Live Scoring Tablet Setup Guide for Martial Arts Judges

Live scoring lives or dies on the tablet setup. Get it right and your judges focus on the fight. Get it wrong and you spend the day rebooting iPads. Here is the exact setup we recommend for any taekwondo or martial arts club running tablet-based scoring.

Pick the right device

You do not need expensive tablets. The bar is: a screen big enough to read at arm's length, a battery that lasts a full day, and a browser that supports websockets. Realistic options:

• iPad 9th gen or later — premium feel, expensive, runs Safari which is fine for scoring
• Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 / A9 — the value pick. ~£150, 10-inch screen, all-day battery
• Amazon Fire HD 10 — the budget pick at ~£100. Side-load Chrome and you are good
• Old tablets you already own — anything from 2020 onwards is fine

You need one tablet per ring per scoring role. For a 4-ring competition with one scorer per ring, that is 4 tablets — plus 1 spare.

Network setup — the most important section

The number one reason live scoring goes wrong on the day is venue Wi-Fi. School halls have flaky Wi-Fi, sports centres have congested Wi-Fi, church halls often have no Wi-Fi. Do not rely on the venue's network.

Bring your own. The reliable setup:

• One mobile hotspot (a dedicated 4G/5G router like a TP-Link M7350) — do not tether from a phone, the phone will lock
• SIM with at least 5GB of data on a network that has good signal at the venue — check on a recce visit if you can
• Pair every tablet to that hotspot before you leave home. Do not configure on the morning of the event

Total cost: ~£60 router + £15 SIM = £75 of zero-stress connectivity.

Browser, login and kiosk mode

Open Chrome (or Safari on iPad). Pre-login each tablet on the morning. In Chrome on Android, tap the menu and 'Add to Home Screen' — that gives you a fullscreen app-like icon for the scoring page so judges cannot accidentally browse away.

If you want true kiosk mode (judges absolutely cannot leave the page), use Fully Kiosk Browser (Android) or Guided Access on iPad. Both are free and take 5 minutes to set up.

On-the-day fallback plan

Even with the best setup, things go wrong. The fallback plan:

1. Spare tablet, pre-configured, in your bag. If a tablet dies, you swap in 30 seconds.
2. Spare hotspot battery. Hotspots die 7 hours in, especially in winter.
3. Paper score sheets in a folder. You will probably not need them, but having them means you can score one fight on paper if a ring loses connectivity for 90 seconds.
4. A second SIM on a different network. UK sports halls vary wildly — having a backup SIM on a different operator costs £5 and saves the day.

How TKD Manager handles tablets

TKD Competition Manager runs entirely in the browser, so any tablet from 2020 onwards works. There is a dedicated ring scorer view that strips the UI down to the bare minimum a judge needs: fighter names, score buttons, timer. Coaches and audience get separate read-only views on bigger screens.