The Ivrea Canoe Club paves the way for the future
Thanks to the advanced video surveillance system developed by Axis Communications, the Ivrea Canoe Club is moving rapidly towards full digitalization. This will improve not only the analysis of the athletes' training sessions, but also the security of the surrounding urban area. Passed test also in the use of cameras as VAR at the Ivrea leg of the Canoe Slalom World Cup.
Ivrea Canoe Club, an eighty-year history
The Ivrea Canoe Club was founded in the late 1940s thanks to the temerity of Giulio Valzolgher, who introduced the practice of canoeing in Ivrea, where the river Dora Baltea has always instilled a certain fear due to the strength of the current and the cold temperatures. Valzolgher influenced some of his workmates at Olivetti with his passion, and with them he challenged those waters that until then had been considered unnavigable. In 1952, together with his colleague Gianfranco Voltolina, he descended the Dora Baltea and the Po as far as Venice, paddling a two-seater canoe for about 700 km, an adventure destined to remain in history.
The Ivrea Canoe Club thus began to take shape and vigour: 1956 was the year of the first canoe race and 1959 that of the Ivrea-Trieste raid. Then came a long series of successes and recognitions: in 1960 the Club joined the Italian Rowing Federation; in 1963 the Eporediese Antonio Martinelli took part in a World Championship for the first time, while many other athletes won Italian titles and took part in international competitions, including the Olympics.
Ivrea, a unique facility on the world canoeing scene
With its peculiar location within a semi-natural canal derived from the Dora and perfectly integrated into the urban fabric, the Ivrea Canoe Stadium is a unique facility in the world of moving water. It is classified 4th grade for a length of 230 meters and is equipped with 60 slalom gates. When the Dora has a high flow rate, even the stretch between the city bridges allows for challenging technical training in unstable water. Immersed in the greenery of the city center, it is the Territorial Reference Centre of the Italian Canoe Kayak Federation and a specialization center for slalom and every year hosts hundreds of canoeists from the most important national and foreign competitive centers.
In the context of one of the most challenging slalom courses in Europe, the Ivrea Canoe Club's need is twofold: firstly, to monitor the athletes' activities during training in a structured manner and to equip itself with advanced technological tools for performance analysis; secondly, to maintain a high standard of safety in a unique urban environment, guaranteeing efficient management of visitor flows, especially during major sporting events.
Athlete monitoring and panoramic coverage of large areas for a complete view
The answer to these needs comes from Axis Communications, a company specializing in network video surveillance, which for the first time installs a state-of-the-art video surveillance system in the Ivrea Canoe Stadium, comprising high-performance cameras, specifically for humid environments and able to withstand the particular conditions of the canal, such as freshwater aerosols. Presiding over the most strategic points of the canal, the installed cameras capture the various athletic phases both during training and official events, replacing with extraordinary efficiency the recordings that until now have been made manually by the coaches. The first camera was already installed on the occasion of Sport City Day on 17th of September 2023, but it is from March 2024 onwards that the system will be expanded with an increasing number of cameras to ensure adequate support not only for coaches and athletes, but also for competition judges, facilitating the review of performances even during competitions.
The cameras chosen for the Ivrea installation are of two types: AXIS P3268-SLVE Dome Camera and AXIS P3827-PVE Panoramic Camera. AXIS P3268-SLVE Dome Camera is a robust dome camera enclosed in an electro-polished stainless-steel housing for marine use (SS 316L). DNV-certified, it can withstand the corrosive effects of water, weather and shock (IK11, NEMA 4X and IP66/67/68 rating) and extreme temperatures between -40°C and 50°C. It offers excellent image quality and forensic detail in 8 MP at up to 30 fps along with a wide field of view of up to 100°. With Lightfinder 2.0 and Forensic WDR, colours and details remain sharp even in low light conditions, while OptimizedIR ensures clear footage in complete darkness up to 40 m without additional lighting. AXIS P3827-PVE Panoramic Camera is a 7 MP multi-sensor camera for covering large areas. It offers a single, smooth and consistent video stream with 180° horizontal and 90° vertical pan coverage without blind spots and captures high-resolution images with up to 30 fps detail. Thanks to horizon straightening, images are balanced, while white balance and exposure time are optimized automatically. Finally, both include a deep learning processing unit (DLPU) that enhances processing and storage capabilities and collects and analyses data on the edge.
The Club's commitment to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow
Thanks to the Axis video surveillance system, coaches and athletes at the Ivrea Canoe Club can now review every smallest detail of performance in high quality video footage, opening up new possibilities for improving training techniques, and therefore, competition results.
In addition, at the 2024 Canoe Slalom World Cup, for the first time the channel's cameras are being used as VAR, allowing athletes' performances to be verified in a timely manner and any disputes to be settled.
But there is more: in the months following the installation of the first cameras, another important function of these devices related to monitoring city safety emerged. With rainfall and the opening of the dams, the water level of the canal rises, and the Ivrea Canoe Club must make sure that the bridge that allows athletes to cross from one side of the canal to the other is closed to avoid accidents. By placing a panoramic camera right at that point, which also allows an enlarged view of the surrounding area, one realizes that a camera infrastructure that was created primarily for sporting purposes has turned into a valuable aid for improving the safety of the entire area around the park through which the canal flows. Thus, the infrastructure is extended to other points, and this increases the general security of the area, for example with respect to protection from vandalism, with great benefits not only for the athletes but for the entire citizenry.
In addition to this, there is also the environmental monitoring function performed by the cameras, to which specific sensors have been added to detect the height of the river to monitor flooding and alert the Civil Protection in the event of flood risk.
‘The collaboration with Axis is part of the ‘Digital Waves’ project promoted in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Turin, which aims to create a robust technological infrastructure to enhance outdoor sports activities, improve environmental and heritage safety, support civil protection, and promote tourism through the use of high-definition digital cameras and IoT sensors,’ explains Matteo Magotti, volunteer and member with responsibility for communication, media and tech at the Ivrea Canoe Club. ‘The benefits for athletes and citizens are there for all to see, and in the future, we hope to add more and more Axis cameras to cover the entire course. The digitalization of the channel will then be complete, and the Stadium will be a real state-of-the-art digital training ground when we will not only have a dedicated control room for video review, but also a fully automatic control room integrated with AI capabilities, a technology we are working on with the Polytechnic of Turin’.
‘The project developed for the Ivrea Canoe Club was a challenge for Axis and, at the same time, a great opportunity because it allowed us to measure ourselves against a context as unusual for us as that of a freshwater canal,’ comments Andrea Sorri, Business Development Manager EMEA at Axis Communications. ‘Today this challenge is won, and the last few months confirm the high level of reliability and resistance of our cameras and make us proud of the support on several fronts that we have given and will continue to give to Ivrea, its athletes, citizens and institutions.’
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