HockeyWeekly and Jonas van ‘t Hek on EHL Body Cameras

Leading Dutch hockey magazine HockeyWeekly published a great article about the use of the body cameras in the EHL and interviewed Jonas van ‘t Hek for his insights.

In as much as I can understand from Google Translate, the cameras were an initiative by Infostrada, one of the title EHL sponsors, in order to give the audience a closer viewpoint on the game and the ability to overhear umpires' conversations with players.

Apparently it wasn't too much of an adjustment for van ‘t Hek, who reported that since the umpires are accustomed to transmitting everything they say over the open microphones, they are already “on stage” and careful of what they say. 

The intention is not to use the footage for video referrals, which makes sense gievn that the picture is often jumpy – after all, the umpires are not on booms. van ‘t Hek compared it to rugby referees in Australia who wear cameras on their heads and provide spectacular footage for viewers because they are in the middle of the action – unlike hockey umpires, who stay on the outside. However, he believes it could be really useful if their voice feeds were available to the audience via radios in the same fashion as rugby matches, so their spoken thoughts can be transmitted on all major decisions.

The article also mentions that it's unlike that van ‘t Hek will be chosen for the EHL Final Four – not because of lack of quality, but with two Dutch teams being represented, he's conflicted out of virtually every match. Still, he wishes the Dutch clubs great success.