Frequently asked questions

Countoff is a platform for the marching arts that combines 3D drill design, performer dot books with synced audio, real-time co-authoring and AI-assisted judge feedback in one browser-based workspace. It is built for high school bands, drum corps, winter guard and indoor percussion, and for the design studios, judges and contests that serve them.

Drill3D is the drill design studio and show engine inside Countoff: exact venues, quarter-step drill, real-time co-authoring, imports, exports and 3D views of every set. Countoff is the platform around it: programs and rosters, dot books, judge feedback, and next contests, judging, public scores, community and training. One account works for both.

The platform was designed around what is now possible rather than adding a chatbot to an old program. Judge tapes are transcribed with the activity’s vocabulary and aligned to the drill by count, coordinate sheets can be photographed and turned into editable drill, score sheets are read into numbers, and a season of feedback is summarised into rehearsal plans and trends. Every AI result is shown with its source so staff can check it.

High school (NFHS, hashes 53 ft 4 in from each sideline), NCAA (60 ft), NFL (70 ft 9 in), Lucas Oil Stadium with its taped high school hashes, WGI regulation floors (60 ft × 90 ft) and the World Championships competition area (78 ft × 106 ft), and high school (84 ft × 50 ft) and college (94 ft × 50 ft) basketball courts. Turf, natural grass, tarp and hardwood are selectable.

They sign in on a phone, tablet or laptop with an emailed code and see their label, every set’s coordinates in dot-book language, the step size into each set, and a 2D or first-person 3D view that scrubs by count. Music plays in sync: full mix, section stem, click or their MIDI part. Books work offline once saved.

Yes. Arrangers upload a full mix, section stems, a click track or standard MIDI. Performers solo or mute stems and change tempo without changing pitch.

A judge records on their phone and taps “show starts now” at step-off. The tape uploads, is transcribed with a marching-arts vocabulary, and is summarised into strengths, improvements, section notes and set references. Directors choose whether staff, section leaders or the whole ensemble can see each tape. Staff can ask the tape questions, generate rehearsal plans and see season trends.

Yes. Paste a coordinate sheet as text, upload a spreadsheet export, or photograph the printed page and let Drill3D read it. Performers and sets are matched by label and set number, you review the result, and it merges into the show at quarter-step precision.

Your organisation owns it. Dot books, coordinate sheets and set charts export as PDF, coordinates as a spreadsheet, shows as a single portable file, and the whole organisation (shows, tapes, transcripts, scores, members) as one archive, at any time.

A modern browser on a laptop or tablet. Writing, co-authoring, exports and 3D previews all run in the browser; cinematic video renders are produced for you from the same show file.

Judge tapes are visible to staff by default and are only widened by a director’s explicit choice. Students see only their own dot book unless a digest is shared with their section. Sign-in uses emailed one-time codes, so there are no student passwords to leak.

Countoff is in closed beta. Join the waitlist with a few details about your program and what you want to test; we invite new ensembles in waves and every beta program gets a real person during onboarding.

Plans are priced for the program, not per student, and performer accounts are free on every plan. Current plan details are on the pricing page; beta programs are told their terms up front.

Dot books saved for offline open with no signal, including the music. Design and judge upload need a connection; uploads resume automatically after a dropped connection.