“We have the biggest brands and names in soccer endorsing our product. We’ve filmed every drill they employ within every age group — a total of more than 32 full DVDs. Kids and coaches anywhere in the world can see and learn the elements of proper programs and best practices, and they can understand what approaches and standards are out there. This is all accessed online — and soon virtually anywhere — through cellular technology and devices like the iPhone and PDAs,” remarked Innes. “In a nutshell, we have the best technology and the best brands in the world available, providing the best training tools that exactly match the age group of the user, delivered in whatever format is required.”
Innes further explains, “The whole minor league team will be asked by their coach to watch the virtual training session before they come to their practice. When they get to practice, they will have already visualized the drill requirements, and this will give them more time to complete repetitions of their drills. Kids will get more time to work with the ball and have the benefit of a coach who can show an individual player the video again, using his PDA if required.”
Over the last few years, Skillstorm has found that the productivity they have with Apple and Final Cut Studio likely could not be duplicated on other platforms. “Apple has been with us in the beginning and has always been the best creative environment. From day one, our product has been built in the Apple environment and our web site is based on Apple technology as well. They provided a solution that worked, for a reasonable price. It just makes sense for us to use Apple, especially when they introduced Xserve RAID — we have 19 terabytes and we are using it all. We are now planning for the future to scale up to include 10 more Xserve Raids which will get us up to about 100 terabytes.”
Apple has been with us in the beginning and has always been the best creative environment.
Apple’s cost effective and powerful video editing software on a stable hardware platform allows Skillstorm to produce video content in a variety of languages in a timely manner. “We were the first Xserve RAID environment here in Canada, and we’ve been up and running for a number of years now. We build our projects using Final Cut Studio, and then push it to a compression station, where it goes through three stages of compression to reduce the content to a file size that can be streamed effectively from the web.”
“When we began in 1995, broadband was not a reality. It was only a novelty that was not being done very well. We needed to create a technology process that would allow us to convert output files into something we could actually stream. We came up with a patentable process that is our technical backbone. Our site has both a dynamic and static host, so it can be delivered by two leading providers. It ensures that we can control our IP when it hits the lowest end computer that one of our users might have. The internet is our preferred delivery medium due to the potential reach, and the varied user requirements of our audience.”
Innes has experienced first hand Apple’s Final Cut Pro’s ease-of-use. “We started with a professional East German coach who swore he would never use a computer, and whose life on the soccer pitch left him little need for a keyboard or mouse. Now, after being our key advisor on how to play and teach the game for five years, and after being around the Apple environment and Final Cut Studio, he not only is the voiceover for the product training sessions, but he has actually jumped in and done much of the editing for the product. If you can build a high-end, high-grade, enterprise-wide product and have an expert use the tool to bring his expertise to life for others, you remove the layers between the expert and the amateur.”
Today Skillstorm has a development office in Calgary, and sales and marketing arms in the USA, Australia and Germany. Innes and his team are moving to aggressively market their extensive soccer training library, and they want to produce basketball and strength training videos as well. With Apple solutions to support them, they hope to become the world leader in interactive sports learning.
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