This is mostly for Vesa, but I figure others might benefit from his answers. Questions after the race description...
I'm timing the Finger Lakes Runners Club's Turkey Trot tomorrow morning. It's a prediction run, so we care about how far off people are from the prediction instead of overall times. This is the first time the race will be timed this way, and the first time it has ever required online registration, so I'm worried about inadvertent bandits. And it will be snowing, and the high school can't let us into the building for the first time ever, so all we have are tents for pre- and post-race activities. Of course.
At registration, I plan to have QR codes posted pointing to the Webscorer registration so people can register on their phones. We'll also have a couple of laptops for those who don't bring their phones.
At the start, I plan to give pre-race instructions that people need to have their bib numbers visible at the finish line and to stay in the chute—in order—once they finish. Some won't, regardless, and I plan to tell anyone who doesn't have a bib to peel off before the finish line. Some still won't.
The Webscorer setup I'm planning is two devices (maybe a third for results), with one in Master mode for recording times. It will auto-start the Helper device using Webscorer.com (Bluetooth has been problematic for that for us). When runners finish, the Master timer will record times but not bibs for runners. When they're in the chute, the Helper device will use a Bluetooth scanner to read QR codes on each bib to record places. When there are breaks in the action, the Helper will send bibs and the Master will receive bibs.
(For backup, we'll have a Seiko printing stopwatch for times and a tick sheet for recording bibs; I plan to have the bib recorder write down occasional times as well for syncing. We'll also have a time-stamped video of all finishers from an iPhone.)
With all that description, here are my questions:
* When the inevitable runner with no bib crosses the finish line, I assume we should record them (since it's too hard to evaluate who might just have not opened their jacket), which would entail everyone recording a time, the tick sheet recording No Bib, and the Bluetooth scanner person tapping No Bib. Is this correct?
* If we end up in a situation where the Master device misses a finisher such that we have one more bib than times, how can we add a tap in the middle of the times? Just record a new tap and then change the time to what we determined from the backups?
* If we end up with a situation where the Helper device has one fewer bibs than the Master has times, that would seem just a matter of deleting a tap on the Master, right?
* Is there any problem with the Master device also posting Live Results so people can see who's the closest to their prediction whenever we sync bibs?
* We'll also have QR codes pointing at the results; is there a way to know the URL to the Webscorer results page in advance, or do I have to update a redirect that will be encapsulated in the QR code?
* Any issues with a third Webscorer device as a Helper in Announcer mode that picks up the results via Webscorer.com?
Thanks!