CueSportAI
Table Kit

Two platforms are approved. Which one you choose depends on whether the venue is one table or several — and on whether they may add tables later.

Memory

Two DDR5 sticks — 2 × 8 GB minimum, 2 × 16 GB comfortable. The requirement is two sticks, not a particular total. Most 16 GB mini-PCs ship as a single 16 GB stick, which runs in single channel and is the exact configuration to avoid. Buying the cheaper 16 GB model and adding a second matched stick is a good way to do this — just do not leave it on one.

Fixed

Storage

500 GB NVMe SSD minimum; 1 TB preferred. Shot clips and replay video accumulate. Our reference unit uses 1 TB.

Flexible

Ports

At least one USB 3.0 port free for the camera, plus HDMI and Ethernet.

Fixed

Platform A units that meet this spec:
BOSGAME P3 Plus — Ryzen 7 7840HS, 1 TB NVMe — add a second matched stick, or fit 2 × 8 GB. The 16 GB version is supplied as one stick.
Beelink SER8 — Ryzen 7 8845HS, 32 GB DDR5 already as 2 × 16 GB, 1 TB NVMe — dearer, but correct out of the box.
Any equivalent machine is fine. These are for identification, not required brands.
Platform B has no single part number to point at — it is an ordinary desktop or small-form-factor PC with a Core Ultra 5 / 7 and a graphics card, so build it from whatever your supplier stocks. Tell us the proposed specification and we will confirm it before you order.

The only genuinely specialised part, and the one most likely to be hard to find locally. If you cannot source it where you are, we will supply it — everything else on this sheet is ordinary retail.

Sensor type

Global shutter. Not rolling shutter. This is the single most important line on the page. Suppliers will offer rolling-shutter cameras with better headline specs — they do not work for this application.

Fixed

Frame rate

MJPG at 60 fps — 90 fps capable is better. Compressed MJPG output, not raw. See §3 for why that matters to the cable.

Fixed

Resolution

Decided by the mounting height, measured from the top of the table to the camera:
· under 70 in (1.8 m) → 1920 × 1200 required
· 70 in or more → 1920 × 1080 is sufficient The taller 1200 sensor buys extra coverage across the width of the table. Mounted low the field of view is tight, and at 1080 the centre pockets fall outside the frame — the table then cannot be scored. With more height there is enough margin for 1080 to cover it.
1920 × 1200 works at any height, so if the mounting position is not settled yet, specify 1200 and you cannot get this wrong.

Measure

Connection

Its own USB port on the PC — never shared through a passive hub. The ceiling-to-PC run needs an active extension cable. See §3 for the two tested parts.

Fixed

Lens

Must cover the full table from your available mounting height. We select this once you confirm ceiling height — see the questions at the end.

Flexible

Suitable cameras — 2 MP global shutter (onsemi AR0234 class), 90 fps, with a CS-mount 2.8–12 mm varifocal lens. The adjustable lens is the reason to prefer this type: one part number fits any ceiling height, and the field of view is set on site rather than chosen in advance.
ELP 2 MP global shutter, 2.8–12 mm 4× manual zoom, CS mount — boxed metal housing, well suited to a ceiling mount.
SVPRO equivalent, 2.8–12 mm varifocal — the family currently in service on our tables.
Avoid fisheye variants: too much distortion at the cushions.

The camera is on the ceiling and the PC is not, so every installation needs an extension. This is the component most likely to be substituted for something cheaper, and the failure it causes is the hardest to diagnose — the camera connects, the picture looks fine, and frames go missing under load.

Tested parts

Only these two are tested.
IOGEAR GUE216 — USB 2.0 booster extension, 16 ft (≈5 m)
WDX — active USB 3.0 extension, 25 ft (≈7.6 m) Pick on the run length you need. Measure ceiling mount to PC and allow slack for cable management — it is far better to have too much than to discover you are 30 cm short at installation.

Fixed

Must be active

Powered / booster / repeater — not a plain passive extension lead. A passive cable past about 5 m loses signal integrity and the camera either fails to enumerate or drops frames intermittently.

Fixed

Why USB 2.0 is fine here

The IOGEAR is a USB 2.0 booster and still carries the full 1920 × 1200 at 60 fps. The camera outputs compressed MJPG, not raw video. Uncompressed (YUY2) at this resolution genuinely would exceed USB 2.0 — which is why a camera configured for raw output on a shared hub is the classic cause of a table running at a fraction of its frame rate. Compressed, it fits comfortably.

Context

Camera mount

Rigid mount, centred over the table, looking straight down. Rigidity matters more than precision — we calibrate the exact geometry in software, but the camera must not drift or vibrate once set.

Fixed

Table lighting

Even, consistent illumination across the full bed — a standard snooker light canopy is ideal. Dim or patchy lighting forces the camera to raise gain, which washes out the difference between red and pink and measurably degrades scoring accuracy. Worth getting right at installation.

Fixed

A venue that wants to broadcast matches needs a second, separate camera for the picture the audience sees. The global-shutter camera in §2 is for scoring and nothing else — it is mounted overhead looking straight down, which is the wrong angle to watch a match from.

Why wireless helps

The broadcast camera wants a viewing angle — down the length of the table, or raised at one end — which is rarely near the PC. The scoring camera has no choice but a cable run (§3). A Mevo or an IP camera removes that constraint for the broadcast camera, which in an existing club is often the difference between an easy install and running trunking across a ceiling.

Context

For Mevo or IP

Give the camera a fixed IP address on the venue network — a reserved DHCP lease is fine. We address these cameras directly by IP rather than relying on network name discovery, which proved unreliable in practice. A camera that changes address after a router reboot is a stream that silently stops. We configure our side during installation.

Fixed

Microphone

Required, whichever option you choose. Two reasons. YouTube silently drops a video-only stream, so a broadcast with no audio track simply fails. And the room microphone is what carries the atmosphere — the commentary and crowd sound that make a stream watchable rather than a silent security feed.

Fixed

Scoring is automatic, but someone still needs to correct the occasional call, confirm a foul or start the next frame. That control surface is a web page served by the table's own computer — so anything with a browser on the venue network can be the controller. Four arrangements are in use; a venue can mix them, or change its mind later without buying anything from us.

Scoreboard screen

Any 1080p TV or monitor with HDMI. Size to suit the room. Wall-mounted near the table is typical. Needed for Options 1 and 2; with a tablet or phone doing the controlling, a TV is still what the players and spectators actually watch.

Flexible

The remote

Keys are mapped to the actions a marker needs: 1–7 pot a ball, the four colour keys are the foul values, plus undo, switch player and free ball. We program this during installation. Some of the remote's media keys are captured by the operating system by default and have to be released before they can be used — that is part of our setup, not something you need to solve.

Flexible

Announcements

Spoken aloud — the score, fouls, frame results — through whichever screen is set to speak, normally the TV at the table. Available in several languages including English, French and Arabic. A phone or tablet can speak instead if there is no TV, but a TV's speakers carry across a room far better.

Flexible

Connection

Wired Ethernet to the table PC preferred; Wi-Fi acceptable. Internet access is required. Needed for player statistics, software updates, and our remote support access.

Flexible

Wi-Fi coverage

Needed at the table if a tablet or phone is the controller. The control device and the table PC must be on the same network. Guest Wi-Fi that isolates clients from each other will block this — a common surprise in venues that run a separate customer network.

Flexible

If streaming

Budget 6 Mbps of upload bandwidth per table streaming simultaneously. This — not the computer — is what actually limits how many tables can broadcast at once. Worth checking the venue's upload speed early.

Flexible

One computer can drive up to three tables, but for a first installation we recommend one computer per table.

The product links above are for identification — so you can match the exact specification with whichever supplier you normally use. They are not a recommended purchase route.

Outside the US

Amazon links are the easiest way to show the exact part, but Amazon does not ship electronics everywhere, and cameras are the category most often blocked from international delivery. Where direct shipping is unavailable, a package forwarder with a US or EU address is the usual workaround — at the cost of duty, delay and no local warranty. Or match the specification locally; see the next row.

Reference

Local sourcing

The mini-PC, screen, mount and cabling are ordinary retail items and should be straightforward to buy wherever you are. You will know those channels far better than we do. Match the specification, not the brand. The only lines that cannot be substituted are the three at the top of this sheet.

Flexible

The camera

Global-shutter machine-vision cameras are a specialist item and may not be stocked locally. If you cannot source it, we will supply it. This is the part worth letting us handle — we test each camera against the software before it ships, which removes the single biggest cause of a failed installation.

Ask us

We install and calibrate remotely, so the machine needs to be reachable before we start. Five steps on your side, then one connection code to send us.

1. Install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — Desktop edition. Desktop, not Server: the scoreboard runs as a full-screen browser and needs a graphical session. Not Windows, and not a different Ubuntu version — the whole fleet runs 24.04 and that is what we test and support against.
2. Create one user account with administrator (sudo) rights. Send us the username and password with the connection code. We use it to install the software and set it to start automatically.
3. Connect the machine to the internet, by cable if possible. It must stay online for the whole session.
4. Install RustDesk and leave it running. Free, and available for Ubuntu from rustdesk.com. This is only how we get in the first time — during installation we set up our own permanent support channel, so you will not need to keep RustDesk open afterwards.
5. Send us the RustDesk ID and password shown on its main screen. The ID is a nine- or ten-digit number. Set a password you are comfortable sharing, and change it after the installation if you prefer.

These answers let us confirm the exact camera and lens, and give you firm pricing.

1. How many tables in this first installation? And is there a plan to expand afterwards?
2. How high will the camera sit above the top of the table, and is there an existing light canopy? The single most useful measurement you can send us. It decides the lens, the mounting method, and whether a 1920 × 1200 camera is required — the 70 in threshold in §2. Measure from the table surface, not from the floor.
3. Cable run from the camera position to where the PC will sit. Decides whether the 16 ft or the 25 ft extension is needed. Measure the route the cable will actually take, not the straight line.
4. Does the venue want live streaming to YouTube? If so: the venue's upload speed, and whether you prefer an IP or USB broadcast camera.
5. Does each table already have a screen nearby? If yes, its size and whether it has a free HDMI input.
6. Which control arrangement suits the venue — touchscreen, TV and remote, tablet, or phone? See §6. No need to decide finally now; it tells us what to include in the quote, and it can be changed later without new hardware from us.