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Veo Camera Review – Easy Soccer Video
Veo Camera Review – Easy Soccer Video
The best video camera for soccer might be one that records soccer games for you, letting you watch the match rather than spending your time filming it. The Veo camera is a soccer tracking camera that uses artificial intelligence to pan and zoom smoothly to follow the ball around the field for you. It's been a great soccer camera system for us because it's fast and easy to setup and use – not just for filming soccer games but also practices as well.
Veo Camera Review
This Veo camera review comes after one year of using the ai camera to capture several training sessions and 650 matches across 88 different teams ranging in format from 4v4, 7v7, 9v9, to 11v11. If your team trains and plays at different complexes around town like ours then this soccer field camera is great because it's more portable than a camera system like a Hi-Pod. Update January 2020, we've also used it now to record futsal, indoor soccer games, basketball, lacrosse, and American football as well.
Update July 2020 – Veo has rolled out new pricing plans and options for the soccer camera last spring. They look pretty good – to see the new camera pricing click here.Update Sept 2020 – Veo has rolled out an additional plan for families that have athletes who play multiple sports. You can use the same plan to record up to 3 different sports.
Based on a year of feedback from usage in the US it looks like Veo is adjusting the plans to how teams are needing to use them. Now the 4 options are Family, Team, Club, and School. When we first purchased the Veo camera the camera itself was much more expensive and the monthly rates were lower. It seems that Veo has adjusted to make it easier for teams to start using the camera by lowering the price of the unit to $800 and offering a range of plans and the ability to pay monthly instead of requiring a 12 month payment.
It's still a relatively new product so they're working with teams across the U.S. to see which model works the best for teams and clubs. All the cameras we've purchased so far are on the original plans, we'd be curious to hear from teams that have used the newer plans and what you think of them.
Update Nov 2020 – Veo is adding a feature that lets you separate your order and activation. So if you order in December but aren't going to start using the camera until the Spring you don't have to start your plan until then. They're also adding a new 6 month plan. This is for teams that might play August-December but take the winter off. We haven't tried the plan since we play year round but we've talked to many teams that wanted a "season" option. They're not rolling out the 6 month plan in all areas, just testing it out for now.
Update Jan 2021 – Veo has made the 6 month plan available to all which is great for teams that don't need to use the soccer camera year round. Using this plan you can "pause" your subscription and not lose your soccer video highlights and footage when you being again next soccer season. One thing to consider is that when you restart your next 6 month plan if rates have increased you won't be locked in the way you are for a 12 month plan.
Update Apr 2021 – We looked at the numbers and if you're going to use the camera for 4 months or less then the monthly option is a good choice. If you're going to use it for 5 or more months then it makes sense to look at the 6 or 12 month plan.
Veo Alternatives – There are lightweight soccer camera poles like SVT Advantage you can use but the Veo camera is nice because you don't have to manually follow the action – instead you set it on a tripod, hit start on your phone, and let it film your session or game while you watch or coach. Last weekend we setup and filmed next to an SVT camera system and we discovered another advantage is the difference in setup time. We had our tripod up with the camera on top and recording and were in our chair long before the other system was up and running. After chatting with the owner it sounds like their main frustration with the SVT has been a specific cable that has gone bad several times. They had been using it for 2 years and other than the cable issue it had been a pretty good camera. Recently we've been seeing ads for the PIX4TEAM camera by Pixio and asked them about doing a demo to see how it worked but sounds like it won't be available until Fall of 2021.
Update Apr 2021 – We pre-ordered the PIX4TEAM but it won't ship until late 2021. They don't have any units available for trial so we won't be able to give our opinion on it till then. The PIX4TEAM is a different approach, the unit manually pans and zooms your camcorder to follow the ball. Sounds like an interesting solution but we won't know if it works until we can try it out. It won't have the ability to pan around the field like the Veo can since it's not recording the whole pitch.
There is another new camera called Pixellot Air that we'll be testing out soon. It's similar to the Veo in that it records both halves of the field and uploads the footage into the cloud for viewing. It has some similarities and differences so it'll be interesting to record some games and see how they compare. We'll provide a Veo vs Pixellot Air writeup after we've done a trial of the Pixellot.
Veo can be used for soccer video highlights but also as a soccer tactical camera that captures a larger field view and allows you to see the play develop and how your players respond. If you're a parent looking for an easy way to capture good game video then Veo is one of the best cameras for soccer moms and dads.
The camera lets you video youth soccer games without any training or experience and come away with game film you can share with the coach, save for highlights, or even use for soccer recruiting videos. It's an even better option for soccer clubs because you can help share the cost of the camera system across teams and the back end is setup to easily allow multiple teams across a club to share a camera.
If you end up ordering a Veo camera or recently added one to your team one be sure to check out our new "Veo Rookie" guide that walks you through how to get up and running and navigate all the technical challenges of this new tool for your team – Veo Camera Rookie Guide
Easy Soccer Video
If there were a "Soccer Video for Dummies" book then this camera could be on the cover. The very first set of games we recorded with the video camera was an out of town friendly and we didn't even travel to the tournament. We sent the camera with a team parent who had never used it before (and who'd just had surgery on one arm the day before).
He came back with great footage of both games. So if a one-armed rookie recorder soccer dad can use the Veo camera to film soccer games it seems pretty safe to say that most soccer parents, team managers, or soccer coaches can easily use the Veo camera.
The video was helpful to the coach who sent out coaching points to the players on where they could do better. Early in the season it was good for the coach to have the game video to review and see what areas needed work. It was also nice to have highlight clips for players and their families for big plays and goals.
Veo Camera Benefits
To put this review in context we haven't used an elevated soccer camera system before and I haven't used video software tools like Hudl for tactical analysis so we don't have an existing system we're comparing it against. However one of the reasons we hadn't used those systems was because of the cost and complexity of getting all the right equipment and the time and and the expertise needed to learn and use them.
Before meeting the Veo team at the United Soccer Coaches convention this year we'd spent a lot of time researching the different options for soccer game video for a soccer team or club. We were looking for a simple and cost-effective solution for filming youth soccer games.
We had a list of pain points we wanted to solve with the camera we ended up buying so when I saw the Veo camera demo at the convention I knew right away that it solved a lot of the issues we'd listed. At that point the camera wasn't shipping to the United States yet so we put down a deposit to reserve one as soon as they became available. Here's a clip of the founder of Veo, Henrik Teisbæk, and I chatting during our meeting about why he and his team built the soccer camera.
Later on in this Veo camera review we'll look at challenges we faced with video and how the soccer camera helped solve them. At a high level, here are our favorite things about the camera.
Simple Setup
The very first time you use the Veo camera give yourself extra time before the match to power up the camera, get it on the tripod, connect to it with your phone, and start the recording. However, after you've used it a few times the setup takes under 5 minutes. Last Sunday I arrived at my daughter's game at the last minute and my son had the camera up and recording before the starting whistle.
Fellow soccer parents know the drill of dropping your kid off at the gate since there's no where to park. With our 13 year old, I can drop him off with the camera and he gets it setup and running in time for the match. I like the flashing green light on the bottom of the camera that lets you know it's recording. If he gets it setup and started I don't even have to connect to the camera to make sure it's working, just glance at the green light and if it's flashing I know we're all set.
Easy Sharing
After a match you plug the camera into your network at home and it uploads the game into your Veo dashboard. This gives you an easy way to share goals and other highlights with players, families, and coaches. Before Veo I don't know how many hours of game film I left sitting on hard drives or in the cloud, never shared with anyone simply because of the steps and time necessary to share it.
There is a little setup for each team. When you first get the camera you add the players to the team, they get an email, and then create a login for the Veo site. They can watch the whole game, just jump to the highlights, or when you tag players for specific clips they see all those clips specific to them on their dashboard once they login.
Update January 2020 – Veo has now added multiple permission levels so now you can create a user with either Admin, Editor, or Viewer permissions. This makes it easier for coaches and managers to give access to more users with different abilities to download game video, comment and create highlights, and just watch the soccer game videos.
Update March 2020 – If you have multiple teams and don't want to have to set them all up Veo can provide you with a team specific invite link that you can email to your players and they can register themselves. Also Veo is working on a team sharing feature that allows you to invite other teams to the game. This happens a lot after a game when the parents or coach of the other team asks about the video. Currently only one team can view a game but in the future the plan is that you can invite the other team to see the game as well.
Update July 2020 – Veo has added the "Share a game" feature so now more than one team can benefit from a game being recorded. We've been eagerly awaiting this feature and glad to see Veo listened to our feedback. When you share a game the other team doesn't see your recording, highlights, and comments. A separate copy of the game is made in the Veo system and they can see their version of the game but not yours and vice versa. If at some point you no longer want to share the game with them you can cancel the share.
Update Nov 2020 – We've setup a demo team with recordings we've made over the last year. We have many teams come ask us about our camera at the field so we setup the team to show them how it works. If you'd like to be added to our Demo team so you can see footage and how the website works just send us an email to veo@soccerstripes.com
Update April 2021 – One thing we discovered is that users with the Editor role aren't able to delete the auto generated tags for halves and goals scored. So it looks like there are different roles and permissions on clips. One request we hear a lot is about the ability to show/hide clips based on who created them. So for example if players create their own highlight clips, the whole team wouldn't see them, just the players. This isn't built into system yet that we can tell but it'll be a nice feature to have once it's there.
Goal Tagging
After your game is processed in the Veo cloud it automatically tags any goals that were scored. As you can see in this picture you can easily go to any goals to watch and download them. This makes it really easy to create highlight videos of the games. This saves so much time, after a game is uploaded and ready we can download the clips and create a soccer highlight video in a matter of 10-15 minutes.
Update January 2020 – Veo has made updates to their automatic goal tagging. The soccer camera software still automatically detects the goals and the start/end of the half but now it gives you a little more control over whether you want add those tags.
After the game is uploaded and processed the goal highlights show up in the sidebar and you can Save them as highlights, edit them, or Delete them as you can see in the screenshot here. I think it's not only a nice user feature but my guess is that this will help make the automatic tagging more accurate over time. Their software will learn from when coaches click Save or Delete on each auto tagged goal and this should theoretically improve the automatic tagging of goals overall.
Update Sept 2020 – Veo has simplified the process with now only a Save or Delete option for each highlight. They've also made the interface experience of saving each highlight cleaner. I still wish they would add a "Save All" option so you wouldn't have to save each one individually if you wanted to just approve them all at once.
The accuracy of the goal recognition has also seemed to have improved. We had one goal get called back due to a player being ruled offside last weekend. I thought for sure it would still be tagged as a goal since play continued and the ball entered the net. The offside call was made after the goal was scored but somehow the engine knew not to automatically tag it as a goal. So either that was a software error missing the goal or it was a smart AI engine recognizing the offside call.
Also, the user interface for the goal highlights has also improved. As you can see in the screenshot now they provide a thumbnail image of each highlight that's created. The thumbnail is there for all highlights, not just for the goals. The visual hint isn't as important in a 1-0 game but if you have a 4-4 tie the thumbnail image helps distinguish each goal or other highlight. It's particularly helpful when looking at the game on your phone and there are enough highlights that scroll off the page.
Update January 2021 – Veo has finally added something that I've wanted for a long time, the ability to download all the highlights from one game at once. Depending on how you use the player highlights this could really save you a lot of time.
For example, if you're using them to create soccer highlight videos now the whole process is a lot faster since you can download all the clips at once. Or if you're downloading highlights to share with players that don't have access to your Veo it's so much faster to pull them all at once and share them all together.
How to download all highlights from Veo might change over time but now in the top right next to the "New Highlight" button are three dots that you click to show a dropdown menu. The menu lets you filter the highlights based on the tag and it also now lets you pull down all the highlight videos by clicking on "Download all". It might take a while depending on how many highlights you created but once it's done you'll have a zip file containing all the soccer highlights.
One nice feature is that it doesn't include the default Half Start and Half End clips that are auto generated. Those are nice for navigating when reviewing the game but you don't really need to download them for highlight or sharing reasons.
When you download all the goals in a zip it names the files with a combination of a sequence and goal timestamp. If you're downloading several games into one place to make a highlight video, say from a tournament, its helpful to prefix the goals with the name of the game so when you pull the files into your video editor you know which games go together.
Highlight Tagging
This is different than the automatic Goal tagging that I mention above. With highlight tagging you can highlight a clip anywhere in the match and associate it with any player on the team. This feature is great for coaches who are reviewing game video and want to offer feedback to their players. The video below shows an example of how you can use the highlight tagging to point out things you might not have time to talk about during a game.
One thing to note is that this video doesn't show how you can tag a player to a clip so they get an email letting them know there's feedback available. The video shows how you can create the clip and download it but an even more convenient way to handle it is to tag the player.
I did offer a lot of feedback to the Veo team around this feature in terms of improvements I'd like to see for the benefit of coaches. Sounds like a lot of those changes will be included in upcoming releases so it's nice to see the company listening to user input.
Update January 2020 – Veo has done an overhaul on their web interface for viewing and commenting on the soccer game videos that you upload. One thing I didn't like about the old method of creating highlights was that the window where you entered in comments opened over the video viewer and obscured the game segment you were commenting on. The video above still shows the old interface, about 1 minute in you can see an example of the old interface.
The new design fixes this by putting the highlight section over in the side nav (or below the video if you're on a mobile device) so you can still see the game footage you're commenting on. Here's an example of how it looks on my phone.
The maximum highlight duration is still 60 seconds but they did add the ability to tag multiple players in one highlight which is something we asked for and really helpful for coaches.
Update Feb 2020 – We've noticed that if you're watching a game back on your mobile device you don't need the interactive mode to be able to zoom in, at least on my iPhone. You can pinch and pull to zoom in and out in the viewer. You can't drag the screen to see off the ball like you can in interactive mode, you still have to switch modes to have the ability to drag anywhere on the pitch.
Update March 2020 – Veo has rolled out their draw on screen feature. This was a much requested addition to the video review and commenting site. When you're leaving a comment or creating a highlight an extra menu appears that you can use to draw lines, arrows, and circles on the screen.
One thing to mention when you're learning the draw on screen feature. Be sure you don't forget to click the green check icon once you're done marking up the screen so the drawing is saved. You can click the X to delete the markup or the Check to save it once you're finished drawing.
The first few times I used it I forgot and it didn't save the drawing but the good news is you can Edit the highlight and add the markup back in pretty easily. It used to be that once you created a highlight you couldn't edit it but the newer version of the site allows you to edit highlights so adding the markup back isn't a big chore.
The draw on screen feature is not as sophisticated as the capabilities provided by software like KlipDraw but it's great for leaving feedback for players when you want to point out spacing, position, or movement that you liked or that you would have liked to have seen better.
Update July 2020 – Veo has rolled out their directed highlights feature which allows you to create highlights off of the interactive mode. This is a fantastic feature that really gives another tool for coaches and trainers to help use the Veo platform as a learning tool for their players. During the spring stoppage in play due to the global health issues we were able to use games we had recorded in the Fall to go back and review games with the players when they weren't having in person team training.
Directed highlights are a really cool feature but using it takes some getting used to. I've done several Zoom calls with parents and coaches where we went over how to create a directed highlight. If you have questions about how they work you can setup a time to chat with us about it – schedule call.
Here's an example video of how we used the directed highlight feature to capture the shots and saves from a tournament PK shootout, shootout starts at 2:56
Update September 2020 – I should probably add a new section since there's a lot of functionality in the highlight tagging area but for now I'll just add it here.
Custom Tags – One feature we've been asking for since day 1 of using the camera was Custom Tags and now we have them! For example, most every game the keeper makes a big save and there wasn't a tag for that. So for our last tournament when the keeper came out and made a stop we were able to create a custom "Save" tag. Something I noticed is that it carries your custom tags across teams as well so once you create it for one team you don't have to do it again for other teams in your account.
Highlight Creation Time – This is a big improvement over the previous version. It used to be that when you created a highlight you couldn't download it for several minutes afterwards because it was still rendering. This was particularly an issue for directed highlights which could take even longer to create and be available for download. So for example if you came in and "Accepted" all the auto created goal highlights you couldn't download them for a while. If you were coming into make a highlight video for a tournament let's say you would have to accept all the goals, then log back in later in order to download them.
Veo has made quite an improvement in the rendering time of the highlights. Now you can pretty much download them as soon as they're created. Even the directed highlights are available soon after being created. A much needed improvement, thanks for saving me time Veo team!
Update Nov 2020 – We recently noticed that clips you create with the Draw on screen feature aren't available for download. So you can still watch them in the Veo site but you aren't able to download clips that've you've marked up with circles/arrows/boxes etc.
Update April 2021 – Veo has really extended the maximum length of the directed highlight feature. It used to be the longest possible highlight clip was 2 minutes and now it's possible to create a soccer highlight up to 15 minutes long. If you look at Veo vs Trace, Veo doesn't automatically follow a single player like TraceUp can but with a 15 minute clip duration you could create 3-6 of these clips and basically have video of one player for the whole game (depending on the length of game and how many times they sub out). Creating it would be time consuming but it is an option.
Smooth Consistent Game Footage
Since there is no human error factor you don't miss parts of the game where the cameraman doesn't follow the ball. If you've ever recorded clips of a game you can probably relate to missing a goal, save, or tackle for any number of "operator error" reasons. When you're watching the game live it's easy to forget about the basics of good game recording techniques. The right approach also depends on what you're making the video for. Are you recording the game for tactical analysis or to get highlight clips? Should you be zoomed close to the action or zoomed out so you can see half the field?
One of the game hosting/analysis solutions I evaluated offered free training courses on how to record soccer games for tactical analysis if you used their software package. This was a great benefit but obviously the challenge to a soccer parent or club coach is finding the time to go through that training.
I don't really want to become an expert at filming soccer games, I just want the footage. With the Veo camera you don't have to worry about doing a good job recording the game. Once you get it started you can pay attention to the game and know that you'll have good video footage, as long as you've charged the battery the night before : ) No more missing a big play because the camera operator didn't pan in time to catch it.
Update January 2021 – Another new feature that comes in handy when you're reviewing game footage is the speed playback control. As you can see from the screenshot there are a variety of speeds to choose from. The slowest, like .25x, are nice for slo-mo when you really want to see how a play unfolded (I'm guessing a few coaches might use it to check if a player really was off-sides after the fact).
The much faster speeds, like x4 and x8, are nice for when you're trying to find certain points in a game, really speeds up the review process. Even just watching it at 2x speed helps zip through the re-starts and dead ball situations and gets you to the parts of the game you're looking for faster.
Update April 2021 – While the speed playback feature makes it faster to review a game it still takes up time but a new feature called "Live Tagging" will hopefully soon help with this. We attended a Veo webinar where they went over upcoming enhancements for 2021 and there's a new future feature in the Veo camera app that will allow you to mark highlights during the game. The Veo camera app highlights probably can't be generated until after the game is over but the new feature will let you mark events in real time as they unfold on the field.
For example, when we go to make soccer highlight videos from Veo footage we have to watch back the whole game to find great saves by the keeper to include in the highlight reel. It's nice that the goals are automatically tagged but the goal keeper has equally big moments at the other end of the field that are currently more time consuming to capture. Once Veo roles out live tagging we'll be able to mark the time of a great save in the Veo app as it happens and have a highlight clip automatically created.
We're really looking forward to this feature. We created our own webapp version of this tool to help with the goalie save challenge but it's not much better than just writing down the time of saves on a sticky note.
This should also help for parents that are looking for soccer video highlights for college recruiting. Now on the sideline if they see a spectacular play that fills a hole in their recruiting reel needs they'll be able to mark a highlight.
Multiple Field Views
When you're watching back a game record with the Veo camera you get a toolbar in the dashboard above the video that lets you review the game in multiple different modes: FollowCam, Panorama, or Interactive Mode.
The default is FollowCam where the video shows the game as a typical camera person would record it, panning and zooming to follow the ball as it moves around the field. This is how I watch most of the games but when I get to specific points in the match where I want to see what's happening off the ball or off screen I switch to Interactive Mode.
Interactive Mode lets you pan the camera around the whole field and see any action off the ball. The video below shows the difference between the FollowCam and Interactive mode and how you can use them to complement each other.
If you have a package above Family Plan you can also download the video of the whole match in mp4 format. That video doesn't offer the different modes but some folks like that option so you can upload the whole game to YouTube.
Update November 2020 – One question we get a lot is from clubs that have multiple teams practicing on the same field (or teams that split the field into multiple sections for the same team) and want to know how the camera decides which soccer ball to follow. The best approach we've found has been to watch the training in Interactive mode. This way you can fix the Veo camera view on the field you're interested in watching. We put together this video that shows how this is done.
Easy to Watch
I already mentioned it's easy to share from a coach's perspective but as a soccer parent I also appreciate how it's easy for the player to see their highlights and get feedback. Here's a view of the player dashboard where they login and see the clips that have been tagged for them to review.
So in one place they can see their goals, saves, big tackles, or just any feedback the coach has for them about the game. I love how you can watch the game or clips of the game on your phone or tablet. The other night as I was putting my daughter to bed we opened up the most recent game on my phone and watched some highlights.
You're probably not going to have pre-teen girls watch back a whole match but if you can show them small clips and point out what they did well and where they can improve the soccer game video becomes a great teaching tool.
Veo Camera Examples
We've added a YouTube playlist where we share many of the games and highlights that we've recorded and uploaded using Veo. You can check them out here Veo Soccer Games YouTube playlist.
Veo Camera Benefits Summary
As a soccer parent the three things that I do not miss from our old soccer video approach are:
- Having to babysit the camera at each game
- Missing critical game moments
- Storing, organizing, sharing game videos
The goal/highlight tagging, multiple field views, and ease of watching are great for coaches/clubs but as a soccer dad my favorite features are how easy it is to setup the camera, simplicity of sharing the video with players/families/coaches, and just the ability to consistently get a quality video of the whole game without having to be a cameraman.
I recently reached out to a soccer dad who I'd spoken with about Veo and asked him if he'd ended up buying one. His reply made me laugh:
Actually, I wished our girl's team played as good as this recorded. It worked great. My only complaints are that you cant upgrade the sd card or whatever it uses to store the recordings on, and the processing time. I think they need to add more gerbils to their server : )
Those are minor though. I got to sit and enjoy the game for once. It was NICE.
Veo Camera Costs
The Veo camera has cut out a lot of the stress and mess and made soccer game video really easy, however, the camera isn't cheap.
You can certainly buy a low end video camera and an entry level tripod for significantly less than buying a Veo camera. If you're a soccer parent of a young player then that's probably what you'll do to start. However, as your kids get older and you have more kids that start playing soccer you'll go through a lot of the same pain points that we have. Eventually you'll probably realize that all the good features of the camera are really enticing and you'll see why we were willing to spend the money.
Veo Camera Discounts
If you'd like to use the Veo camera but don't like the price tag you have a few options. One choice is to split the cost with several other families on your team. It's still not cheap but certainly makes it a lot more affordable. Of course the question becomes who actually owns the camera and what do you do when some of the players leave the team? For more ideas on Veo camera costs you can always email us veo@easysoccervideo.com
Veo Camera Rental
Another option is to rent out the camera for a few games or maybe a whole season and split that cost with team parents. We've been renting out our camera to teams and coaches locally and around the country. We have a few cameras and are working on making more available to rent for teams or clubs that would like to try them out. We've had so many questions about how this works that we created a Veo Camera Freelance guide if you're interested in using this approach for your team, club, or school.
Veo Club Camera
A third option is to talk to the coaches and directors of your soccer club about getting a Veo camera for the club to share. We wrote up different ways your team or club can use to help afford a Veo camera.
The Veo dashboard is setup so that you can have multiple teams all using the same camera. In our opinion the Veo camera is a perfect fit for a soccer club. Creating a team is really simple on their site and once you assign a coach to the team they can handle inviting their players from there. One feature that would be nice for soccer clubs is for Veo to add a team manager role for access management. The coach could assign the team manager that role so they could take care of inviting the players and answering any questions from players/parents about the videos and how to access them.
Lastly, before you look at investing in a Veo camera let's take a look at who the camera might not be a good fit for.
Veo Camera Questions
There are a few questions that could help you rule out Veo as a soccer video option if it's not right for you.
Do you need to review the film immediately after the game?
The biggest downside of the Veo camera compared to a traditional camcorder is you can't watch it back immediately after the game is over. We knew when we bought the camera that you couldn't review the footage right away. We don't need to but I could see how could come in handy in some situations.
Do you want to live stream the game?
The Veo camera has a hard drive that stores the footage and you upload it to your network after the game is over to be processed. We have a player on our team who's grandfather is sadly in the hospital and can't make it to the matches. He watches our recordings after the fact but has asked if he can watch them live.
Right now you can't stream the game with the Veo camera. I don't know if that will ever be a part of their solution. I know it does have Wi-fi capabilities so you can connect to it from your phone but I don't know if it was built to allow for streaming at some point in the future. I know there is a camera called FieldVision we've been wanting to test that mentions the ability to live stream but they were recently acquired by another tech company so not sure what that means for the camera.
Do you want to record other sports?
We've had several parents ask us if they could also use the camera to record other field sports like football, lacrosse, or rugby. The Veo camera is only for recording soccer so don't plan on being able to use it to record their basketball games in the winter. If you want to be able to take video of other sports then you'll need to use your iPhone or a camcorder for those. All our kids play basketball in addition to soccer so we just rely on our phones to capture those clips.
The single sport limitation no longer is an issue for many sports parents. Veo has announced that now the camera can record the following sports in addition to soccer:
Basketball
American Football
Hockey
Rugby
Lacrosse
Volleyball
We've used it to record basketball and soccer and several teams that rented one of our cameras have successfully used it to record other sports like lacrosse and American football. Over the winter we even tested out recording snow day sledding just for fun. It didn't follow the kids sledding but did capture the video of them getting air over the jumps they built!
Veo Camera Package
When you buy the Veo camera they ship you both the camera and a tripod and create a subscription for their video hosting/sharing service. Here's what's included when you buy a Veo camera:
Camera
The camera itself is shaped like a triangle. As you can see from the picture, the design allows each of the two lenses 
to face one half of the field. It's a compact design, definitely not large or heavy. It's 9 inches from one side of the triangle design to the other, 6 inches from the back of the camera to the front, and only 2 inches tall.
The small size makes it easy to transport. The camera comes in a padded carrying case and includes a charger you can store at the bottom of the case. The case itself is only 13x11x6 and has a carry handle on top. The case is a really nice way to carry around the camera to keep the lenses safe from scratches, as you can see in the pic the padding keeps it tight and safe. Once or twice I misplaced the case and was leaving the house in a hurry and ended up slipping it into my laptop bag.
The back of the camera has two ports underneath a rubber cover, one for charging the camera the other an Ethernet port for plugging into a network. The case also contains a mount that you screw into the bottom of the camera that clips into the tripod.
Update January 2020 – The Veo camera design has been updated a bit. The design of the top surface of the camera has modified a bit to add ridges into the flat surface, I'm guessing it's for multiple reasons. One is because the top of the camera could get hot when sitting in the sun for hours recording, the new design/material probably helps reduce this effect.
The ridges also make the camera a little easier to hold/grip when it's in your hand since it's not just a flat, smooth surface. Here's a photo of the new camera look.
In addition, the charging and network ports that had been on the back are now on the bottom side of the Veo camera.
Also, the interior of the case has been updated to add additional compartments for storing charging cables, etc.
Camera Tripod
The tripod that we first bought with the camera is a steel Manfrotto tripod made in Italy. When it's fully extended it elevates the Veo camera up to 12 feet. The tripod has three sections – the base and two risers. You can actually set the camera up and record from the sideline (as shown in the picture) without putting up the risers.
If you play at soccer complexes that limit the height of elevated cameras to six feet you can use this approach. However, in general it's best to raise both risers and get the camera up to maximum height when recording 11v11 games. You can still get a pretty good video of the whole field with 7v7 or 9v9 if you put up just one riser.
To buy the same Manfrotto 111BSU tripod yourself on Amazon it's about $270 and Veo charges you $250 as part of the package so it's cheaper to get the tripod through them. Other sites online charge $284 for the tripod. Unless you're buying several cameras the Veo camera discount isn't available but you can definitely save some money by getting the Manfrotto from Veo.
They also offer a taller stand that goes up to 23 feet high but we've been fine with the 12 foot tripod. We'd probably have a harder time transporting the 23 foot tripod around to games. The Manfrotto 111BSU is about 65 inches tall when its collapsed down to it's base height. We're able to transport it in our Honda Accord by putting it in the trunk and having the top part come through the access panel into the back seat. Or in our mini-van we can fold down a backseat and fit it into the trunk.
Update January 2020 – The Veo camera quick release plate has now started to include an adaptor so that it's compatible with more tripods. Originally I had to purchase my own Manfrotto adaptor so I could use the Veo camera with other camera tripods but now the Veo seems to ship with one included, at least our most recent one did.
Update March 2020 – Veo has added an additional indoor tripod as an option and also has a stadium mount. We've experimented with a variety of tripods, monopods, tilt mounts and are working on a write-up of our experiences. If you have questions about connecting your tripod to a Veo Camera just email us veo@soccerstripes.com
Update July 2020 – We made a video on some of the different ways we've used tripods with the Veo camera. It begins with how to use the Manfrotto tripod but then as we get into it we share other tripods we've tried – Veo camera tripod overview.
Update September 2020 – We get a lot of questions about the durability of the tripod and what happens if a ball hits it while filming. We took the tripod out to the field and did some testing, here is the video footage:
Update April 2021 – We made another video about the 12 ft vs 23 ft Veo tripod where we show them side by side and also talk about the need for using sandbags with your camera. This spring we've talked to several teams that had their tripod blow over with a really strong wind gust. As a result we've started carrying sandbags along to the field. In addition to protecting the camera it also gives you peace of mind when watching a game in windy weather. You can focus on the game rather than worrying about whether the wind is going to knock over your camera – Here's the Veo Tripod video.
Camera Subscription
In order to use the camera you need an subscription to their service. This provides you access to the video rendering, hosting, and streaming/sharing of the games your record.
Right now they have 4 levels- Family, Team, Club, School. We went with the Club option because we film for multiple teams. The Family subscription is setup for single team use but multiple sports and the Club for more than one team. It's a monthly fee for the service, the rate goes up from Family to Team to Club to School. You can pay for a 12 month subscription when you buy the camera to get a lower rate or also go a month or 6 months at a time. Here's a screenshot of their comparisons of the four plans.
Another benefit of the higher package is that the video rendering happens faster for your uploaded games if you have a package above the Basic level. Veo seems to have dropped the concept of different speeds per plan. To give you an idea, for one of the first training sessions we recorded we captured 50 minutes of the session.
It took a little under 2 hours to upload the session to into their cloud and resulted in a 3 Gig file after it was rendered. The rendering process takes another few hours after its uploaded. During that time you can see the video on their site but you can't use the FollowCam/Interactive mode and you can't download the game video until it's done processing.
Here are the latest pricing plans and options for the camera.
After to talking with many teams over the last year we put together some common questions below that can help you figure out which plan might be the best for you.
The reason we put these questions together is that we get a lot of questions around the different plans. If you'd like to chat more about the right one for your team you can always setup a time to chat about your team – Veo Plan chat.
Soccer Video Camera Extras
After using the camera for a while now there are a few things that might come in handy. None of these come with the camera but if you're using it a lot they're probably worth looking into.
External Camera Battery Pack
One nice thing to have along with the camera is an external battery for tournament weekends. If you have multiple players with multiple games on the same day it's nice to have a power source you can use to charge the camera in between games. One thing we discovered is that you can't charge the camera while it's recording but with an external power source you can charge it in between.
We initially went with the the Duracell Powerpack Pro because you can also use it to jumpstart your car or inflate your flat tire, which can come handy for soccer families driving to games and tournaments all around the city or state. Or you could go with a smaller power bank that has an outlet.
One nice feature of the Veo camera is the green light on the back (or bottom depending on model) that blinks while the camera is recording. You can check the battery level of the camera from your phone but it's nice to be able to just look up and see if the light is flashing. If you've been out recording games all day and the battery dies you can plug in your portable power supply and charge it long enough to give the camera juice to finish out the game. It would be nice if you could charge the camera while it's recording but currently you're not able to do that.
Update March 2021 – We've found another external battery alternative that is more portable. The Halo Bolt is a lot smaller and easier to carry around. It doesn't hold as big of a charge but its much more portable and it also comes with cables you can use to jumpstart your car if you have a dead battery in the soccer parking lot. We made video to show how the portable battery works and how you can charge your Veo camera at the field.
Video Editing Software
You can't edit the videos inside the Veo dashboard but you can download the game or clips into your own video editing software. Here are a few examples of where that comes in handy.
We usually start the camera recording during warmups and don't end it right away after the game so the game video that gets uploaded to Veo has extra footage at the front and the end. It's really nice to have some video editing software to trim out the pre and post game footage that you don't want.
One tournament weekend before we had the external charger we were looking to save on battery because we had so many games in one day so we'd stop recording during half time. This meant that each half uploaded separately into the Veo dashboard so we downloaded the two clips and used the video software to merge the two halves together and publish on YouTube.
In another tournament we recorded two games back to back on the same field and forgot to stop and restart the recording in between. This meant the two games uploaded together into Veo so we downloaded the footage and used the video editor to split it into two games that we then uploaded to YouTube.
WeVideo
The best video editing software for our needs has been WeVideo. We started off with Microsoft Movie Maker but we've become a fan of WeVideo because it renders everything in cloud for you. This means is creates the videos a lot faster and doesn't suck up all the processor on your laptop.
Also, my daughter likes to edit her own soccer video clips for her team but she only has a Chromebook without a lot of processing power. She likes WeVideo not only because it lets her edit videos on Chromebook but also because it has a lot of good resources for creating highlights. Here's a soccer highlight video that she made with WeVideo.
Camera Support
As with any piece of technology you buy, especially new technology, it's important to know what kind of support you'll get when you have a question or if something goes wrong. We've been really happy with the level of support we've gotten from the team at Veo. This is a nice surprise since support isn't always a priority at new tech companies who have so so many things to juggle that support sometimes falls through the cracks. This hasn't been our experience with Veo, they've been very responsive and prepared for all our questions.
Getting Started
When you first get your camera it comes with a printed user guide to help you get going. They also have a searchable Veo support site that has all the same information listed online. Once you've purchased a camera they send you getting started emails with links to all the various support articles.
For example they have pages on getting started, recording & camera, uploading, managing teams, FAQ, sharing, highlighting clips, tagging players, and downloading your videos.
When your camera arrives you have to set it up with your account and we had a question while going through that process. I just replied to our original onboarding email and they got back within a few hours. Over this season I've sent them a variety of emails with questions and suggestions and they've always replied to me within a day.
The support team also has a chat feature on the site you can use to contact them if you have questions. Since the company is headquartered in Denmark you can run into times during the day when there's no one online due to timezone differences. That's one suggestion I have for them, to add a support person in the U.S. timezone.
Update January 2020 – After spending many hours on the phone/email with coaches and parents around the U.S. who had just bought a Veo camera and trying to get them started we went ahead and recorded a video that shows the steps to walk through when your camera first arrives. Kind of a Veo camera tutorial video for new owners, we'll embed it below.
Update March 2021 – We've gathered all the lessons learned with the Veo camera from our teams and the almost 100 teams we've worked with and put them into one place. We now have a guide called Veo Rookie that walks you through your first day, weekend, month, tournament with your Veo camera. Teams that order the Veo Rookie guide can also call or email us with questions – Veo Rookie Guide. If it's a problem with the actual hardware or software that will have to be handled by Veo support.
Hardware Issues
Fortunately we haven't had problems with the camera itself but I did inquire about how they handle those situations. If your camera stops working you can mail it back to Veo for support. If it's an issue with the camera being defective they'll repair and return it to you at no charge. If you damage the camera, say by dropping it lens first on the concrete, you can still send it back for repairs but there is a fee. At the time of this review it's $100 but I imagine that could change over time.
Update March 2020 – We almost had our first experience with returning a camera for repairs. We had an original version camera where the port cover actually slid into the power plug. That piece broke off and we could no longer charge the camera. We were setup to ship it back but then they showed us how to fix it ourselves. We were happy for that since we needed to use it the next weekend for games.
Update September 2020 – We had our first hardware issue that required us to ship a camera back to Veo for repairs. It's been fixed and is on the way back to us as I type this. We'll share about the experience in our guide soon.
Update November 2020 – Our camera has been returned and is back in action! We explain how the whole process works in our Veo camera guide. We give the steps necessary, what you have to do, and a timeline of the whole process.
Software Issues
Some of the teams that rented our camera were reporting an "internal camera error" at times when they stopped and started the camera several times during a game. We always just start recording during warmups or at the start of the game and let it run through till the end so weren't experiencing it. We were notified by Veo that they were planning on pushing a firmware update to fix this issue. They worked with us to push the fix once we were ready, I was glad they notified us and did the firmware update on our schedule.
Update July 2020 – Veo has done a great job adding documentation and user information on how to use their soccer camera. We've also been sharing what we've added in our Veo Camera playlist on YouTube.
Update November 2020 – Veo has been pushing software updates to their cameras to fix the recording and shading issues that have been reported. To give you an idea our cameras have gone from version 1.5.1-1 to 1.5.1-4 from last Spring till now.
Veo Wish List
As we've used the soccer camera we've sent our feedback to the product team at Veo letting them know what we'd like to see them add or change. Some of our suggestions were already in the works and will hopefully be rolled out by the end of the quarter. Other ideas were a little more complicated so they'll have to evaluate where those fit into their product roadmap.
Here are a few things that would be helpful for us:
Commenting/Tagging Upgrades – The most feedback we sent was around the tagging/commenting features. We won't list them all here but I think coaches will really find this a valuable tool as those continue to improve.
Update Jan 2020 – Veo made a major upgrade to the commenting system which was a big improvement. One thing I'd still like to see is the ability to leave comments for a group of players. For example, leave one comment for the whole back line or a comment for all mid-fielders.
In addition, I'd like to be able to have more Highlight types. Right now you're given a set of 15 canned types and I'd like to either expand the types or be able to create my own. As of September 2020 now you can create your own tags.
Multi-Team Sharing – When you record a game both teams competing would be interested in the footage. Right now it's setup to easily share it with one of those teams. I wish we could easily share the game and clips with both teams.
Update March 2020 – Apparently this in the works. Not sure the estimated date but will be great to have once finished.
Update July 2020 – Hurray, this is now available for your team.
Charge While Recording – Currently you can't record while the camera is charging. For long days with many games it would be nice if you could be charging the camera as it records.
Consolidated Download – We'd like to be able to download all the clips and highlights at once. Currently you can download them one at a time, a nice enhancement would be a consolidated video (or even zip file) that downloads them together in one shot.
Update January 2021 – This feature is now available.
WeVideo Integration – Of course not everyone uses the same video editing software so this wouldn't be a benefit to all users. However, it would be great if we could import clips right into WeVideo from the Veo site. Right now we download them to our hard drive from Veo then turn around and manually upload them into WeVideo.
Update January 2021 – Veo camera features now take your input into account. Veo has added the ability for you to request features and also vote on which features others have submitted that you'd like to see as well. I like this because in the past I've just emailed in things I'd like to see added but now Veo has consolidated user requests into one place where I can see what other folks are asking for as well.
You can find which features have already been requested by filtering on whether the feature is In Progress, Backlog, Under Consideration, or Completed status.
If you don't see what you're looking for in the list to vote for then you can add your own feature request for the camera. For example, one feature that has a status of "In Progress" is the ability to search across all your games for a certain tag. This would be adding the ability to show all the saves, goals, or other highlights with one search. If could also use this for your team or club then you simply vote for that feature.
You can also look under completed to see if the functionality you're looking for already exists. For example, I didn't realize Veo had added the ability to download all your soccer highlights at once until I saw it it listed under Completed features.
I think if something is in the Backlog status that means they're looking at how to accomplish it so expect future progress. If something is
Under Consideration I believe that means they're weighing how much work it will be compared to how many of us want it – and also how it fits into their product plans.
For example, right now one of the things Under Consideration that I'd like to see is the ability for a coach or player to be able to create video highlights and make them private or limit who can see them. Doesn't look like it's at the top of Veo's list since it's not In Progress or in the Backlog but it's on their radar.
The default view is to show the most requested features at the top of the list. As you can see from the screen shot the most requested features at the moment of this writing are Veo camera livestream and the ability to track player stats with Veo.
Veo Camera Rental
Since we first wrote our review we've started shipping our cameras off around the country to teams that want to try it out to see if it's a good fit for them or just to capture a weekend tournament on camera.
A big thanks to our very first team to rent it for a week, Fountain Valley High School in California. Renting out the camera was an experiment and they helped us work out a few kinks. We honestly didn't know how well it would work out but they got lots of good game footage and we learned how to make the process go more smoothly for future teams.
Here's a photo of them on game day with the Veo camera peeking over them in the background, thanks FVHS!
Update January 2021 – We've been helping teams record their games for the last year now and have recorded games all around the United States. For fun, we've kept a map of the "Veo Camera Tour" and all the places our cameras have recorded games. Checkout our Veo camera rentals map and and see if it's been in your area. You can definitely see what parts of the country are soccer hot spots by where our cameras have shipped most often. If you'd like to talk to a team that's used our rental service before we'd be happy to share their feedback with you. If you'd like to try one for your team checkout the Veo camera reservation page , shoot us an email (veo@soccerstripes.com), or give us call – 816-398-8846.
Veo Camera Review Summary
After using the Veo camera for a season we definitely recommend checking it out for your team. The camera really does make it easy to record, store, and share great soccer video footage. Probably the biggest challenge that teams will face is figuring out how to make the camera work in their soccer budget. Whether you're a soccer parent, soccer team, or soccer club you can email us for ideas on how to make the Veo camera affordable for your players.
You can check out the new options and pricing plans for the soccer camera here.
We actually had a few more sections planned for this video camera review. However every game and tournament we record results in lots of questions about the camera. We've told soccer team managers, parents, and coaches that we'd send them our review but since we keep spending our weekends at games and tournaments we haven't gotten it out as quickly as planned. So we're going to publish the review without those sections and add them later on.
After working with teams and families for a year we've put together a "Veo Rookie" guide. An unofficial owner's guide for new camera owners that walks you through what to do the first day, first week, first game, & first tournament for your Veo camera.
We're also polishing off an unofficial "Veo Scout – Users Field Guide" that answers lots of questions that parents, coaches, and clubs have who are thinking about getting a Veo. We'll cover a lot of the tricks and tips we've learned about capturing and using good soccer video with the camera. If you're interested we can send you a copy, just enter your email address below
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Source: https://soccerstripes.com/veo-camera-review-easy-soccer-video/
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