This paper proposes a single generic real-time (or near real-time) play-break event detection algorithm for multiple sports, which include football, tennis, basketball, and soccer. The proposed algorithm only uses shot-based generic cinematic features, such as shot type and shot length. Detected play-break events are employed for two purposes: 1) All plays in certain sports, such as football and tennis, are presented as summaries, and 2) Play-break events, as part of a hierarchical event

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... on scheme, determine the segments-of-interest for the other event detection algorithms. An example of such event detection algorithms is given for soccer goal events, where the proposed soccer goal detection algorithm exploits the common cinematic techniques that are employed during the breaks that follow the goal plays. We demonstrate the genericity of the proposed play-break detection algorithm over football, tennis, basketball video and the effectiveness of the proposed soccer goal detection algorithm over a large data set.