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User Contributed Post: Tripod/Monopod Combo Works Well

Takedown user shares experience with helpful accessory.

Below is a contributed post by a long time Takedown user.

As a parent volunteer that manages our use of Takedown, including making sure that all matches are scored and stats are correct, I had thought a short tripod or something that could be used during duals from the scoring table would be helpful but had never taken the time to find a solution. Then I saw the blog post titled 'Table Top Stand is Way Too Easy' and decided to go look again for something that we could use.

I was looking for something that was more designed for panning than the tabletop stand from the blog post. I discovered the Orion Tritech II-M Stabilized Monopod (available on Amazon and other retailers). This monopod was a great find! It's budget-friendly and offers multiple configuration options. I presented this product to our boosters and asked them to purchase one so that we could test it out.

We received the monopod just before our next home dual. I tested the tabletop mode at that dual and it worked great. I still needed to keep one hand on the legs when panning but I suspect that over time that may change as the head loosens up a little more.

That was followed by a tournament where I used the monopod configuration to score matches and still get stability which is much easier at tournaments than using a tripod which we were using in many cases prior.

We haven’t used it in the stabilized monopod configuration yet, but I can see cases where that might be useful as well. For instance, in a dual tournament where we may not be seated at the scorers table, the stability will be better than the straight monopod option. The stabilizing legs can also be left folded making the function that of a normal monopod as well.

In conclusion the Orion Tritech II-M Stabilized Monopod has proven in the short time that we have had it to be a great asset for our team, offering a cost-effective and versatile solution. If you are looking for a cost-effective tabletop scoring option, I would recommend taking a look at this monopod.

C. Shenberger, Parent Volunteer
Midview High School (Ohio)

If you have an experience you’d like to share with the Takedown community, let us know. It’s helpful for others to hear tips and tricks from the folks who are on the ground and using Takedown in the trenches.

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Video Takedown App Video Takedown App

Using an External Camera (Part I)

We used an external camera with Takedown to record video. It was great.

We recently implemented the capability of using an external video camera with Takedown. By “external” we mean a separate camera rather than the iPad’s camera.

This week we used this feature to capture a high school dual meet

Our verdict: use it if you can, the benefits are tremendous.

Why use an External Camera?

There are many reasons to use an external camera.

  1. The video perspective is decoupled from the iPad position and orientation. Put your iPad in a comfortable position for scoring and still get a great shot.

  2. Separates the scoring and video recording tasks. Some operators struggle to produce quality scoring and quality video. The workload can be overwhelming for one person. Also, if your team has someone who loves videography but not scoring, it’s a perfect fit.

  3. Potentially, better quality and features — zoom or low level light correction, for example — than the on-device iPad camera.

The camera we used was a Logitech StreamCam with a standard tripod mount. This particular camera comes with a small tabletop tripod that you could also use.

We connected the camera to an iPad (10th generation) running iOS 17. Takedown automatically chooses the external camera instead of the on-device camera.

It is necessary to physically rotate this particular camera onto its side get the correct orientation in the iPad viewport.

All normal resolutions — 1080, 720 and 480P — are available. Pinch-to-zoom works the same as it does with the on-device iPad camera.

Surprisingly, the camera didn’t consume much power from the iPad. With our display brightness at about 30% and wifi enabled, two full high school dual meets consumed about 40% of the battery life.

Results

To our eyes, the video quality of this camera was acceptable. Whether this particular camera is suituable for your team is up to you.

Here are a few example videos:

Video Recording Experience

We used the external camera with a dedicated camera operator and without. With a dedicated operator, it’s easy to zoom in and keep the subjects centered in the video. Since this camera doesn’t have a viewfinder, the camera operator needs to keep an eye on the Takedown viewport to know if the wrestling action is centered in the video. Initially, we thought this might be a problem but in practice it wasn’t an issue.

Without a dedicated operator, it was very easy to reach over and pan the camera as required. Mostly though, we kept the camera in its fully, zoomed out setting which captured the entire mat so that we didn’t need to worry about panning to capture the action.

The benefit of decoupling the iPad position/orientation from the camera view is considerable and seemed to reduce everyone’s stress. We placed our iPad in the most comfortable position for scoring and moved around quite a bit without affecting the camera view. That was huge.

Cost

  • External camera — $130 delivered. Varies with seller.

  • Tripod — The model shown here is overkill. Pricing for floor standing tripods varies from less than $50 to multiple hundreds of dollars. A table top tripod is bundled with this Logitech camera.

  • Cable — included with this camera.

Caveats

  • Not all cameras work in this capacity (iPad-compatible external camera). Only cameras that are ‘UVC compliant’ can be used as an external camera for an iPad.

  • Not all iPads work with an external camera. You’ll need a USB-C port and iOS 17 at least. The iPad 10th generation seems the most affordable model that works with Takedown and an external camera.

  • Takedown’s implementation is a bit — technical word here — janky. The perspective shown in the Scoring viewport is rotated 180 degrees around the vertical axis. This doesn’t impact the recorded video; it impacts only the viewport image and can make panning a little counterintuitive. Also, unplugging the camera when Takedown is in the background can cause a crash when Takedown is brought to the foreground. We’ll fix both of these in a future release.

More Info

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New Release Takedown App New Release Takedown App

Version 3.3.8

New release available for download.

The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.3.8

Bug fixes and a new feature: publish saved matches to Takedown LIVE

Highly recommended download for all users.

Publish Saved Matches to Takedown LIVE

Sometimes it isn’t possible to publish matches to Takedown LIVE while you’re scoring the match and this is primarily due to lack of Internet connectivity. With this release, you can now publish any saved match to Takedown LIVE. Likewise, you can also unpublish any match from Takedown LIVE. See this support article.

Note that this feature is for the match scoring transcript only. To add video to the match on Takedown LIVE, use Manage Video in the Event.

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New Release Takedown App New Release Takedown App

Version 3.3.7

New release available for download.

The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.3.7

Bug fixes and new feature: Share Box Score with Media

Highly recommended download for all users.

Share Box Score with Media

The feature offers a two-tap method for emailing an Event box score to newspapers, online websites or anyone with an email address. This same functionality is available in Reports, but this method is more convenient and requires less user input.

Add one ore more ‘Media’ Contacts:

In the Event, tap “Share Box Score with Media”

Media contacts are automatically added in the To: field and head coach Contacts are added in the cc: field. Edit if necessary and tap send.

That’s it.

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About, High School Takedown App About, High School Takedown App

High School Wrestling Participation

It was a very good year.

A company friend suggested we revise our annual look at high school wrestling participation to include the 2022/23 data.

Good idea! We did that.

Wrestling overall is doing better and the girls are a big contributor. Total participation is at an all time high and average boys team size reversed a disturbing downward trend.

Take a look at the data and draw your own conclusions about the health of high school wrestling.

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New Release Takedown App New Release Takedown App

Version 3.3.5

New release available for download.

The newest version of Takedown Scoring and Stats is 3.3.5

Primariy bug fixes including a significant bug related to data synchronization.

Highly recommended download for all users.

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