FlightScope Mevo Plus Space Requirements – Indoor and Outdoor
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Posted in Launch Monitors, Room Setup
Are you looking for an affordable radar launch monitor that records a wide range of ball flight data? You should definitely consider the FlightScope Mevo Plus. It’s an excellent solution for those on a modest budget and is often the choice of keen amateur golfers to use at home. But how much space do you need to make for it? What about using Mevo Plus outside?
The FlightScope Mevo Plus space requirements are larger than some launch monitors. Mevo Plus requires at least 16 feet of indoor room length and another 10 feet in height. The required width depends on your swing and whether you need a centred aim, but we recommend a minimum of 10ft.
We recommend Mevo Plus users set up with an absolute minimum space of 16ft (4.9m) long x 10ft (3.05m) wide x 10 ft (3.05m) high for indoor use. Smaller and shorter rooms may allow you to swing and achieve shot information but you will encounter problems. More comfortable Mevo Plus indoor room dimensions are 20ft (6.1m) long x 15ft (4.6m) wide x 11 ft (3.35m) high.
There are many points to note however before you set off building your golf simulator room. We cover this complex process below and try to make it as simple as possible for you.
What Is The FlightScope Mevo Plus?
If you haven’t heard of The FlightScope Mevo Plus, you’ve probably heard of the Trackman ball flight and club movement tracking system. The Trackman is the world’s foremost golf launch monitor and it’s used by professionals, golf courses and major companies around the globe to great acclaim.
There’s only one thing wrong with the Trackman from a home user’s perspective – it can cost up to $25,000 (plus local taxes) to buy and install. That puts it way beyond the budget of the average amateur golfer. It’s not that most of us wouldn’t love to have a Trackman giving us feedback on our every movement on the course, it’s that you can buy a decent new car for that kind of money in most countries.
That’s where The FlightScope Mevo Plus comes in. It retails at a much more reasonable $2,000-ish depending on where you buy it from. It too can measure the club and ball parameters of your golf game and because it works in conjunction with your smartphone – it’s also much cheaper to run when it comes to the hardware and licensing costs of the Trackman too.
It’s very easy to set up. Just like the Trackman, you receive a little panel that you need to set up behind the tee (which is designed to monitor the ball flight). The radar also tracks the movement of the club and the clubface. You can use your phone camera in conjunction with the Mevo Plus to take swing videos. There is a camera embedded in the unit for alignment purposes.
You install the Flightscope app on your smartphone using a QR code that you scan (it’s permanently engraved on the back of the actual launch monitor – so you can’t lose it) and as long as you have Bluetooth switched on, the two devices pair instantly with absolutely no fuss at all.
If you want to integrate the Mevo+ into your golf simulator, that’s fairly straight forward – you just need to connect the launch monitor to the output device (projector or TV) using an HDMI cable (though in the case of an iPad driven simulator – you will need to buy a more expensive HDMI to Lightning convertor to get this up and running).
Mevo Plus integrates well with premium golf simulator software programs such as E6 Connect and The Golf Club.
FlightScope Mevo Plus 2023 Edition
The Mevo Plus Launch Monitor, especially its 2023 edition, is a sophisticated golf training tool that utilizes advanced Doppler radar technology for precise shot tracking and data analysis. It's designed for both indoor and outdoor use, offering over 20 data parameters and enhanced features like Fusion Tracking and GS Pro integration for a comprehensive golf simulation experience at an affordable price.
Official GS Pro Integration
Incredible Data Offering at this Price
Face Impact Location
Excellent Apps and Video Integration
Fully Portable
Broad Software Compatibility
Requires Metallic Dots on Golf Balls (as do most LMs at this price)
Owing to the radar technology Mevo Plus requires more indoor space than other LMs that use cameras/photometric tracking
What Does The FlightScope Mevo+ Measure?
The FlightScope Mevo Plus collects a ton of different data points that you can then review on the output device when you’ve finished the stroke.
The recorded data includes:
- Angle of Attack
- Apex Height
- Ball Speed
- Carry Distance
- Club Head Speed
- Flight Time
- Horizontal Launch Angle
- Lateral Landing
- Roll Distance
- Spin Loft
- Shot Shape
- Smash Factor
- Spin Axis
- Spin Rate
- Total Distance
- Vertical Launch Angle
This should mean that when you work with a proficient coach, you can get enough information to better shape your strokes in the future.
The idea with a tracking solution like this is to narrow down a specific area for improvement, focus on that and once you’ve made the right adjustments to your stroke then you can move on to the next element of your game that needs a little work.
How Does The FlightScope Mevo Plus Work?
Just as with the pricier Trackman system the FlightScope Mevo+ uses a combination of doppler based radar systems to obtain the raw data regarding your swing.
The camera operation is, as you’d imagine, quite straightforward – the camera used to capture this data is not the one on the Mevo+ but rather the one on your smartphone. The camera built into Mevo plus is for sensor alignment only.
For the radar, this is a little more complex but certainly not so complicated that it can’t be understood (roughly) by any golfer. It works using the Doppler effect. That is a property of waves that means that they appear to become higher in frequency as they move toward you and then lower in frequency as they move away from you.
You can test that out by going down to your local fire station and listening to the fire engine return to the station and then leave it. As it gets closer to you, the pitch of the siren increases and as it moves farther away – it drops.
The radar uses a projection of electro-magnetic waves which it expects to monitor at certain frequencies. As the golf ball passes through these waves, it changes the frequencies picked up by the radar device.
Then some clever mathematics (which are above this writer’s paygrade) are used to translate the difference between the expected frequency and the actual frequency into flight path data. It’s both very simple and quite complicated all at once.
Fortunately, when you use the FlightScope Mevo+, you don’t have to do the mathematics, you just have to use the readout with the flight and swing data already calculated for you.
What Space Do You Need For The FlightScope Mevo+ Indoors?
How much room length from Mevo Plus to the Golfer?
The Mevo Plus launch monitor sits directly behind the golfer. You need to have enough space in your room to accommodate both a golfer-to-screen distance and golfer-to-mevo+ distances.
While the manufacturer recommends placing it 7 feet (2.1 meters) behind the tee, they also recommend that you move it closer to the tee as you move down from a driver to a wedge and the shortest distance they recommend is 4 feet (1.3 meters).
How much room length from the Golfer to the Screen
But that’s not all the space that you need because you also need to let the ball fly a little too. Now, FlightScope recommends a minimum of 8 feet (2.7 meters) from tee to screen or net. For this but we’d suggest that you allow a bit more particularly if you have a powerful drive – Flightscope say 9ft is more comfortable but you may need as much as 12 feet (that’s 4 meters) to achieve the same experience as outdoor use.
It’s fair to say that it’s better to be safe than sorry in this respect. If I were spending in the region of $2k on a launch monitor I’d want to make sure I have the space to allow it to be as accurate as possible. If you’re struggling with space the Skytrak launch monitor has slightly less stringent space requirements, because it does not require a set amount of room behind the golfer.
What is the total room length needed for Mevo Plus indoors?
So, the overall minimum room length requirements for the Mevo Plus is 15-16 feet in ‘Short Indoor Mode’ (see below). However, we’d recommend giving yourself 20-22 feet (6.1-6.7 meters) long if you can manage it for regular indoor mode. This will allow for a bit of extra comfort and to maximise accuracy with all clubs.
| Dimension | Minimum Size For Mevo Plus Indoor Mode (ft) |
|---|---|
| Length | 20-22 ft |
| Height | 10 ft |
| Width | 10-15 ft |
What is Short Indoor Mode with Mevo Plus?
When I began researching all about the Mevo Plus, I found their use of the terms ‘indoor mode’ and ‘short indoor mode’ very confusing. Were these just terms to describe the dimensions of various simulator setups or were they actual modes within the Flightscope app, which you have to click on or off depending on your setup?
I contacted Flightscope directly to find out.
Flightscope replied, that the short indoor mode (and regular indoor mode) are actual settings you pick within the Mevo Plus app software. This allows the Mevo Plus to pick the correct area to monitor (ie a viewing window) so that it doesn’t lose track of the ball.
| Dimension | Minimum size for Mevo Plus Short Indoor Mode (ft) |
|---|---|
| Length | 16 ft |
| Height | 10ft |
| Width | 10-15ft |
How tall does my room need to be for Mevo Plus?
You need enough room to comfortably swing the club without damaging anything or suffering indoor swing syndrome. You also need enough height to let the ball arc up in the air, especially on high flying wedges and short irons.
FlightScope don’t publish a recommendation for height, most other launch monitor solutions recommend at least 10 feet (3 meters) clearance at a minimum and that seems about right here too. Some Mevo Plus users have seen reduced accuracy with wedges and short irons if their rooms were only just tall enough to swing a club in.
How wide does my room need to be for Mevo Plus?
The required width for a Mevo Plus golf simulator setup is just like setups with any other launch monitor. You need enough room to swing the club without hitting anything and without being nervous of hitting the back wall and developing an ‘indoor swing’.
However, if your room allows you to do these two things but is still on the narrow side, then the target line through your ball will line up with the right side of your impact screen (for a right handed golfer). This means it will be difficult to aim properly and you’ll always be compensating for an off centre aim. You need enough room width to set up with your target line aimed at the centre of your impact screen.
We recommend a minimum of 10ft room width, but you’ll need more than this in order to achieve a centred aim. 15ft of room width is a good size for Mevo Plus simulators!
What Space Do You Need For The FlightScope Mevo Plus Outdoors?
Outdoors, of course, you don’t need to worry about space requirements as much, providing you’re hitting down a driving range, on a golf course or anywhere else where the ball flight is unrestricted.
In this case you only really need to concern yourself with the distance the device is kept back from the tee.
That should be 4-7 feet (1.3 to 2.1 meters) away depending on the club that you’re using, more towards 7ft for the driver.
You’ll still have to ensure there are no height restrictions caused by any hitting bay frame or other enclosure, and you’re able to swing the club freely with enough width in your hitting area.
If you do put up a net to catch your shots, then the ‘length’ measurements become the same as those used inside.
What Happens If You Don’t Meet The FlightScope Mevo Plus Space Requirements?
Mevo Plus is a fantastic radar launch monitor and excellent value for money. However, if it’s not situated properly, it can’t calculate useful flight data from the radar (though the camera features in the app may still be OK).
If your simulator space doesn’t allow Mevo Plus to achieve accurate results, the value and usefulness of the launch monitor is very limited.
So, meeting the FlightScope Mevo+ space requirements is essential if you want to get value from your device.
What about the Metallic Dots?
Mevo Plus needs a little help to achieve accurate spin numbers inside. It needs to have something other than the ball logo to keep track of as the ball takes off, measuring accurate side spin and back spin.
That’s why Flightscope advises Mevo Plus users to attach metallic dots to their ball, enabling more accurate radar spin tracking. You can buy metallic dots either directly from Flightscope (1000 dots available for $35) or from a third party on Ebay relatively cheaply.
Mevo Plus Pro Package and Fusion Tracking Updates – Huge News!
There are big changes afoot for the Mevo Plus in Fall 2021!
There are two huge upcoming upgrades to Mevo Plus, which will comprise one free and one paid firmware update.
The Mevo Plus Pro Package will add advanced club data to the Mevo Plus, data parameters that are normally reserved for much more expensive systems (Garmin R10 aside). This will cost $1000 and will launch in early 2022.
The second update is free and will boost the accuracy of the Mevo Plus using Flightscope’s patented Fusion Tracking technology. This tech combines the radar system in the Mevo Plus with advanced image processing to improve data accuracy.
It remains to be seen whether either of these upgrades will alter the Mevo Plus space requirements, but I will bring you news on this as soon as I learn more.
Check out my in-depth post examining these upgrades.
Conclusion
The FlightScope Mevo Plus space requirements as we’ve seen are smaller than the Trackman’s space requirements but larger than that of Skytrak.
However, 15-20ft feet (4-6 meters) in length and 10 feet high (3 meters) does not exactly represent a small room either.
You need to make sure that you have space before you invest in this launch monitor if you intend to use it indoors.
However, outside you just need to ensure the device is about 7-8 feet behind you and as long as you have space to let the ball fly, the FlightScope Mevo Plus will do the rest.
Mevo Plus is a lightweight and portable launch monitor that you can easily transport around your practice facility or course.
Given the substantially lower price of this device when compared to ultra-premium launch monitors, Mevo Plus is a fantastic choice for those who want to take the plunge on a home radar-based launch monitor.
Here’s a link to a dedicated post about golf simulator room dimensions in general. Hope you find it useful!
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Check out my in-depth comparison guide pitting the Mevo Plus against the Garmin R10 across 18 key comparisons. Work out which portable, affordable radar-based launch monitor is right for you!
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