Projector and TV Display Setup

Last updated October 2026  ·  6 min read

Every mat gets its own spectator screen: a full-screen board for a TV or projector that follows the operator live. One link works for every discipline; the TV switches itself to the kumite, kata, kata flags or team kumite board when the mat changes division.

Opening a mat's TV

The simplest setup is one laptop per mat with the TV plugged in by HDMI as a second screen.

• 1
  Open the mat's board Open the scoreboard for your mat as usual.
• 2
  Press TV in the board header The mat's TV screen opens in a new window. Drag it to the TV and make it full screen (F11).
• 3
  Leave it It updates itself. If the board and the TV are windows of the same browser, the TV keeps working even when the venue internet drops (see Offline mat mode).

The TV window's address names the tournament and the mat, so you can also bookmark it or open it on a separate computer connected to the TV. A separate computer needs the internet to follow the mat.

Flip TV on the board swaps the sides on the TV, for mats where the center judge faces away from the screen.

What the TV shows

• Kumite: both athletes, scores, the clock, penalties as C1 / C2 / C3 chips with a red LAST WARNING at hansoku-chui, the senshu badge on the holder's score, a LIVE badge while the bout is under way, and the division and round. Team kumite adds which bout of the encounter is on.
• Kata flags: both athletes and the judges' flags. Flags appear only when the operator presses Show flags, all at once. In separate performances the TV shows only the athlete performing.
• Kata points: the athlete performing, the declared kata, the judges' scores, the total once the panel is complete, and the standings.
• Winner: the winner of each match. On the kumite and kata flags TVs, a finished division then shows a ranking list, revealed from the lowest place up to the champion.

Under each name the TV shows the dojo, country or state, chosen with Under-Name Display in Scoreboard Setup.

How names appear

To protect competitors' privacy, scoreboards, TVs and the live stream never show full names. They use a short form: first-name initial and surname, upper case, for example J. SATO. With two surnames, the second becomes an initial. Full names stay on registrations, badges and certificates.

Between matches and closed mats

The TV changes screen with the mat's status:

Sponsor images and videos are added by the director in the Live Stream section. Videos play muted. See Stream graphics and sponsor breaks.

The bracket moment (optional)

Turn on Show the bracket after each winner in Scoreboard Setup → TV screens. After the winner announcement, the kumite and kata flags TVs show the bracket, move the winner into their next slot and point to the next match on the mat. It stays until the next match starts. The operator can tap Show scoreboard at any time. It is off by default and works on single-elimination brackets.

Other venue screens

• Standings: Open TV display in the Medal Count section shows the medal table, paging through the rows on its own.
• Staging and all mats: see Staging and the line-up board and Live streaming each tatami.

TV links open in the tournament's default language.

How syncing works

The operator's actions go to the server and out to every screen following that mat, so the TV changes the moment a button is pressed. A TV that reloads picks up the current match, not a blank screen. When a new version of Taikai App is released, TV pages only update on a changeover, closed or idle screen, never during a match.

Streaming

To stream a mat without OBS, use Live Studio; see Live streaming each tatami. If you use OBS, the link button on the operator board copies that mat's overlay link, which you add to OBS as a Browser Source.

Hardware tips

• One TV per mat. Don't switch a single TV between mats during the event.
• Run the TV as a second window of the operator laptop when you can: it is the setup that survives an internet drop.
• Turn off sleep and screen savers on every machine that drives a screen.