Best Auto-Track Camera for Remote Lessons?

[evntr95]

I ride remotely with my dressage coach and have been using a Pivo. At first I was pleasantly surprised for the quality and price point. Now I am angered and frustrated by the thing, which does a horrible job tracking me (and I swear it’s gotten worse). Plus the quality of the call under meet in the Pivo+ app is atrocious. The old Pivo Meet app seemed to work well, but the new version is basically unusable.

I’m open to input on what I’m doing wrong or could be doing better with my Pivo, but more so I’m looking for other options out there. I’m particularly interested in something that has a wristband or other wearable tracker because I feel like that will give me a better chance of not having the camera stare at the gate for minutes at a time.

So far the options seem to be Pixio/Pixem and Soloshot3+. Are there other companies or options I’m missing? Can anyone give their input on these?

The Soloshot3+ looks super intriguing and easy to use, but I’m worried that I should take it out of consideration. While there’s an indoor accessory, it appears to be unavailable, and the internet has oodles of complaints about poor customer service and people never receiving ordered products. The Pixem looks like it would be a pain to set up each time, but if it actually does a good job I will learn to deal!

[spacytracy]

Have you joined the Pivo group on FB? Its the Pivo Equestrian Community. They might have some troubleshooting tips. Lots of people on there use it for remote lessons.

[LCDR]

I have no experience with remote lessons so I can only comment about the two camera systems I am familiar with.

I have owned all three versions of SoloShot. As you noted, one of the drawbacks is that it depends upon GPS for tracking, and was really designed for sports like surfing and soccer, played outdoors. I actually liked the first version best, as it used your own video camera. Versions 2 and 3 lock you into their proprietary built-in camera, and the shorter lens camera, which I prefer for recording in a dressage arena, is no longer available. They seem to be catering to customers who surf, play field sports, or hang glide, and need long lens cameras. And SoloShot customer service ranks right at the bottom of my list of all companies I have ever dealt with. Communication is abysmal.

I am currently using the Pixio system. It is very easy to set up, works indoors, and you can choose the camera you want to use with the tracker. You can even use the tracking system with a smart phone or a tablet as the camera. I went with a top-of-the-line Sony video camera, purchased along with the tracking system. It arrived already set up with the camera programmed into the system and was completely plug and play. It tracks much more smoothly than any of the SoloShots I have owned. Pixio is a French company and the system itself appears to be assembled and shipped from Germany, though if I disassembled it I’d expect to find Chinese innards.

[K_VanOlst]

A lot of the Pivo success depends on having the latest and greatest phone - so you might see what phones are being used by people in the Pivo Equestrian group successfully. I’d invest in a better phone to continue using Pivo before I’d invest in either Pixio or Soloshot, based on some of the concerns addressed above.

[Old_Mac_Donald]

Pivo recently disabled the “horse” follow function on all but grandfathered devices, about a month after I bought mine. Same story, at first I liked it, now it’s crap. Drained my entire battery after 25 minutes, have to reset the parameters every time… urgh. My phone is only 12months old too.

[anon68314200]

I use Pivo and I agree it has gotten a bit more obnoxious to deal with lately. But…. I still use it daily and even have. A lesson on Meet 7am tomorrow. I am considered the newer Pivo Max, but haven’t jumped yet.

[zpsid91]

Have you (or other PIVO users), noticed an issue with the battery holding a charge? I used to get 2-3 rides off one charge, and now I can get one, and then it is drained almost completely!

[anon68314200]

Maybe yours is older ? The rechargeable battery will die out eventually. I have not heard that the Pivo battery is replaceable.

[MrsMontana]

I have a solo shot (whatever their top of the line one was) that I purchased a couple years ago. I was desperate for this solution so I paid the big bucks and it was terrible. Didn’t work for me, wouldn’t track. Customer service was abysmal.

I’ve been eyeing the pivo but may just save my money based on your feedback.

[atlatl]

I have both Soloshots 2 and 3. They both work great. There was an issue with the 3, but they fixed it for me in less than a month. Perhaps because I’m in So Cal and they’re in San Diego I got pretty good customer service. That said, others have had issues and they aren’t exactly speedy about returning emails, but when they finally get to it they’ve been very helpful.

Even though the whole indoor accessory thing has been a fiasco for years, I use mine with no problem when riding in a covered arena. Especially on a clear day, it works great.

Because it does use GPS for tracking, there are factors in getting it to work well.

1. You need a clear, unobstructed view of the sky
2. You need to have good GPS coverage, like I said, I’m in So Cal so the coverage is excellent. With less than 4 satellite in view, things get a little sketchy.

Before I retired, I talked to co-workers on the GPS program and they agreed that if I wanted to use it indoors, a GPS signal repeater would likely make that possible. Something like this

https://www.gps-repeaters.com/

[Zevida]

With Pivo Meet your instructor can control the Pivo so if the tracking gets stuck they should just be able to adjust it and have it find you. In other words you shouldn’t end up with it stuck facing the wall and requiring you to manually intervene.

[TwiSedai]

Highly do NOT recommend Soloshot. I had I think 3 for a while, it was okay but not great, and I had soooo many tech issues with it. Got a replacement twice (after hounding them on several different platforns about it). It finally just straight up died. And I’m a pretty techy person so definitely not user error. Not to mention the number of dissatisfied people is significantly higher than satisfied. It really just wasn’t worth it for the price and hassle.

I’m not getting to ride as much lately so I haven’t bothered looking into any others. A lot of people at my barn use Pivo but from watching it, it seems pretty unreliable tracking (though it’s nice you can use your phone).

[evntr95]

That sounds great in theory and I have turned on that feature before and tried to explain how to use it, but that assumes a level of technical competence that my instructor definitely does NOT have. Also she would have to spend a huge chunk of the lesson manually following me- I’d rather have her pay attention to what we’re doing.

[LCDR]

The Soloshot is overly complicated for dressage / flatwork, because it moves up and down as well as side-to-side. After my Soloshot 2 and 3 both died I performed necropsies. They are filled with plastic gears and a complicated arrangement of rubber belts to be able to move in three dimensions. I wish I had taken pictures of the dissection.

Pivo and Pixio both appear outwardly to be less complicated and hopefully there is less to go awry with them.

I am unsure how the horse tracking mode on Pivo works but a friend with one tells me that it sometimes will lose her riding and lock onto a horse grazing in the pasture adjacent to her arena. I am only familiar with Soloshot and Pixio, so I do not understand how Pivo tracking functions.

[K_VanOlst]

@LCDR

I am unsure how the horse tracking mode on Pivo works but a friend with one tells me that it sometimes will lose her riding and lock onto a horse grazing in the pasture adjacent to her arena. I am only familiar with Soloshot and Pixio, so I do not understand how Pivo tracking functions.

The Pivo uses AI, so it looks for something “horse-shaped”. This means it is not always the most reliable if you regularly ride with others in the arena (may shift to focus on them) or if you have other horses in the background of your arena. That’s why it sells at a fraction of the cost of the Pixio/Soloshot.