Tactic – From the User’s Perspective

Nicolas Barquant is a leading French sports journalist and Tactic operator. His LinkedIn posts contain many articles enhanced with Tactic content. You can see them and follow him here.

By way of introduction, Nicholas started working in football journalism in 2016 at just 20 years old in Canal+, bringing with him a genuine passion for using graphics to help the viewers understand the nuances of what was happening in the game. Working as a freelancer, he has now gained experience at other channels, including M6, TF1, Prime Video, RMC, DAZN, L’Equipe, New World, and, most recently LFP. It just so happened that these companies were mostly using Tactic for football analysis – Nicolas soon became a very competent user.

With a formal training in journalism and a passion for football, the approach Nicolas takes is not to offer simplistic graphics – such as highlighting the player with the ball – but to concentrate on more interesting aspects of the gameplay, such as how chances are created, spaces worked, and so on. You can see many examples of this in his LinkedIn posts.

It is best if Nicolas explains things himself… “Tactic is the best tool for a more engaging style of analysis. An important aspect of my work is not just the graphics stories that can be achieved, but for me, the most important thing in broadcast is to have rapid turnaround times. During match day, as the operator, I need to create sequences really fast, so we can get them out with replays. Plus, I need to prepare content for the half-time and full-time segments. And this is where Tactic excels.”

Nicolas also has this to say… “The fact that Tactic can quickly create comprehensive analysis sequences makes for a good relationship with the commentary and production team at the stadium and also the presenters in the studio segments – whatever they want to explain and show, I can deliver it – and deliver it fast. I can collaborate with them to build analysis sequences to illustrate the most interesting elements of the game, especially things like defensive breakdowns and the off-ball stories. If you look at the “Face au Jeu” segments put out on the Ligue 1+ streaming platform, you can see examples of exactly what I mean. I am very proud that the analysis I create with Tactic is sent out all around the world.”

With 100s of users around the world across all the major sports, one key aspect of Tactic is its regular updates. This is what Nicolas has to say about that. “When I first used Tactic 5 years ago, for sure it was capable of creating the sophisticated analysis graphics I knew fans appreciated. But like all systems at the time, the operator had to go through a number of steps to set the system up, and to use manual techniques like keyframing to make the magic happen. And, release by release, RT Software has steadily added in its own AI enhancements to eradicate that, and speed workflows up in all areas dramatically. Now, setting up pitch alignment and camera tracking is completely automatic, as is keying and even player tracking to eradicate keyframing. Great sequences can be built in moments. Also, RT listens. I have personally made suggestions for new graphics ideas and other features in Tactic and see them in the new versions.”

Nicolas is currently the lead operator at LFP, who recently took production in-house and chose Tactic as the telestration system. On LFP productions, the fast workflow is further enhanced by the fact that the Tactic system is recording the plan large camera feeds directly into itself. This makes it stand alone and removes the need to work with replay servers, increasing cost effectiveness and eliminating the small delays that typically occur.

Tactic Pro is RT Software’s AI-enhanced telestrator that delivers the very best in sports analysis graphics with lightning-fast turnaround times.

Full details and an invitation to try it for yourself are available here.

You can see examples of Tactic’s Next Gen Analysis ® here.