NCAA Sideline Tablet Systems: What to Look For

GameStrat has specialized in providing sideline tablet technology to high school football teams across the country since 2016. Over the past 8 years, GameStrat has been chosen by the top high school football programs across the country, with coaches regarding the system to be the most reliable and overall best option on the market.

 

Now that the NCAA has officially approved the use of sideline tablet technology for the upcoming season, our group of sideline replay experts decided to help college football video coaches by providing insights into what you should look for in a sideline tablet system.

 

1. Ease of Setup - Wireless Sideline Tablet Solution

A crucial element of sideline tablet technology is how the system setup works. A few of our competitors such as Catapult XOS and DVSport use a hardwired system, which requires you to permanently hardwire your stadium. Not only is this very expensive, it also means that the system is not portable, and you will need to find an alternative solution for road games. The GameStrat system is completely wireless. Which means you don't need to spend extra money hardwiring your stadium and you can take it with you on the road. However, GameStrat is also fully capable of working with hardwired stadium infrastructure if it exists or is installed at a later date. No matter the stadium, the GameStrat system can be setup in under 10 minutes. It takes only one person to set up & operate, making it the simplest sideline tablet system setup on the market.

 

It is so much easier to set up, operate and take down. When other teams’ film crews are struggling to set up or maintain a connection to the sidelines and see how well GameStrat works for us, it's an automatic win for us. 

-Shane Queen, Head Coach North Cobb HS, GA

 

2. Video Transfer Speed

As a coach, you have a million things going on during the game and waiting for a video to load is the last thing you want to worry about. When it comes to network speed, GameStrat is the fastest among all its competitors. From the press box to the sidelines, regardless of video length, all connected devices will receive the video instantly. Other systems have much slower receiving times, making GameStrat’s software superior to the rest.

 

The download speed of the clips to the sideline are the fastest and most consistent that I’ve ever had.

-De Mashburn, Linebacker Coach Union HS, OK

 

3. Reliability

GameStrat has proven to be completely reliable in college and professional sized stadiums such as Michigan Stadium, Allegiant Stadium, and MetLife Stadium - as well as the average high school football stadium. The best ability is availability. If you're paying for something and it is not working consistently 100% of the time, that is an issue. Some sideline replay systems have the misfortune of constantly disconnecting from the host server. Others are plagued with problems of missing video clips. GameStrat doesn’t face either of those problems. Unlike the competition, GameStrat maintains a constant and reliable network connection between the connected devices and the router. It also saves every clip recorded, so you won’t miss any of the action.

 

On our old system it was almost every game we would be losing connection and missing important parts of the game. We have had no issues with GameStrat.

-Sean Doyle, Head Coach Cathedral Catholic HS, CA

 

GameStrat team Shadow Ridge HS, playing their

Nevada state championship game at Allegiant Stadium.

 

4. Ease of Use

With any sideline replay system, a coach needs to be able to pick up the iPad and instantly know how to navigate and use the application. If it's not intuitive or easy to use, you could be wasting precious seconds before a crucial 3rd and 1 situation. Even if you aren’t tech savvy, GameStrat has a clean and easy-to-use interface. While the idea of searching for a clip in the middle of a game may not be your first thought, it can sure be annoying if you're tight on time and are scrolling through 60+ plays.

 

   

Picture in Picture allows you to switch between synced

film angles in one tap. Check out more features here.

 

5. Video Saved Offline

This is crucial because coaches often take their tablets to the locker room at half time or even want to watch video on the bus ride home after a game. With GameStrat, coaches can pull up any video completely offline without having access to the GameStrat network or requiring any Internet. 

  

6. Export Capabilities

Some coaches rely on their sideline replay system to capture all of their film exchange, so this is an absolute must have. Other coaches still prefer having their cameras do the video recording and they use GameStrat as a backup just incase their filmers may forget to press record at the right time. Outside of having your entire game fully intercut and being able to export the video into Hudl, DVSport, or Catapult XOS, GameStrat also generates .xlsx and .csv files with the entire game breakdown data which can be easily imported into your film exchange platform. 

  

        Watch this short video on how exporting film works with GameStrat.

 

7. Support & Training

With any new technology, you need someone to walk you through & show you how to set up, operate, and get the most out of the product you're paying for.  At GameStrat, with any new team that signs up, we offer a personalized training session over video conference to make sure things get started off on the right foot. We also have a dedicated team of support experts that build out a game day schedule of all of our teams and ensure we are available for assistance regardless of the day and/or time zone for any of our teams. 

 

We also do weekly check-ins with our teams to see how their past game went and see if there’s anything that we can do prior to next game to ensure a smooth game day experience. Aside from that, if you are ever stuck, we also have a customer support line in place, especially on game day. Even if it's a simple question or a technical issue, call our support line and you'll be taken care of by our dedicated support team.