Scoreboard OCR watches the venue scoreboard through a camera and reads the score, clock and period as numbers. On its own it only knows what the scoreboard says. Connected to ScoreCastr, those readings drive your scorebug, so the graphic on the stream matches the scoreboard in the building without anyone typing. This guide covers the ScoreCastr side and the output settings to look for in your OCR software.
What you need
- The Pro plan, and a match in a sport with the ScoreCastr button (football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey, baseball, softball, tennis or pickleball).
- Scoreboard OCR set up and reading your scoreboard. Its own documentation covers the camera, the reading regions and where its output settings are.
- The computer running Scoreboard OCR online, since it sends readings over the internet.
Get your webhook URL
- On the match's Scoring tab, click ScoreCastr.
- On the Scoreboard OCR tab, keep HTTP Client (Webhooks) and click Enable ScoreCastr.
- Copy the Webhook URL.
Keep the URL private: anyone who has it can change the score. See Send live data by webhook for the token, regenerating it and turning the feed off.
Set up the output in Scoreboard OCR
Find the output that sends data to a web address (it may be called HTTP, web request or webhook output) and set:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Address or URL | Your ScoreCastr Webhook URL, pasted in full |
| Method | POST |
| Content type | application/json |
| Body | A JSON object, one field per reading, for example {"home_score": 21, "away_score": 14, "clock": "8:42", "period": 3} |
The content type matters. ScoreCastr only reads the body when it's sent as application/json.
If your OCR setup writes its readings to an XML file instead, use the XML File Monitor. See Read an XML file or URL.
Name each reading
Give each reading a ScoreCastr field name. The common ones:
| Reading | Field name | Value | Sports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Away (visiting) team score | away_score |
A number | All |
| Home team score | home_score |
A number | All |
| Game clock | clock |
"MM:SS", like "8:42", or seconds as a number |
Football, basketball, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey |
| Quarter, half or period | period |
A number | Football, basketball, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey |
| Inning | inning |
A number | Baseball, softball |
| Set | set |
A number | Volleyball |
Away is the first team on the match (the visitors), home is the second. In volleyball, the score fields are sets won; the current set's points have their own fields.
Each sport has more fields, like timeouts, fouls, shot clock, down and distance, or balls, strikes and outs. Use the field guide for your sport:
Numbers can arrive as text ("21") or as numbers (21). For yes or no readings, send true or false.
Test before the game
- Use a practice match, or warm-ups before you go on air.
- Turn on the OCR output with the scoreboard showing a score.
- Watch the scorebug preview at the top of the Control Dashboard. The score, clock and period should match the scoreboard.
- Change the scoreboard (or wait for the clock to run) and check the preview follows.
- Check home and away aren't swapped.
During the game
The dashboard keeps working while the feed is on. If the OCR misreads a digit, you can fix it on the dashboard, but the next reading that includes that field replaces your fix. Fix the reading in Scoreboard OCR (for example its reading region or lighting) so the problem doesn't come back.
Anything the OCR doesn't send, like team stats, cards or graphics, stays with the operator. See Use more than one data source.
Fix common problems
- Nothing changes on the scorebug. Check the URL was pasted in full, the method is POST and the content type is
application/json. If you regenerated the token or turned ScoreCastr Server off and on, paste the new URL. - Home and away are swapped. Swap the field names on the two score readings.
- The clock is wrong. Send it as
"MM:SS"or as a number of seconds, not with extra text. - Basketball scores drop to 0. An update arrived without the score fields. Include both in every update.
For error messages and more fixes, see Data Hub troubleshooting.
Checklist
- ScoreCastr Server enabled and the Webhook URL copied
- OCR output set to POST, application/json, with the full URL
- Each reading named with a ScoreCastr field name
- Home and away checked on the scorebug preview
- Someone watching for misreads during the game
- OCR output and ScoreCastr Server both turned off after the game