebra video refereeing system for use at two of the three 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs), in Italy and in Serbia. The implementation of the system at the FIBA events comes as EVS is also officially approved as a technical partner of FIBA’s Equipment and Venue Centre.

FIBA made EVS a Technical Partner after the official launch of its innovative Xeebra video refereeing system at the 2016 NAB Show. Here, EVS and FIBA partnered to showcase the system as part of the #EVSlamDunk Experience.
The FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments were held between 4-10 July in Turin, Belgrade and Manilla. Six teams competed in each tournament. The winners will now join the best teams of last year’s FIBA Continental Championships to compete in the basketball tournament of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

“There are always lots of emotions during the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, with qualification for Rio 2016 at stake. This meant that we needed to provide our officials with the best tools to allow them to make the right decisions regarding the Instant Replay situations quickly,” said Carl Jungebrand, Head of Refereeing at FIBA. “That’s why we’re so pleased about our technical partnership with EVS – it means we were able to implement its Xeebra system into this important moment in our sport.”

In a live game situation, every second counts. A referee must make fast decisions as players, coaches, fans and TV audiences wait on their call. By integrating a system like Xeebra into its Instant Replay review processes, FIBA’s referees can make sure that even the most contentious of actions on the court can be resolved quickly and effectively.

“Not only is this approval as a Technical partner of the FIBA Equipment & Venue Centre an honour for EVS but having our Xeebra system implemented for such a key moment in the basketball calendar is evident of the importance of advanced video refereeing systems to major sports organisations,” said Laurent Petit, vp product at EVS. “The Xeebra system is built on EVS’ vast experience in the live sports market and our technology’s reliability and flexibility. Through this technical partnership, FIBA and its affiliated leagues can easily bring multi-camera video reviews into to their officiating processes by adopting this innovative instant replay tool.”

Designed for use by game officials, the instant replay review system made its debut at Super Bowl 50 where it was used by CBS. It’s a fast, flexible and easy to use system that lets referees and officials review in-game incidents from up to 16 different HD camera angles at the same time from a single touchscreen. As soon as something contentious happens an official can use Xeebra to pause action, rewind every angle, review what happened and even zoom in on any number of camera angles. The system does all of this while the 16 angles remain entirely in sync. The three OQTs were held respectively at the Pala Olimpico in Turin, Italy, the Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia and in the Mall of Asia in Manila, Philippines.