Copa América Uses Clear-Com Solutions to “Level the Playing Field” with Video Assist Referee Technology

ALAMEDA, USA – May 17, 2022 –The 2021 Copa América tournament was the 47th edition of the international men’s football championship organized by South America’s football ruling body, CONMEBOL. Clear-Com®’s Brazilian Partner, Savana Comunicações LTD., in conjunction with Mediapro Group Paraguay, were charged with providing the Video Assist Referee (VAR) equipment and expertise for the Copa América games taking place in five different stadiums in Brazil. Clear-Com products can be configured in multiple ways to meet the communication requirements of VAR,  and each of the five stadiums used a different combination of Eclipse® HX Digital Matrix System, HelixNet® Digital Network Partyline, FreeSpeak II® Digital Wireless Intercom, Clear-Com Encore® Analog Partyline, LQ® Series of IP Interfaces and V-Series™ Iris Panels to make VAR implementation possible during the tournament.

A Video Assist Referee is an appointed match official who reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage in order to minimize human errors. This process requires efficient, reliable communications with very low latency between the VAR referee reviewing the footage, the head referee on the field, and the video replay operator, as it can greatly influence the outcome of a game.

“The communication is the most important part for the VAR team. It’s important that the audio is clear and intelligible because we are recording it for playback that can impact who wins the game,” said Sergio Miño, Technical Manager, Mediapro Paraguay.

Five major Brazilian stadiums—the Maracanã, Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos (Engenhão), Mané Garrincha, Serra Dourada, and the Arena Pantanal—used a VAR system powered by Clear-Com systems for their Copa América matches.

Arena Pantanal in Cuiabá city used a VAR system based around FreeSpeak II, the Serra Dourada Stadium in Goiania city used a HelixNet digital partyline, and two stadiums in Rio de Janeiro, the Maracanã and Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos, as well as the Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasilia, used similar configurations with Encore analog partyline system integrated with an Eclipse HX frame via LQ, and V-Series panels connected over IP.

“We had Savana’s Clear-Com expertise and technical teams to help us with setup and operation during the matches in all the stadiums we served which was an ideal situation, and we had zero problems regarding Clear-Com,” said Sergio.

“The Clear-Com users reported that the systems were easy to use and met every demand required by the sport and by the technical teams operating the systems,” recalled Joao Pedro (JP) Homem, Engineering, Savana Comunicações.

VAR can be game-changing when the outcome depends on validating or reversing a call on the field, and it increases the overall certainty of a call by creating more points of call verification, which greatly reduces the possibility of human error. “I believe that VAR brings equality to the sport and levels the playing field, so to speak, for all players,” said JP.  “It’s great to know that Clear-Com is a part of it, bringing quality and credibility to the referee work. Clear-Com answered every demand without issue which makes us very confident going into the upcoming season,” he concludes.

SCROLL POSTS

A Few Kind Words...

Kapil Gadhire, Head of Marketing, Magnifi

From the word go, team Bubble was super detailed, efficient, and exhaustive in their approach. They are true partners and make an effort to understand the ideology and end goal to plan the perfect media pitch and strategy.

Lauren Myers, Director, Integrated Marketing – Ross Video

Working with Bubble during and after IBC 2022 for PR and press support was exceptional. Their professional approach, strategic communication, and extensive media network generated significant exposure for our brand. Bubble's on-site support was outstanding, ensuring our story was accurately told to a global audience. Their post-IBC efforts further amplified our reach and provided valuable analytics. An experienced, professional team and a total joy to work with.

Andrew McKinlay, Marketing Director, Avolites

All amazing, just grateful I know I can rely on Bubble to get the job done brilliantly.

Tanya Rai, Marketing and Communications Manager, Pebble

Team Bubble are an extension of our own team. They are wonderful to work with, reliable, get the job done and gain great exposure for our business in key publications.

Mike Ward, Head of Marketing, Singular.live

Since we first started working with them, our team at Bubble have acted very much like an extension of our team. They work with us to try and help us achieve our goals and we very much feel that they have our interests at heart as well as having our backs when we need it!

Gavin Bunker, AE Live

Bubble were fantastic throughout the whole process and helped us deliver a successful event to celebrate our 30th corporate anniversary with industry peers.

Robert Cloudt, Synchronized

Bubble has been tremendously helpful to bring our marketing communication to the next level, very responsive and thinking with us together on the rightful messaging and timing across different media’s. Definitely a recommendation in case you need a well balanced media agency to help you out.

Carla Molina Whyte, Farmerswife

Working with Bubble Agency for a tradeshow has been truly amazing. The bubble team is incredibly helpful and talented. We are very happy with the results and with all the coverage we got prior and during the tradeshow!

Silvia Candido, Ateme

As usual, we were super busy before and during a tradeshow this year. What a luxury to have Bubble take care of our media relations and our social media accounts! We saw a surge of followers on LinkedIn and got good coverage in a number of publications.

Meg Travis, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, Director, Global Head of Marketing & Communications, Entertainment Services

The Bubble team made everything easy at MPTS! From advising before the show, to facilitating client and press conversations during the show, to making recommendations on how to make the most of the connections we made there - we rely on Bubble as a key strategic partner for our sales and marketing teams.