Race Recap

[Brian Agee]

We'd love to see photos, videos, and hear your experience of using the system. Let us know how you set the system up and what you learned that you think others would benefit from. What did you do right, what did you do wrong?

Most people follow the recommended setup and have found it reliably provides 100% read rates, however some of you have some very creative tag/antenna setups and we'd like to know what kind of read rates you're getting with the different setups.

[pinhoti100]

Timed our first live event this morning! (5K). We set up everything per Brian's recommeded setup. We had 4 antennas on both sides of the road facing each other hooked to the FX9500 Reader and 5th (backup) located near the timing table hooked to the TR200. Timing table was located approx 20' past the finish line. We had all the runners wear the chips on either their right or left hip and recieved 100% read rates. We used the hip method because thats how all the runners for the Pinhoti 100 will be wearing them on Nov 1st. Worked great. We showed Public Display as well as Auto Photo Capture. All worked perfectly!!

Now for the issues I had. Could it be pilot error?

1. Results Kiosk: We had Results Kiosk setup. When I copied results on to Flash drive and took to Kiosk computer I had to go through the same process as updating the Finish Line computer with Day of Registration entries from manual computer. It did not auto update the Kiosk computer. Any thoughts or recommendations.
2. Results Kiosk: When I updated the Results Kiosk all the finish times showed one minute or more for each runner. Ex. Finish Timing Computer showed 21:00 and when transfered to Results Kiosk the finishing time showed 22:00. This was this case for all runners. Any reason why this would happen? I even pulled up the Results Kiosk on the Finish Line Computer and it showed correct finish times.
3. Printing Results: After the race concluded I clicked Reports and then Results to print out Overall and Age Group Results. All the runners were ranked accordingly but no times were showing. I printed and gave to RD to use for awards. A little while later I went back to look again (after several looks) and all the times were there. Why were they not showing earlier? 
4. Time Race Screen: Are we suppose to use the F10, F11 keys ect because when I click on any of these it brings up OneNote and only shows prior events not related to the event I'm timing.

I am a new timer and looking to learn as much and get the experience so on race day I am doing everything most efficient as possible so the above 4 issue are only minor compared to the overall importance of timing which is getting times for all runners which we did with 100% read rates. 

Thanks,

Todd Henderson

[mstompro]

My race is next weekend.  I would LOVE to see 100% read rates.  How high were your antennas since you were using the chips on the hips?  Did you take any photos of your setup?

[pinhoti100]

We used the Dolica AX620B100 Tripods. The 3 legs of the tripod were spread to the second width position and the middle leg holding antenna was at its high test level at just about knee level. All 5 antennas were positioned this way. Two antennas were set up beside each other with the bottom of tripod legs touching. Two on each side of road having the other two on the other side of the road at a distance across the road of about 10'. Don't have any pics to share with me.

[pinhoti100]

Also. We used one chip per runner so they could place on either hip the chose

[John Kirby]

Todd,

Congratulations on your first race!!

I can comment on the 4. question regarding the Race Time Screen because this happened to me as well. When you open ATR, under the options menu there is a tab for Printers and Email settings. On the bottom left side of the page is the Report Printer that has a drop down menu under it, and this is where you can designate your printer, one of which is One Note.

I was trying to print results during a race and was wondering why there was no action from the printer....had designated the one from home that I was using prior to the race . A couple of swear words later, and when the race finished I finally figured it out.

Hope you can get the other issues resolved.

[hubbard47630]

We use a few different set ups based on the type of race and customer needs; side mount antennas, overhead mount, or mix. We use Motorola FX7400 readers, Smartrac Dogbone wet inlays, custom TIMES LMR-400 cables (45'), a 39" video monitor (50' HDMI cable), Canon T3 cameras, and a Canon video camera as a back-up. We typically get 100% read rates with 1 Dogbone chip on a bib number w/o foam backers.

We offer three trusses and one inflatable finish line. The biggest thing we found was using a higher grade cable between readers and antennas helped. I prefer antennas mounted overhead. This winter we are adding a FX9500 and will use 6 antennas, 1 on each side and 4 overhead.

Typical set-up for a run when the race rents our 20' inflatable finish line-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125675683@N08/15297838942/lightbox/

Finish line monitor-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125675683@N08/14893077922/lightbox/

More pictures can be found here- http://www.40lbsledgehammer.com/gallery

[Crystal McCullough]

Very small races today, 5K and 10K, starting simultaneously. I use the "BR" setup ("Brian Recommended"). Weather conditions were not optimal with pouring rain, sleet, blustery wind, and even some snow.

What went right: 

• Everyone wore their tags correctly (shoe tags).
• Registration volunteers told every registrant how to put on the shoe tags and how to take them off afterwards.
• Race director included pre-race announcement reminding everyone to have their shoe tags on correctly.
• I used good ol' plug-in power for most of the equipment, and ran the TV off the Goal Zero generator.
• I remembered my down jacket. :-)
• Using the RunSignUp registration kiosk was GREAT since we had wifi on site and could just sync participants.
• 100% read rate!

What could have been better:

• Finish-line camera stopped taking photos; I'm assuming it went to sleep after a long pause between finishers, and we didn't notice that it did that until it was too late. As it was, though, the weather was so blustery that we took the camera offline—it was the only piece of equipment that didn't fit in the tent! Solution: be sure to check camera more often. Maybe get a bigger tent (I use a 10x10 and we all just barely fit in there).
• Since my laser printer is in the doghouse (long story), I brought my inkjet printer, which is not ideal in wet conditions. 
• I wasn't able to publish results to RunSignUp on site like I thought I would be able to (see thread about publishing results that christobelng started), so I had to wait until I got home to format an uploadable csv file.

You can see a photo of today's setup here: https://www.facebook.com/BeGoodSports  I set the TV up under the tent, so that made for some close quarters. We used the chute from the previous day's cross country meet. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Crystal

[Ohio Race Day]

"Results Kiosk: When I updated the Results Kiosk all the finish times showed one minute or more for each runner. Ex. Finish Timing Computer showed 21:00 and when transfered to Results Kiosk the finishing time showed 22:00. This was this case for all runners. Any reason why this would happen? I even pulled up the Results Kiosk on the Finish Line Computer and it showed correct finish times."

This one has me curious.  I wonder if this has anything to do with your system clocks not being in sync on the two separate computers.  Were you able to jump to the Clock Screen and adjust that clock so that the first (and subsequent) runner's time was correct?

[pinhoti100]

Ohio,

Finish Line computer is set on correct time. The Kiosk computer is one hour behind because I unchecked the auto adjust (for the clock) last week one night. The reason I did is because of 100 mile race I direct is being held on November 1-2. We Fall back an hour during the early morning hours of the 2nd and all computers at finish line will need to have the auto adjust unchecked those two days during timing. So you are saying this may be the cause of the one minute added to each runners time at the Results Kiosk? If so, now I know not to do that again :-)

Todd

[Ohio Race Day]

Crystal,

Sounds like the Pros definitely outweighed the Cons for your event.  Nice job.  I like reading these race recaps.

[Ohio Race Day]

pinhoti,

I'm not sure but you could try to fire up both those computers again and adjust the system time on the Results Kiosk computer and see if it makes a difference.   Sync the Results Kiosk computer exactly the same as the main finish line computer.  Let us know if you do this and what the result is.  I've transferred a thumb drive to a computer that I thought was synced up (a few days prior) and noticed a difference in time.  I don't know how quickly their internal clocks can get out of sync.

[Brian Agee]

Springfield Marathon Weekend

Prior to Race Day

On Friday I recorded a quick video during my lunch break and sent the following email out to every participant:

We're looking forward to seeing everyone at the 5K tomorrow and the events on Sunday. We'll have some stuff that you've probably never seen before so I created the following video to inform you how to wear the tags, where and when to return them, and how to use the Results Kiosk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvK4c9bPy84

 

Basically here is what you'll see:

1. Tags should hang freely off the side of your shoe or pinned to the outermost side of the shorts.

2. Please do not rip the tags off, unlace them and return them to help keep our costs down.
3. Tags can be returned at either of the Result Kiosks we'll have set up.

Saturday's 5K

Photos:

https://plus.google.com/photos/106228445469232052694/albums/6071746575563884257?authkey=CIDW1JTCv-igvwE

Videos of the race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-TyOoZ4iDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zCoZX2n0ic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq8G_PTiWpI

Post-race Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrBlxnNdxmM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JcVKTf9sk (often I watch as people interact with stuff so that I can learn ways to improve things)

Sunday's Races:

Photos:

https://plus.google.com/photos/106228445469232052694/albums/6072707651808808529

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7kY7g2eg-g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eXGNcxkAok

 

I'll write a full race recap soon, but I wanted to share the photos and videos I have available right now. We're about to time a cross country race starting in 90 minutes so I'll have some additional videos online soon.

[mstompro]

I timed my first race this past Saturday and I would say all-in-all it was a success.  This is the third year I have organized this race, but since I was acting as the timer this year I assigned others to coordinate setting up the course, venue, etc.  I arrived the morning of the race a little early to ensure I had plenty of time to set up the finish line and test out my equipment.  The problem was at the first hiccup people came running to me to solve every little issue which put a lot more stress on me and really interfered with me focusing on my timing setup tasks.  I finally was able to get everything set up with no time to spare for race day registration, but was not able to really test the RFID equipment. 

Race day registration went pretty smoothly and a lot quicker than I thought.  The system made entering new racers very quick and easy.  The only real issue was my volunteers who were handling the registration forms were not checking them over to ensure they were filled out completely and several forms were turned in without dates of birth.  I quickly found out you CANNOT enter a runner without a DOB.  

Once the race started I ran over and started messing with the RFID computer.  The software showed the FX7500 reader was "connected", but the antenna lights were NOT lit up.  I checked and double checked all the connections, but everything was hooked up correctly.  If I didn't have such a good backup system in place I probably would have been super freaked-out at this point.  I finally decided to restart the software and that fixed the problem.  That was a relief.

The first runner to finish had a pretty big gap (90 seconds) on second place.  As he crossed the finish line I intently gazed at the RFID computer screen waiting to see his time pop up....but it didn't.  I freak out and ran over to him to check his tags.  I see that he had both tags on the same shoe, one on top of each other, which probably explained why the system didn't read his tags.  I felt a little relieved as I ran back to the computer to wait for runner #2.  The RFID computer picks up runner #2, but again misses runner #3!!  I run over to check runner #3's tags, which were properly attached.  He did cross the finish line in a dead sprint, maybe that's why???

The good news is that the system picked up the remaining 150 runners without any problem.  I did note that quite a few runners crossed the line very close to each other, and it was hit or miss whether it picked them up in the proper order.  I ended up having to adjust about six runners to sync their finishing place with the bib capture sheets and the manual timing computer.  I thinks it's possible I could have narrowed the finish chute a little bit to lessen close finishes and define the order more. 

I had no issues retrieving a majority of the RFID tags after the race.  Some were a little bent, but I will test them later to ensure they are working before I reuse them. 

Several people did ask why I wasn't using bib tags like other races do.  Honestly, that would have made my life so much easier.  I wouldn't have to spend so much time explaining how to correctly wear the tags and whethere runners are wearing them correctly.  Not to mention having to get the tags back and sorting through all the used tags and reprogramming them.  I'm going to do some testing with various configurations and weigh my options. 

Another thing issue that I discovered the day before the race was an issue with printing bib labels through the software.  That was one thing that I didn't test ahead of time because it really never crossed my mind.  I bought the correct Avery labels and after getting all the registrants in the computer, I attempted the print the labels.  The top row printed perfectly, but the it appeared the spacing between rows was off all the rest of the rows didn't line up on the labels.  I couldn't figure out a way to fix it so I just used the Avery wizard and did a mail merge with my spreadsheet.  That worked really well.  My RFID computer uses Windows 8.1 and my backup computer used Windows 7.  For some reason my computer with 8.1 will not print anything from the software with the correct margins, not matter what settings I change in the software.  The Windows 7 computer prints fine. 

I have a friend who is an electrical engineer/government contractor who works a lot with RFID technology.  He's on the road a lot, but is very interested in testing my system and different configurations to get maximum performance out of it.  I will let everyone know what our testing yields. 

[Lamont Hayes]

I had the same issue with labels printing incorrectly for a high school xc meet.

[Ohio Race Day]

"Race day registration went pretty smoothly and a lot quicker than I thought.  The system made entering new racers very quick and easy.  The only real issue was my volunteers who were handling the registration forms were not checking them over to ensure they were filled out completely and several forms were turned in without dates of birth.  I quickly found out you CANNOT enter a runner without a DOB."

It's nice to have a helper that does two things ... double checks that all the info is filled in and then reads the registration info to you as it lays on the table beside you while you type.  You can enter an age if you don't have a DOB

"Another thing issue that I discovered the day before the race was an issue with printing bib labels through the software.  That was one thing that I didn't test ahead of time because it really never crossed my mind.  I bought the correct Avery labels and after getting all the registrants in the computer, I attempted the print the labels.  The top row printed perfectly, but the it appeared the spacing between rows was off all the rest of the rows didn't line up on the labels"

We've seen that too.  But our labels to the left side of the sheet are in line then they trail off on the right side.  The label sheet is centered in the tray.  We've kind of gotten away from bib labels, though, since we don't pull tags any more.  I may go back to it.  It's a nice security blanket.  :)

Good job on your first event!  Sounds like overall things were ok.  It is nerve-racking when you don't catch the first runners.  That happened in my first XC meet and I 'bout had a coronary.

[blueridgetiming]

97% read rate with only the Thinkify200.

I'm a believer now!

In the past races I have been getting terrible read rates (50-60%). But after some further investigation I concluded that using labels on the laminated tags on shoes were getting wet and severely decreasing read rates. HOWEVER, today I used a single dogbone placed vertically on the back of the bibs. 

Due to some false information from the meet director, where I was promised electricity and there was none available, I decided to use just the Thinkify USB reader. It was a small enough race where it would be suitable. With all of this said, the reader missed two chips for very good reason. One runner started with a coat on and then got hot so she took it off and wrapped her number up in her jacket and finished with it under her arm. Two, I positioned the one antenna on the right side of the line and a runner who finished in a group had pinned their bib number to their left leg. Two very easy fixes in the results when it was all said and done.

Obtaining these reads with just the Thinkify now gives me great confidence with using the entire system.

[Ohio Race Day]

What a relief.  Good job blueridge.

[Brian Agee]

Finish line setup videos:

Friday Night Packet Pickup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6fV3el4dOQ&list=UUOlYsWp5wn8Nwv9VhW16OrA

Results Kiosk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcyRNL_Ua9M&list=UUOlYsWp5wn8Nwv9VhW16OrA

Equipment Setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibp-HNR4aDI&list=UUOlYsWp5wn8Nwv9VhW16OrA

We used a FX7400 on each side of the finish line with three antennas hooked up to each one. Each reader was powered by a UPS battery backup and because of the risk of rain we kept all of the equipment (except for the antennas) in the tubs. You can see photos of the start here: http://www.podiumimages.com/WHITE-RIVER-2014

The starting line was 1 mile from the finish. We had a results kiosk set up at the finish line and another one setup in the gym at he starting line. Bus drivers took participants from the finish to the start. Each bus driver was given a jump drive and was instructed to come to the finish line and hand the jump drive to us (we plugged it in, pressed F7 to put an updated database on it, and gave it back to them). When the bus driver arrived at the start they gave that jump drive to the volunteer at the results kiosk - which plugged it in, waited a couple of seconds for the results to load and then handed it back to the bus driver. Oh, and as each bus driver left the finish line they asked all participants to fill out the attached "Changes" document if they did not run the race they signed up for and if there were any changes they were supposed to bring that form to us when they go to the finish line with their jump drive.

At the finish we picked up every person at he Marathon turnaround point, but we had one gentleman that for some reason was not picked up. So one missed tag out of all of the finishers. I watched him cross the finish line, he was an elderly man, so he wasn't flying by the antennas. I could clearly see the tag on the outside of his right shoe, so I'm assuming that he had placed both tags on the same shoe lace. It had also been raining for a while at that point so it's possible that the tag was somewhat glued to the side of his shoe since he wasn't moving fast enough to cause the tag to flop around. It's possible that he placed both tags on the same shoe lace, which can also cause the system not to pick someone up.

At the starting line: Out of 313 finishers in the half marathon, 12 individuals were not picked up in the Half Marathon. In the Marathon 5 individuals out of 185 finishers were missed at the start. 1 out of the 80 5K participants were not picked up at he start. So 18 misses out of 578 that cross the starting line.

The race director had groups that started before the official start time of 7:00am. One group started around 5:00am and another group that started around 6:00am. These were small groups (~20 people) so I started my stopwatch (Timex watch) with the 5:00am group and then hit the Split button when the 6:00am group started. When the 7:00am group started I pressed the Stop button. This gave me exactly how much time to add to those that started around 5:00am and exactly how much time to add to those that started around 6:00am. Couldn't have been easier. :)

 

Finish line videos:

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijgdtjny9m8  (finishers with gun time from 28:47 to 1:42:14)

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIlNkwl0qGk (finishers with gun time from 1:43:01 to 2:54:44)

Video 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vm9COcS630 (finishers with gun time from 2:55:32 to 4:06:53)

Video 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch06SrpSAMU (finishers with gun time from 4:14:49 to 5:28:20)

Video 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzMR-51uZl8 (finishers with gun time from 5:29:54 to 6:42:14)

Video 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH1Gjw19nkI (finishers with gun time from 7:02:59 and over )

 

Photos:

Camera pointed at turn around: Click to Download

Camera pointed at finish line: Click to Download

 

Results:

The attached results only show chip time since that is how the race director wanted the results to be based. During the race I was printing the results so that they showed "Chip Time (Gun Time)".

Results website with option to print finishers certificate:

5K: https://runsignup.com/Race/AR/MountainHome/2014WhiteRiver5K

Half: https://runsignup.com/Race/AR/MountainHome/2014WhiteRiverHalfMarathon

Full: https://runsignup.com/Race/AR/MountainHome/2014WhiteRiverMarathon

Personalized Results Email

Finally, I will use the Email feature of the software to send each athlete their individual performance and of course any of the information above and attached to this email.

We had numerous compliments from the runners on everything we provided, and a handful said they were race directors and they wanted business cards. Feedback from the race director:

Brian,

 

"Thank you for being so easy going and johnny-on-the-spot with the late changes and updates.  I know the runners appreciate it, but maybe not as much as I do! Thank you again for all your hard work!

What are you guys doing November 21, 2015?

Paul"

Oh, and we also timed a half marathon in Paragould Arkansas that same day. The timer said that race went really well too.

[Ohio Race Day]

Great recap.  Sounds like a very successful day in crappy weather.  A few questions:

Why did the RD want the turnaround spot near the finish? Would it have been better some place else?
If a chip start time is missed what start time do they receive?
Did RunSignUp handle the online registration or did you only use them to push the results to their page?

[Tim Irvine]

So you did chip start, and chip half way timing point and chip finish? Right off the bat you had some missed reads on the start, how did you figure it out when you had such a mass field starting? And how did you know what time to give them? Or did they receive gun time by default? The midway point is a little easier to understand, I am guessing you handled that like a finish line. And the finish too. But the start has me curious. The thing that jumps off the page to me is the amount of trust you placed in the bus drivers to make sure the flash drives got there. I am not sure I could have done that. But the whole scenario has a lot of moving parts and opportunities for things to go wrong. I applaud you being able to pull it off. I am used to one or two wrinkles, but they threw a lot at you and you got it done.

[Brian Agee]

Yeah, the weather could have been a lot worse. It was showing 100% percent rain for the entire day. All I really cared about is the start of the race to be rain-free so that I didn't have to set up or tear down tents. Luckily the rain didn't hit until an hour or two after the start. :)

"Why did the RD want the turnaround spot near the finish?"

Not sure, we knew that the turnaround would be close to the finish, but I didn't think it was going to be right on the finish line. If the turnaround was not close to the finish I was going to set up one of the systems (that I used at the start) at the turnaround and have it capturing the 1/2 split. Then after the race I could use the "Import times from remote read points" feature of the software. Having the turnaround close enough that I could have my FX9500 picking up the turnaround was awesome!  Not only does that mean that I didn't have to set up a whole other system (computer, ups battery backup, reader, and antennas) this also mean that if the RD wanted results with split times during the race I could provide them without making him wait until after the race is over (or hooking a printer up to the computer at the turnaround to print them).

"If a chip start time is missed what start time do they receive?"

If a chip is not picked up at the start then the Gun time is assigned as the chip start.

"Did RunSignUp handle the online registration or did you only use them to push the results to their page?"

I hate to say I'm not sure. Online registration was already set up before they hired us. We simply imported an excel document he provided. I created the RunSignUp pages just for posting results. The RD may not use that page, but I created it anyways and send it to him so that he can see what it looks like and if he wants to share it with his athletes or not.

[Brian Agee]

"So you did chip start, and chip half way timing point and chip finish?"

Yes, chip start, chip half, and chip finish. I know over the last few weeks a few have found that the split times are based on Gun start time instead of chip start time. This is the first race where I've done a chip start on a multi-split race so I also found that the times shown were based on gun start. So I fixed that code so that it will display the splits by whatever you specify as the "Display Type" on the report (chip time/ gun time). I will push this update out to everyone as soon as I've tested it a little more.

"And how did you know what time to give them? Or did they receive gun time by default?"

Prior to the start of the race you'll check "Capture Chip Start" and then check "Start Listening". As soon as you start the clock the system instantly starts recording the "Last Seen" time of each athlete. After the last participants has cross the starting line you'll un-check the "Capture Chip Start" check box and the system knows to store all of those last seen times as the chip start of the athlete. Anyone not picked up at the starting line is given a chip start time that is the same as the gun time.

"Right off the bat you had some missed reads on the start, how did you figure it out when you had such a mass field starting?"

When you look at the Athlete tab on the clock screen you'll see a "Chip Diff." column.  (see the attachment) 

The "Chip Diff." column shows the difference between the Start Date/Time of the race and the Chip Start Date/Time of the athlete. Notice how those that didn't show up for the race (there is no Last Seen time) show the same "Chip Diff." value?  That means that they never cross the starting line. The reason why it's not showing 00:00:00 for these people is because when I say "Athlete.ChipStartDateTime = Race.StartDateTime" the precision only goes down to the Seconds position. This is something I plan on looking at of course, but the fraction of a second is within an acceptable margin of error since RFID itself is not laser-precise measurements anyways.

In the attached file (from the 5K) you'll see where Bib #99 has the same "Chip Diff." as those that never showed up for the race that are listed above her. So that's how you know she was missed at the start. See bib #10 at the bottom of the image? That of course means that she started the race but did not finish it.

"The midway point is a little easier to understand, I am guessing you handled that like a finish line."

Yes, we just made the race a 2-lap race on the main RFID system and we named the first split "1/2 Split" or something like that. On the backup RFID system on the finish line I left it as a 1-lap race since the antennas hooked up to it would not be able to see the runners at the turnaround.

"The thing that jumps off the page to me is the amount of trust you placed in the bus drivers to make sure the flash drives got there."

There were 4 bus drivers, so even if one of them lost their jump drive or didn't bother to come get an update then all that means is that the results kiosk wasn't update as frequently as it could have been. We didn't have any problem with this though, they were happy to do it.

Yes, it went really well, but don't get me wrong, by the end of that day (after helping all night Friday) I was completely wiped out. Mostly because I was running around all over the place without any food or water until late that evening (plus very little sleep most of last week). Here is what was the most difficult part of the day:

We got to the starting line before the 5am group started the race and started our stop watch when that group left. We left that stopwatch with the volunteer with instructions to hit the Split button on the watch when the 6am group started (which she did) and then hit the "Stop" button when the main race started at 7:00. She did both jobs perfectly.

 

After the 5:00am group started we went to the finish line to set up. We started setting up the finish line at 5:30am and once I help my timing guy get the tent set up (which we did first in case it rained) and all of the equipment laid out that he would need I grabbed the equipment I would need at the start and left him there.

It was definitely a scramble to get he starting line setup on time. It's funny how the night before you try to plan for delays, but I almost always wish I had another 30-60 minutes of setup time. Setting up the starting line involved connecting the reader to a UPS in the tub, attaching all of the antenna cables and antennas and tripods, and setting it up so that I have three antennas on each side of the road as close to the starting line as possible. Then I opened the software and added in the reader information into the Options screen and did a quick test to make sure everything showed "Connected".

 

After I got the starting line set up I had one of the bus drivers keep watch over the equipment and then I had to literally run (maybe 600 meters) to the gym (with one of the laptops I was going to use for the chip start) where they were doing packet pickup. Once in the gym I did a very quick training session with a volunteer on how to operate the results kiosk. I had set up the results kiosk the night before but the volunteer didn't show up for training that night like they were supposed to. Then I had to quickly enter some adjustments that were recorded during that mornings packet pickup (people swapping events). When packet pickup closed (~10 minutes to start) I had to literally run back out to the starting line and copy the database from the computer I brought with me to the gym and replace the old database on the second computer on the starting line (so that both systems now have the same data). Then I had to go into Options screen and re-enter the Host Name of the reader on that second computer. I then opened the clock screen (pulled in all three events into the clock screen of course), selected the "Capture Chip Start" and "Start Listening" options and make sure it showed "Connected" on each computer and I showed the bus driver how to press the space bar as soon as the gun goes off. I did most of this while they were singing the national anthem. After the RD made some announcements I got on the mic and asked people to double check that they had a tag on the outside of each shoe or on each hip (not tucked into the laces or shoe and not placed directly on top of each other) and I asked the participants to return the tags at the results kiosk at the finish line or in the gym. Of course I asked that they don't rip them off so that we can reuse them.

 

I jumped down and ran over to my computer, I got the nod from the bus driver on the other side of the starting line and from the lady with the stop watch, so I gave the thumbs up to the RD to start the race.

 

After the last person left the starting line the bus drive (whom I love at this point!) helped me put all of the equipment back in the vehicle so that I can make my way to the finish. Before leaving the starting line I ran back to the gym to make sure the volunteer at the Results Kiosk didn't have any questions and to give some last minute tips in case there is any problems with it. As soon as I got to the finish line. I jumped out and copied the database from my computer at the start and replaced the databases on all of the finish line computers. I then re-added the FX9500's HostName in the Options screen of the primary computer on the laptop, then I opened the Marathon race and made it a 2-lap race (renamed the first split to "1/2 Split") and then opened the clock screen (pulling in all races) and selected "Start Listening". Then I moved to the manual backup timing laptop and replaced it database and opened it's Clock screen, and then put the database on the backup RFID system and re-added it's reader in and got it going.

 

Once the finish line was setup and going, I went and set up the results kiosk because that wasn't completely set up for some reason and then I started setting up the Announcer system (using the second RFID system I had on the starting line) but the DJ was so far away from the finish line that the RD told us not to worry about it.

Parking at the gym was PACKED, so that's why I had to run back and forth so much. The volunteer that skipped out on training of the results kiosk the night before really caused a lot of stress and extra time the morning of the race. We were supposed to be provided with a lot more volunteers than we were given actually, but unfortunately that's happens at most events and you just have to be prepared for it.

So it was pretty crazy before the race, and for the first 30 minutes after the start. But after everything is completely set up and going the rest of the race is pretty easy. Of course I was updating the results kiosk frequently (which I will be looking for a WiFi option soon) and I was manually adjusting times for those that started early when I saw that hey finished. 

This is the first time we've done race, so of course next year we'll take everything we learned and everything will be smoother, but in the end everyone was thrilled with everything we were able to provide and of course with how friendly and helpful we were.

[Peak Performance Timing]

Brian,

What camera did you use for the finishline video......It looks like it was capable of recording while plugged in?

[Brian Agee]

My coworker let me borrow a Kodak Zi8 he had. I've used it at a couple of races now. Having a HD camcorder on the finish is just something else that gives you a lot of piece of mind. It can record for a couple hours at 720p but of course it can record as long as you need when plugged in. I had a 16GB card in it and it recorded for around 8 hours and used around 11GB I believe. 

I plan on buying some GoPro's or some other device that is waterproof for all of my timers. It's such a small an inexpensive piece of equipment that provides so much value and piece of mind that it's well worth the money. On top of that, it's so easy to set up and use. Just place it on the tripod, turn it on, and press Record and that is it. 

Even if everything goes perfect, providing the RD and the participants a video of their finish will probably help you get more timing jobs and of course makes your entire setup look more professional.

[Tim Irvine]

We have a GoPro Hero 3 Black here at the station. Love the quality, but you won't get 8 hour out of it EVER. Maybe 2. I use our GoPro sometimes, but most of the time I use a Midland XTC 280. Great for watching your back and has a waterproof case with it. Mounts easy and has one switch to turn on and off. But the Kodak Zi8 sounds good, I am going to look into that one.

[Peak Performance Timing]

Yes the problem with the goPro is it is no longer waterproof once you plug it in or put an extended battery on it,....right?....I've been using a kodak playsport but you cannot plug it in and record at the same time so battery power becomes an issue.

[Edward Schrank]

I use the kodak playsport. Great quality video, good run time, waterproof. Good for peace of mind. Just have to remember to start it!

[Ohio Race Day]

We have a couple Contour Roam2 hd cameras. They are supposed to be waterproof but we have only begun to play with them.  I'm trying to see if one can capture video and allow scroll back to review video at the same time.  So far I've not found a way to stream video from them to a device (laptop or Android tablet).  I'm also looking for a way to do that with a USB connected webcam.  The open source software iSpy will allow you to take clips that are triggered by a motion sensor and you can then merge all of the clips into one video or review each clip as other clips are stored but that's not what I want.  I don't want a full security system DVR.  I did find an Android app that provides a delayed playback but it's not compatible with my Android cheapy tablet.  It will all get solved cheaply one day.  LOL.

[Ohio Race Day]

Contour Roam2 video of a small 5K start posted on FB. You can change playback to HD but it still looks a little "compressed" by FB.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=278889478965442&set=vb.156561434531581&type=2&theater

[Scovel Racing]

At the cross country meets I would charge the GoPro between Races (not ideal). You could purchase this case http://shop.gopro.com/accessories/hero3-skeleton-housing/AHDKH-301.html Not "Waterproof" but if you put the normal backing on and cover the side holes except for a little opening for the USB cable, it should keep the GoPro dry if it decides to rain. FYI, I read that you should use a USB Wall charger to charge and record at the same time.

[rtspt.usa]

they have a case that fits the extended battery pack.

probably the cheapest alternative is to purchase 2 video cameras and then while one is recording the other can be reviewed, and then switched, etc.

i also have a sony bloggie sport that is waterproof and has come in very handy when the weather suddenly turns.

[timgrummell]

I use the sj4000, it's a Chinese knock of of the gopro, but has got great reviews for being very good quality for a low cost. You can get one for about 70quid, and a spare waterproof case is only 10, what I've done is drilled a hole in the case just over the USB, any sort of external battery pack will keep it charged for as long as you want. Just be careful who ya oder off, some Chinese online shops have extremely slow shipping, as bad as 2 months in some cases.

[hubbard47630]

We have 3 GoPros for use at our finish line and also a Canon Vixia HF R400. If it rains, we just put up an extra canopy and move the 40" finish line monitor and cameras under it. It's much easier and actually cheaper than trying to find the perfect rain proof housing or whatever. Yes, the GoPros are waterproof so they are not an issue.

[Nick Preston]

Does anyone use Sony Compact POV Action Cams?  They have a sale on them today and I'm wondering if this would be a good option for recording the finish line.

http://store.sony.com/compact-pov-action-cam-zid27-HDRAS20/B/cat-27-catid-All-Action-Cam?_t=pfm%3Dshopping_cart%26pfmvalue%3Dtitle

[Ohio Race Day]

@ Nick,

That seems to be a good price for an HD camera and the waterproof case.  I'd be interested in knowing how that Wi-Fi works for remote viewing.  I'm looking for quick playback capability on the cheap so I can review what just happened at the finish line.  I don't care as much about making a video for runners' pleasure.  That's nice but secondary to me.

Our Contour Roam2 cameras are $120 each, waterproof and don't require the external case.  We have not used them in a driving rainstorm yet.

[Brian Agee]

I don't think this was addressed by other users, so I wanted to provide some guidance on Item #1

It sounds like the software was told to use a database on the desktop instead of on the Jump Drive. So put a copy of the database on the jump drive and plug the jump drive into the results kiosk computer. Now go to "Options" and set the Database Path to the database on the jump drive. Now open up the race, open the Results Kiosk, and after the "Loading" image goes away you can remove the jump drive. The software will keep looking to see if your jump drive is attached, and if so, if the database on it is newer than the last time you plugged the jump drive in. If it is newer, it will force itself to refresh (the Loading image appears) and after it finishes reloading the results you can unplug the jump drive.

As for the finishing times showing a minute difference. Hmm, that's strange, it should simply show the difference betwen the two dates (Date/Time of start of race and Date/Time of finish). Those Date/Times are stored in the database, so it shouldn't matter if the System Clock doesn't match the System Clock on the finish line computer.

On Saturday, October 18, 2014 5:21:49 PM UTC-5, pinhoti100 wrote:

Timed our first live event this morning! (5K). We set up everything per Brian's recommeded setup. We had 4 antennas on both sides of the road facing each other hooked to the FX9500 Reader and 5th (backup) located near the timing table hooked to the TR200. Timing table was located approx 20' past the finish line. We had all the runners wear the chips on either their right or left hip and recieved 100% read rates. We used the hip method because thats how all the runners for the Pinhoti 100 will be wearing them on Nov 1st. Worked great. We showed Public Display as well as Auto Photo Capture. All worked perfectly!!

Now for the issues I had. Could it be pilot error?

1. Results Kiosk: We had Results Kiosk setup. When I copied results on to Flash drive and took to Kiosk computer I had to go through the same process as updating the Finish Line computer with Day of Registration entries from manual computer. It did not auto update the Kiosk computer. Any thoughts or recommendations.
2. Results Kiosk: When I updated the Results Kiosk all the finish times showed one minute or more for each runner. Ex. Finish Timing Computer showed 21:00 and when transfered to Results Kiosk the finishing time showed 22:00. This was this case for all runners. Any reason why this would happen? I even pulled up the Results Kiosk on the Finish Line Computer and it showed correct finish times.
3. Printing Results: After the race concluded I clicked Reports and then Results to print out Overall and Age Group Results. All the runners were ranked accordingly but no times were showing. I printed and gave to RD to use for awards. A little while later I went back to look again (after several looks) and all the times were there. Why were they not showing earlier? 
4. Time Race Screen: Are we suppose to use the F10, F11 keys ect because when I click on any of these it brings up OneNote and only shows prior events not related to the event I'm timing.

I am a new timer and looking to learn as much and get the experience so on race day I am doing everything most efficient as possible so the above 4 issue are only minor compared to the overall importance of timing which is getting times for all runners which we did with 100% read rates. 

Thanks,

Todd Henderson

[Brian Agee]

Canon Cameras have a "power save" setting (can't remember exactly what it's called, but it's something like that) that you can turn off so that it doesn't go to sleep during the race. My first couple of races I had the same issue and finally played around with the camera enough to find that setting and turn it off.

As for publishing to RunSignUp. Go to "Options" and make sure it's set to "Live" mode. I'm going to work on making sure the software knows to use "Live" mode when Syncing or Publishing even if you have to set to Test. This will be easy to do, just look at the Race URL. This will be in the next update I push out.

On Sunday, October 19, 2014 9:50:48 PM UTC-5, Crystal McCullough wrote:

Very small races today, 5K and 10K, starting simultaneously. I use the "BR" setup ("Brian Recommended"). Weather conditions were not optimal with pouring rain, sleet, blustery wind, and even some snow.

What went right: 

• Everyone wore their tags correctly (shoe tags).
• Registration volunteers told every registrant how to put on the shoe tags and how to take them off afterwards.
• Race director included pre-race announcement reminding everyone to have their shoe tags on correctly.
• I used good ol' plug-in power for most of the equipment, and ran the TV off the Goal Zero generator.
• I remembered my down jacket. :-)
• Using the RunSignUp registration kiosk was GREAT since we had wifi on site and could just sync participants.
• 100% read rate!

What could have been better:

• Finish-line camera stopped taking photos; I'm assuming it went to sleep after a long pause between finishers, and we didn't notice that it did that until it was too late. As it was, though, the weather was so blustery that we took the camera offline—it was the only piece of equipment that didn't fit in the tent! Solution: be sure to check camera more often. Maybe get a bigger tent (I use a 10x10 and we all just barely fit in there).
• Since my laser printer is in the doghouse (long story), I brought my inkjet printer, which is not ideal in wet conditions. 
• I wasn't able to publish results to RunSignUp on site like I thought I would be able to (see thread about publishing results that christobelng started), so I had to wait until I got home to format an uploadable csv file.

You can see a photo of today's setup here: https://www.facebook.com/BeGoodSports  I set the TV up under the tent, so that made for some close quarters. We used the chute from the previous day's cross country meet. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Crystal

[Brian Agee]

Thanks for the re-cap! 

Here are some thoughts I had that might help with some of the issues with that race:

When I go time a race by myself, if I get behind on setting up the finish line I'll spend a couple of minutes training one of the volunteers on how to enter the athletes into the system and I let them do that until I finish setting everything up.

Yes, for now, the system forces a DOB or age to be entered. I might change that so that it defaults the DOB to the current date if nothing was entered - this way if you ever wanted to know which athletes you don't have a DOB or Age for then you can just look at everyone with the age of 0.

The "lights" that appear on the computer screen are simply and indicator of which antennas the reader says is connected. One thing that confuses people is that those 'lights' are for whatever reader is selected. So let's say that you added a couple of readers in the list, but you only brought one of them to the race. The software automatically selects the first reader in the list, and if that reader is not the one you have attached then it will show "Not connected" and none of the lights will light up on the screen. If you click on the second reader (that shows Connected) then you'll see the antennas (on the screen) light up based on whatever antennas that reader thinks is attached.

Yeah, if the tags are on top of each other (sandwiched together) then they have a hard time being picked up. As for runner #3, the speed at which he cross probably wasn't the issue. Hard to tell what caused the miss unless I was there. As for the system occasionally getting the runners out of order, yeah narrowing down the finish line will help with that. I basically tell people not to make the finish line unnecessarily wide. Make the finish line as narrow as possible, but not at all uncomfortable for the participants. If you have to time a race with a really wide finish line then a higher DBI antenna would probably help, but for the vast majority of people the standard antennas we sell work perfectly fine.

As for the labels, you may have already seen that some time within the last week or two I pushed out an update with the margins a little more fine tuned. This seems to have fixed this issue for those using different model printers than what I use.

[hubbard47630]

We own about 20 events ourselves and use our small night trail race series to test equipment. Due to bad weather and standing water we had to shorten our normal course and do two laps to avoid damaging the trail and keep the runners safe. There was a couple questions about using the monitor for different events so I thought I'd share a couple pictures from the series finale. This is something almost no other system can do. For those asking about 'How do I get more business?'... This is how you get more business, sell race directors on the features that no one else can offer.

We clicked on 'show finishers', ' show splits.' Name & Time in blue is for lap splits, green is for overall finshers, and black is their final time when crossing the finish line.

[Scovel Racing]

Timed our first public event (327 Finishers)

The park didn't open up till 7:00AM and day of registrations opened up at 8:30, It was just me, my wife, and thankfully a different RD that showed up to drop off some flyers (he helped me setup the truss and canopy). Well, like Brain had told me, things go slower in the morning with frozen fingers and less light. :) We were finishing setting up as loads of registrations started flooding in. There was 325 Pre-registrants and 99 day of registrations, thankfully I programmed an extra 150 chips, there would have been no time to program them at the rate they were coming in and the limited time we had.

The race started promptly at 10:00, we still had 5 registrants to enter into the system, but had to start the race. After the signal was made I started the race and then continued entering in the registrants.

It was a family friendly event and there were multiple mobs of 10+ people that would come through at the same time (it was hard to know if they all read or not), the people who were spread out all had 100% read rates, I used 1 Dogbone Chip on the back of Bibs without foam (against the body), many people had sweatshirts over their bibs, and surprisingly they still read just fine. Some people didn't understand the kiosk at first, but once they figured it out, lines of people started forming, it was a cool feeling.

It was a success but there were some hiccups that could have potentially destroyed the race and our reputation if the main reader, software, antennas didn't work so great. Definitely eye openers and things to learn from.

The Hiccups

• The utility building we were plugged into lost power a few minutes after the start of the race
• It took me 10 minutes to figure out the source power was bad, find a new source, and string extension cords over 200 feet away (thankfully I had extra cords)
• I assumed I would have time to make sure the camera was working and setup the video camera
• By the time power was restored and I fixed the time on the race clock, the first runner could be seen in the distance
• The camera didn't connect, reconnect didn't work, if I had a minute to mess with it, I'm sure I could have had it working.
• I setup the backup computer the same way I did with the Kiosk Computer (with Jump Drive) however I never tested it without the jump drive, doesn't work like that, DUH, easy fix, but I had no time because of the above issues and I didn't want to accidentally mess up the main computer with the mobs of people starting to come through.
  
• The FX9500 was reading too well, it read the majority of the finishers about 10 feet before the estimated read zone.
• Every-time I update the kiosk computer it has that message that says something like "there's an issue with the file/disk, scan drive?". Does this happen to you guys? I tried with different jump drives and camera memory card and same issue happens.
  

I learned I can't assume I'll have time after the start to finish setup. I'll be bringing a reliable backup power source even if its not requested.

All in all, success. Thank you Brian & everyone in this group that I have learned from.

[hubbard47630]

Great looking set-up!

Invest in at least one extension cord that has a 'power-on' light in the receptacle. That has helped me on more than one occasion. We almost always bring a generator even when told there is power. We also write it in the contract that if supplied power is unavailable we will charge for the generator.

[Ohio Race Day]

Wow.  Way to pull it off!  If you time that event next year be sure to ask the RD to improve pre-registration to avoid that glut of race day registrations.  Maybe he/she can find a way to push more to online registration so you wont see 99 race day sign ups.  Things like the camera and kiosk are "expendable" when other shit is going down.  It's more important to have the primary system working correctly than those other things.  You know that, of course.  Thankfully "mobs of people" are usually friends and family that are walkers towards the end that don't care so much about their results.  But if they are runners we usually count their feet as they are approaching and then divide by two to get the correct number of runners.  Kidding.  LOL.  The FX9500 is a flame thrower and can read people quite a distance away under the right conditions.  Maybe a course change is in order for next year also so that doesn't happen again.  Hubbard is right.  Get one of those extension cords with a lighted end.  You'll be able to look and see if power is available.  They make "cold weather" cords too that stay more flexible.  I'm replacing some cords with those types.   My back up power source is the inverter in my van.  It's a good quality pure sine wave version.  When my car battery eventually gets bad I have plans to replace it with a $300 deep cycle battery just so it can power things even when the vehicle shuts down.  Belts and suspenders, man.  Good job, Aaron!

[Tim Irvine]

Nice truss.. Good looking overall presentation. I had a thought on the people passing by for the turnaround and reading. If you put all your antennas on the same side pointing away from the pas by traffic, I wonder if that would have kept them from picking up, Might be worth a test. Thanks for sharing the pics. By the way, how long and how many people does it take to set up a truss that size?

[Scovel Racing]

Thanks Guys! Great advice!

The truss actually doesn't take much time to setup if you have the connectors already setup on each piece, then just connect them and hammering the pins in.

Without the clock and antennas I could probably set it up in 15 minutes. My current configuration does "require" 2 people, but it's possible to do it myself if I push the sides in, then rock a side back when connecting the top so there is pressure holding them together before the pins are in.

I'm going to be investing in some crank stands because my clock requires 2 people also. With crank stands I can attach the clock to the top truss piece, attach antennas, then crank it all up and pin into place ( by myself and quickly ).

[Crystal McCullough]

Hi, Aaron, 

I am impressed with the look of your setup! Very professional looking, and it looks like you put a lot of work into that truss. 

Putting aside aesthetics, though, can I ask how you were able to provide accurate results if you were getting reads so far out from the actual finish line? It seems that you wouldn't be able to get accurate times or even the correct finish order the way you described how tags were being read sometimes 15 to 30 feet out (in other words, even if you got 100 percent read rates, the results wouldn't be accurate if a bunch of runners were coming toward the finish and the system picked up someone 20 feet behind the finish line before it picked up someone at the finish line, and then someone 10 feet from the finish line, etc.). How did you handle this in your final results? Did you just end up using your manual results?

Crystal

[Scovel Racing]

Thanks Crystal

I wasn't very happy with the extended range but the majority of the reads were happening right in that same "area", so the race lost a little distance. One thing I noticed that other truss owners should consider, is that the fast runners can actually run through the main read zone and don't get picked up till right at the truss line, I believe its because their bodies are leaned forwards during their sprint and block the signal from the top antennas. I tested this myself and achieved the same outcome.

During the XC meets I timed in Oct, the read zone was right in front of the truss, I think the difference at this race was the antennas were a couple feet higher, and I believe it expanded the circular range tremendously. I'm purchasing some extension arms to lower the antennas and eliminate this issue. Any suggestions as to what extension I should buy? I'm looking into RAM joints/arms.

[Tim Irvine]

After looking over the photos and reading the comments, I had a thought. But I thought maybe an illustration would better make the point. The reason you are reading so far out is you are beaming your antennas out in that direction. The antennas pointing across the threshold have the best position for accuracy, but as Brian will point out, not the best angle. Since you are shooting across the threshold, I think you'd be better served to take the two off the top and put them further down the chute pointing cris cross on each side (for bib tags). As you pointed out, with the head down they aren't being read anyway. Another option would be to point them not completely straight down, but more so than you did to shorten the distance from the threshold to first read. Like Brian, I like to stagger the antennas down the chute. As the configuration in the photo goes, two antennas are pre-threshold reads and 3 are in the same zone directly across from each other, leaving only the 5th antenna (Thinkify TR-200?) to bat cleanup. Not criticizing, only an observation/suggestion. For the record. Your truss and clock are awesome!

[Brian Agee]

Nice job Tim! Your right, angle, angle, angle! The tag/antenna position should be as close to 0-degrees as possible. Which means that if the antennas overhead were pointing straight down, and the ones on the side were pointing directly at each other (which they almost are) then the tag would come across at a 90 degree angle (the worst possible angle). I'm sure by now even President Obama knows I'm not a fan of bib tags, but I know that many people want to use them and I understand that. I just want people (new customers) to be careful and test it out as much as possible so that they can learn how to set everything up to get the highest read rates possible. 

It's rare that I get an email where someone recieved horrible read rates, but in most of those cases the customer was using bib tags. That's why it's a sensitive issue for me, when someone reports poor read rates I stop everything I'm doing to help them figure it out and this can burn up a lot of time.

Just curious, did anyone else look at the photo and immediately think of Star Wars?  :)

[Scovel Racing]

I need to make a death star truss now :) Yes, all is true, the thing is with these public races, reliability (read rate) to me is more important than the "finish line" accuracy, and since the "finish line" is invisible, only the timer knows where it actually is. My goal with the next race is to get that "finish line" zone as close to the truss without sacrificing the reliability.

I need to lower the antennas and possibly extend them farther behind the truss. I'm also thinking about playing around with the gain on the FX9500, I believe you can alter individual antennas.

I'll begin testing different setups and start a Truss Thread once I get some different results, hopefully we can fine tune the truss setup for those interested.

[SR Aaron]

We timed a snowshoe race yesterday and had 100% reads yet again. Everything ran off the generator, we even setup the kiosk. :) I was a little worried because snow kept drifting under the canopy, but everything ran extremely smooth.

Since last months race I built extensions to lower the top antennas and angled them down about 10 degrees, this fixed the issues experienced with our last race. The finish line was very accurate, and the reads couldn't have been better.

Our van and equipment got damp after packing it up after the event, so be prepared for water if you time in the snow. Make sure to let the equipment climatize and dry for a few hours before turning anything back on.

[Ohio Race Day]

Nice job under tough conditions, Aaron.  That picture is website material!

[rtspt.usa]

awesome pic!!

[Tim Irvine]

Great job!!

[Brian Agee]

It looks like the TV is placed on a heavy duty tripod. We just started working on trying to use large tripods instead of the portable TV mount we had. If you're using a tripod there, I'd love to see how you have it connected if you wouldn't care to share that info. Do you find that it's sturdy and can withstand 10 - 15mph winds?

I want one tripod to have two TV's (back to back) on it and we'll have another tripod that will hold a third TV at the end of our finish line chute. I found these 40" TV's for $229 with free shipping and the reviews are good.

The one at the end of the chute is for the finishers to see their time, like we've always done. The back to back display will be placed right on the finish line. The TV that is facing the oncoming runner be hooked up to the manual timing laptop so that it only displays the Clock and nothing else (assuming that we do not have to rely on the backup system and use it only to capture times - if we have to use it then of course it'll display finishers info too) and the TV facing backwards will be have a mirrored display of the one at the end of the finish line (via HDMI splitter - special thanks to Crystal for that tip) so that the photo and the video that we publish will the person's name and time on the screen.

I'm always trying to find ways to streamline our setup (without sacrificing what we offer) so that everything takes up less room and is easier to setup and tear down. The portable mount we're currently using is very bulky and more expensive than a heavy duty tripod.

Here is something else I'm trying out to see if it streamlines our setup (and our expenses): Yesterday I purchased these (here is a video) to hold our steamers on the finish line chute. These cost $200 less than what we were using and should take up less room, so I'm hoping these work just as well. From what I can tell, you can fill the base with sand, gravel, or water and it'll have a 16lb base. I'm sure I'll do sand and seal the cap so that it doesn't spill out when the base is tilted to the side.

[Brian Agee]

On Sunday I timed the Run The Line Half Marathon in Texarkana Texas. This was going to be the first event where we setup all of the new bells and whistles. Prior to the race I did a lot of testing with the new wireless results kiosk setup and I found quite a few ways to improve how that works (see here). Everything with the results kiosk worked great and the Polaroid XS100 camcorders worked very well. We were able to do a lot of things that they've never had at their race. Setting up the exchange zone took more time than I had hoped so we didn't get some of the 'fancy' features set up at the finish line until about 1/4 of the finishers had passed through. We never got the 32" TV pointing towards the camera and that was one of the main things I was hoping to test out. 

We did have a couple of complications that I wanted to share so that you can learn from it. One of them was a surprise from the RD that caused us to figure out a creative solution and another was a mistake that I made when capturing the Chip Start times. With the mistake that I made, I've already altered the software so that hopefully you will not make this same mistake.

First, the surprise from the RD:  This event has a 2-person team relay event too. We were told there wouldn't be any more than 50 teams and that those participants bib numbers would start at 801.  We assumed that each team would get a single bib number, so we programmed 50 batons from 801 - 850 and mailed them to the RD. During packet pickup we learned that the previous timing company they used had them give each participant a unique bib number for some reason and that is what they did again this year. So now a baton programmed for bib #801 was given to a team wearing bib # 801 & 802,  baton #802 went to a team wearing bib # 803 & 804, baton #803 went to a team wearing bib # 805 & 806, ..... and so on. When we got the list of participants (which did not have team names, it just had individual names) we simply ceated a team name for them using the following format "Team [Last Name]/[Last Name]" and we assigned them a single bib number. So a team consisting of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen would be called "Team Jordan/Pippen". So as each team checked in we asked their name and looked to see which baton they were assigned to make sure they got the right one. In the business I think someone handed a couple of teams the wrong batons. Someone handed at least one team two batons without checking with us - so not only did that team not get the correct baton, but they were given two of them.

The second thing that happened was my mistake. This race wanted the results to be based on cumulative Chip time (so a chip start), and I didn't double check to make sure the Windows clock on the second computer that we used on the opposite side of the starting line was in sync with the Windows clock on our primary timing laptop on the other side of the starting line. I thought I had synced all of our laptops up less than two months ago, but I should have checked it anyways. It was nearly 1 minute faster than the main computer. So all of the 'Last Seen Date/Time'  (aka Chip Start times) captured by the second computer were seen as the newer times that should be kept when I used the "Import Chip Start times captured remotely" feature. I noticed something was funny when I glanced at the Chip Differential time but I was so busy trying to set the finish line and exchange zone read point up that I didn't have time to dig into it. It wasn't until after the awards ceremony that a couple of people informed me that their posted times were about a minute faster than they should have been. On the ride home I found the problem and I subtracted the difference from each person's Chip Start time (which basically made the results based on Gun Time since most people left the starting line in under one minute). When I got home I used the Mass Email feature to explain what happened (and that nobody's place was effected, just the displayed time) and I provided a link to the updated results. Luckily the only replies I got back were from people telling me how much they enjoyed the race this year. View the link above to see where I've enhanced the software to try and help prevent this in the future.

Oh, we did have one more thing we had to deal with. We were expecting 15 or less people to do the 7:30 early start - and to start it must be because you may not make the cutoff time otherwise. So I decided we'd do like we did at the last race that had a few waves of early starts - Just write down each person's bib number and then use a stopwatch to get the difference between their start and the 'real' start so that we can add that difference back in after each one finishes. We ended up having around 40 people start early, and that took a long time to adjust all of those records. Nearly all of the early start participants finished WELL before the cutoff time, many of them finished in the top half of the results. Two of the early start participants made it to the half way point before we coudl get there to set up the read point at the exchange zone. Not a big deal of course, just wish they would have started with everyone else because they put a rush on everything.

The race committee members were great to work with and the RD was very nice. There was just a learning curve for this event that bit us a couple of times. I felt disorganized the entire day, but at the end of the day the participants were happy.

Results: www.AgeeRaceTiming.com/Resources/2015RunTheLineResults.zip

Half Marathon - https://runsignup.com/Race/AR/Texarkana/RuntheLineHalfMarathon

Relay - https://runsignup.com/Race/TX/Texarkana/2015RuntheLineHalfMarathonRelay

Photos (must have had some setting on the camera not right because they are very bright): https://plus.google.com/photos/106228445469232052694/albums/6116661543793835425

Early Start Video: http://youtu.be/jhcUSSQn4Ew

Main Start Video: http://youtu.be/h9hmlMPTIqw

Exchange Zone: http://youtu.be/5tK7fl70XdQ

Finish Line (finishing times from 1:36 - 2:43): http://youtu.be/sdTY1Ph5nZ8

Finish Line (finishing times from 2:43 - 3:01): http://youtu.be/jTy6bc1gV2g

[Peak Performance Timing]

Brian,

What percentage of start reads did you get?

[Tim Irvine]

Brian, How many people did you have in your crew that day?

[Brian Agee]

I believe we missed 24 out of 423 finishers.

At the Sylamore 25K/50K race a couple of weeks ago we missed 22 out of 312 that crossed the starting line. I'm sure at least 10 of these were from people that wore their tags under their running tights dispite us telling them not to. We had ~10 misses on the finish line and all of them were athletes that wore the tags under their running tights (pressed up close to their skin).

25K Start: http://youtu.be/bL6TdmnmugQ

50K Start: http://youtu.be/szq8fIfClbM

We didn't ask for them to start so far back from the starting line. I'm not sure who's idea that was.

At the HogEye Marathon we'll probably put two FX9500's with 8 antennas each on each side of the starting line. Here is a short video I made about us preparing for this race: http://youtu.be/tiYg6bDAkV0

[Brian Agee]

It was myself, my head timer (Chris Cone) and his two boys that are 13 and 9 years old.  For the HogEye Marathon we'll have myself, Chris Cone and his boys, and another timing crew (Haydn and Hollie Huckabee).

[Peak Performance Timing]

Brian,

Thanks for the excellent write up and answers to all our questions! You amaze me. Anyway, I was also wondering if you program your tags for a race of this magnitude to be race specific......And along that train of thought, would it be possible for you to make the race number in the software selectable? What I mean is say you have a 5k /10k and want to program tags to be specific for each race, (let's say 5k is race 1 and 10k is race 2) .....then the next time you create a race the software will increment to race 3, so if you want race specific tags you have to reprogram tags in order to match race number in ART software. I would like a way to select the number assigned to the race to avoid reprogramming all the tags.....

[Ohio Race Day]

We timed a 5K over the weekend with 485 finishers.  The race actually had 713 registrants but many people didn't care about their time and turned in their shoe tag before the start.  The back up timing caught 550 people that came through the finish line.  I saw lots of shoes with no tags (mostly walkers) but people with bib numbers so that made keeping in sync with the back up timing near impossible.  People were just out to support the cause and the day had a "feel good" energy to it.  The photo below shows our chip start.  We were pressed to get to the start line on time since race day registration went right up to the last few minutes and the start line was about 1/8 mile from the finish.  The RD asked for a chip start a few days before the race and I told her that we'd do it.  I really didn't have time to set up anything more than what you see in the photo.  That's me with a laptop, Thinkify TR200, one antenna and a stop watch in hand.  Across the street is our TR290 bluetooth wireless reader/antenna.  We only grabbed about 1/2 of the participants in the chip start.  The road was too wide.  The set up was slightly sloppy.  The little Thinkify reader can't reach out that far and the wireless reader is linear polarized and wont catch a tag tucked in the laces like our mat antennas do.  Despite that the chip start solved a couple of questions about finish order.  One male runner passed another in the final kick at the finish.  He later questioned the results when he was shown to be behind the other guy.  It turned out the other guy had a 3.3 second chip differential to play with.  In other words the runner who kicked and beat the other to the line needed to be more than 3.3 seconds ahead of him to change the results.  He understood and thought it was fair.

I thought I'd share an experience in case it would benefit another ART user.

[mstompro]

I timed a race yesterday using my TR200 and an FX7500 with four antennas.  It was a much smaller race than I'm used to, but it was fun and a good training experience.  I arrived with plenty of time to set up and was happy with how everything was arranged at the finish.  I got 100% read rates with my setup.  The only issue of the day was a slight problem with starting the race/timer on the computer.  Since the start was at the same point as the finish I tasked my assistant with hitting the space bar on both computers to start the race.  I was at the start line making last minute announcements.  When we blew the start horn and the runners took off I see my assistant frantically waiving at me to come over.  Turns out neither computer would start start the clock when you pushed the space bar and I have no idea why.  On the "time race" screen one computer was on the "TV" tab and the other computer was on the "Athletes" tab.  I clicked on he "Guide" tab for both computers and then the software would let me start the clock.  After the race was over I tried to recreate the issue, but the computers would start the clock not matter what tab was showing.  Very bizarre and I'm not sure what happened.  Next time I will have a stop watch with me for backup.

[Ohio Race Day]

mstompro,

Make sure your cursor is blinking in the upper left "Bib #" box on the Clock Page.  Otherwise things don't work well on that screen.  I just tried it without the cursor blinking (click off the window in some area) and hit the space bar.  The clock did not start.  That's always a good thing to double check during a race.  See the photo below.

[Brian Agee]

That's right, the focus must be in the Bib # text box. Of course when you open the clock screen the focus is put there by default and if you click on anything on the click screen it puts the focus right back into the Bib # text box (at least it's supposed to, let me know if anything does not). If you open the race timing software and then open up Notepad, Word, or any other application the race timing software will not interfere with those programs. Of course any other textbox on the clock screen can handle all of the same actions that the Bib # text box handles. For example if you edit a finishing time you can still capture new times by pressing the spacebar if you're in the Hours, Minutes, Seconds, or Milliseconds text box.

I'm not sure what caused the Bib # text box to lose focus. If you had any other windows open and they had focus then the race timing software would not have received the key down event when the spacebar was pressed. If you can replicate the problem and find that there is a glitch in the software then let me know how to replicate it and I'll fix it. I haven't had any problems doing this though and I haven't seen anyone else report it though.

[Brian Agee]

This week I've had quiet a few emails from people saying they timed a race last weekend and received 100% read rates. There is one race in particular that I thought was interesting. The system was used at the World Orienteering Championships in Scotland and the customer sent me a quick email after it was over that simply said "100% read at the finish." and he included the following link (which unfortunately only works if you live in the UK). It appears the participants wore HuTags on the wrist.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b064zqf1/world-orienteering-championships-episode-2

[Brian Agee]

I'm a little behind on responding to emails and group posts, however I wanted to share an email I just received from someone that used the system for the first time.

I also want to share a quick video I recorded at a kids triathlon I timed this past weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1t8qabikZI

I was happy to be joined by another user of the system that wanted to get experience timing a race like this. Last year the race director of this event was so happy that she forced me to take more than twice our invoice amount. This year she simply handed us a blank check and said "you guys are awesome, I trust you, and y'all deserve whatever amount you write on it". :)

Here is the email I just received from someone that used the system for the first time recently (I received permission from him to post it here):

Hi Brian,

I am sending you an update about our first experience organizing a 5K for our charity and using your software.

My son and I set out to use your software with a bunch of parts and pieces we found around the house, begged for, and bargain shopped for. I was able to get two Alien readers and their antennas for $169 on eBay. We built the stands together and spent around $50 on the supplies for that. We bought 500 RFID tags $135. 

Our goal was to gain the attention of our other local race (also a fundraiser) so that we can gain their trust and "business" next year. It would save them money, and give them more features than what they previously received.

The chute was pretty wide. Wider than I had hoped for. About 10-12 feet. Runners ran down the middle most of the time.

We missed 9 runners out of 134. Of those 9 we found that some didn't wear the tag, some laced the tag down the middle of their laces, and some left it on their bib. We had THREE backups. We had a second computer with the manual timing person and numbers person, we had a video camera at the finish line and recording the clock on the second computer, and we had the finish line DSLR camera.

We took a little extra time in verifying results because we wanted to get it right the first time. We used the video camera to verify the winners times since we gave out some medals. Ultimately, even for a $3 medal, all people want is fairness.

We had two towns EMS crew on our course, our local PD following the runners on a quad, our local FD with spraying runners after the race because it was HOT and HUMID. We had four food trucks (The Food Truck 5K), a DJ, a beer garden, and an indoor vendor sale. That's where we posted our results and held registrations.

It was a lot to put together, but your help and software made one of the hardest things very easy.

I want to thank you for showing us how to do this through your videos. Your emails were also very very helpful. 

My son expressed an interest in doing this for extra cash next spring and summer since I told him he needed to find a summer job. He is technically inclined, and didn't like my ideas of landscaping for the local landscaping company.

I would like to purchase the software. The races we plan on timing won't be until next year. So I'm going to cobble together some money (I don't want to take it from the fundraiser this year) and purchase the software personally. I figure it's worth giving my son a chance at using this system (along with my help) to earn some summer money next year. 

THANK YOU!

-Willie Sanchez

TheFoodTruck5K.com (fundraiser for 5 NYC Marathon runners raising funds for Team for Kids)

[Ted Finch]

There is a Swedish TV recording on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89qvLRJFwAQ

Agee software and wrist band RFID tags were used as the back up timing. Orienteering uses a RFID system to record each control visitied. In this race a 'touch free' system was used.

[Ohio Race Day]

Very cool, Ted Finch.  I've never seen anything like that!

[Ted Finch]

     

Some photos of our first set up.
2 laptops 1 chip timing, 1 manual with canon SLR attached.
FX9500 reader with 4 Motorola polorised antenna 2 on each side on small photo stands. Cables were run over the finish frame
Digital clock in frame for photos.
We were able to set up a TV screen - which attracted great interest as results scroled round.
We used HuTags for 90 runners in the first wave of the Obstacle race. They all survived and were read at the finish.

Can someone suggest a good Canon setting - the camera did not catch close finishes so we got some shots without runners!!

[Lamont Hayes]

Here is a video of finishers from a cross country race. I seem to be missing a lot of tags this year. Can anyone spot a reason that this may be happening? One tag on each shoe, panels are 10 ft apart. A majority of misses are boys in tight finishes. My first thought is that they are running under the signal on one side and being blocked by runners on the other. I can't keep missing 20 out of 130 boys. Thoughts?
https://youtu.be/7F1T2BFYkHw

[Crystal McCullough]

Lamont, I didn't watch the entire video, but I'm curious what reader you are using. I find using the 7500 on finish lines over 9 feet wide can be reason for some misses (although they also tend to be related to user error, like shoving the tag through their laces). But usually the backup antennas will catch them because that set of antennae are closer together. Do you have those? I can't tell from the video.

Also, I notice the person in black shirt/shorts/shirt is blocking half of the entrance to the finish at least at the beginning of the video, so the finishers are forced to run really close to the far antenna rather than through the middle of the chute. I wonder if they are 1) too close to one antenna and going 'under' the circular signal and 2) are too far from the other side to be picked up because they are forced to one side. Any correlation to the missed tags?

I only once had someone that I suspect was blocked from being read; she had a person on either side of her and her feet were exactly blocked by the two people's feet on either side of her.

Crystal

[Lamont Hayes]

Using the 7500 with 3 antenna. One is right under the camera. I thought the same thing about our other coach. That is why I moved him to the other side to funnel them to the middle. Some tags were tucked but not all that were missed. I may have to look at a diff reader because I don't want to have a 6 foot wide finish for xc. Antenna are the recommended distance from the ground but it seems like runners are being missed by going under. I can't check the tags on 300+ runners every meet. Most high schoolers will not wear them perfectly so I may have to add mats and go with 2 mats and 2 panels.

[Ohio Race Day]

@Lamont,
The kid at 2:40 looks like he has his tag tucked under his laces.  That was the reason I bought mat antennas.  They seemed to solve that problem.  If you are using two side antennas, maybe slightly angle them downward.  I used to do that by extending the back leg of my tripods about 2".  Then have a few more antennas lining the chute for a second and third attempt.  A late read is better than no read.  Or go with tags on shorts.  Brian Agee has success with that, too.  We now put a single, vertical Smartrac Dogbone inlay on the back of bibs.  Our cross country meet on Tuesday was 100% with that set up.  Over 250 participants.  We had to tweak about 4 close finishes to reflect the actual finish.  The weekend before was set up the same way with only one missed read out of 195 in this race (see photo).  Two mat antennas and two side antennas pointing at runner's waist.

[Jon Beverley]

The other BIG difference between Ohio's setup and yours is tag size. Ohio uses DogBones not Aliens which have a much bigger range.

I use the DogBones on shoe laces a bit like the Agee tags. You can see an example here - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/331658501163

[rickcummins05]

Ohio,

are those your mats in the finish line photo?

is that one or two?

[Ohio Race Day]

@rickcummins05,

Yep.  Those are mine.  Two mats at ~ $850 each.  Here is the spec sheet from RFDesign.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4iwKZf81RxxbTNZSUhkZ2gtNS1FdGdFSFFQQ245dGZlMWtJ

Their website.

http://rfdesign.com.au/

[mstompro]

I timed a race this past weekend that consisted of a 5K and 10K events.  Everything went very well despite lots of race day registrations and a change of schedule 15 minutes before the race.  I did notice a couple issues that I will need to address in future races.  

First, here in AZ with such an intense sun, it's very hard to position the LED TV in a position where it visible.  I've tried putting it under my EZup in other races, which does seem to help, but it's still pretty hard to see.  I'm thinking I might have to invest in a race clock, which I'm not looking forward to.  

Secondly, I don't think the race volunteers did a great job of spreading the word on how to wear the RFID tags correctly.  I noticed a higher percentage of runners wearing them incorrectly before the race started, which definitely affected my read rate.  I had probably 5% of the finishers not register on the RFID system.  I didn't have time to chase them down to see how they were wearing their tags, but I think that was probably the major issue.  That is something I will have to address at my next race.

[Ohio Race Day]

Got any pics of your finish line set up?  People here can offer suggestions on lay out.

[mstompro]

I timed a 5K/10K race yesterday with over 250 runners.  Made two races in the system and started both at 8:00 AM.  I had a very good read rate at this race then I did at my last race.  At the last race I timed I where I had a pretty high 10% non-read rate, I think the issue was because the volunteers didn't do a very good job of explaining how to wear the tags.  The race I timed this weekend was one of my races so I was able to spend a lot more time training volunteers.  

At early packet pickup (the night before the race) I actually spoke to every runner that picked the their packet and showed them how to wear the tags correctly.  I think that made all the difference.  My system picked up every runner and really I only had ONE issue.  Since the race I timed yesterday was on Halloween, many of the runners were wearing costumes.  One guy came across the line wearing a cape with several running bibs attached to the back of his cape.  As soon as he crossed the line, his tag went off and then two other tags triggered also (bib 4 and bib 60).  Luckily I noticed and was able to make a note because those runners crossed the line a few minutes later.  I planned on running over to him to find out if he had additional tags on him, but he disappeared before I could find out.  I have to wonder if the tags were from a race that I had timed and he just kept the tags or maybe it was from inlay attached to the race bibs he was wearing on his cape.  

I have one more race this coming weekend and then I'll have a few months off.  I have quite a few races scheduled for the spring already and will be timing my first triathlon and first road bike race.  I'm planning on investing in a FX9500 reader, eight more antennas, an LED race clock, and a truss by then. 

[Lucijan Tominšek]

I have bad expirience using UPS. Read rate without using UPS was much higher (normaly 98%) that with UPS. Probably the solution is using smarth UPS but cost a bit more than the one I have bought.

[blueridgetiming]

Success story time!

This past weekend I timed a collegiate XC conference championship. The men had 122 finishers and the women had ~80. The course consisted of what was basically a 1 mile loop. With that in mind, I had a split station on the loop and then used a second reader at the finish line. 

The men passed through the split 4 times and the women 3. Looking at the number of finishers, there would have been a total of about 728 reads (some athletes dropped out so it could have been a bit higher). Of the possible 728 reads, the Motorola 9500 missed only 1 read total. The men were double  chipped on the bib and the women were single chipped. I thought I would get different rates, but it seems as if it didn't matter. 

At the finish I used a 7500. There I saw a lot more misses. In the mens race it only captured 80 of the 122, and the women's it only captured 43 of the 83. I've had similar disappointing results with the 7500, but at the same time I have also had great successes with it (at times).

In any event, I was then able to export an lif and provide coaches and athletes team places, individual places, and times at each split.  

Needless to say, AGEE Race Timing did a great job in an effort to produce the results that I was able to provide. Check them out: http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Blue_Ridge_Timing_-_wwwblueridgetimingcom/2015_ODAC_Cross_Country_Championships/index.html

Happy timing everyone.

[Chris Hubbard]

Brian sent me an update with new tie breaking options including the new NCAA rules.

We hosted the NCAA D2 XC Regional yesterday. We had several tie scores and every one of the ties was scored correctly! We had 281 women and 267 men, using double dogbone placed vertical on the front of the bibs wth a FX9500 (connected to two Motorola AN400 mounted on the sides, three Impinj Threshold antennas mounted overhead, and one Thinkify antenna 15 feet past the finish line) we had 100% read rates. We used a similar setup for the halfway splits.

NCAA rules state that any chip time(s) within a tenth of a second has to be reviewed based on the FAT camera system, we only had to flip three times based on the video review.

We had the results done within minutes which made the NCAA official and meet officials extremely happy. Based on our performance and professionalism, we were asked to reserve a spot on our calendar for next years NCAA regional.

Brian, if we every meet in person- first round is on me.

[blueridgetiming]

Chris, did you confirm all results with lynx or just those within 0.1?

[mstompro]

Chris, do you have any photos of your setup?  I'm curious of your truss setup - how you have your overhead antennas mounted.  I'm looking to invest in an overhead system, mostly because I want to time a bike race in the spring.  

[mstompro]

Yesterday I timed a 3.5 mile trail trace with a tad over 200 finishers.  Overall it was a success but there were a few minor hiccups.  First hiccup was I took one of my laptops up to the race day registration area to input registrations.  When I got up there my laptop was dead, which was odd since I knew I had fully charged it the night before.  It turns out the battery was malfunctioning, but the computer was working fine plugged in.  This has me thinking that I should probably get another computer to have available as a backup.  

The race started and everything went well after that, but my system did miss four runners.  I also noticed there was a slight delay (about two seconds) in picking up the overall winner.  I'm not sure if the FX7500 missed him all together and the TR backup reader picked him up further down the chute or what.  I did notice this delay a few other times during the race.  In terms of the four runners that the system missed, from what I could tell, the racers were wearing their tags correctly.  In reality four missed reads out of 200 runners isn't horrible, but ideally I'd prefer 100% read rates every time.  :)  

I find that once I notice the RFID computer misses a runner, my heart sinks, and I start focusing my attention on the backup computer.  I'm curious what the rest of you do when you notice your RFID computer misses a runner.  Do you try to fix it right away or just wait until the end and compare it to your backup results?

This is my last race for awhile and I'd like to upgrade my setup before the next set of races.  Right now I have five Thinkify antennas, FX7500, and Thinkify TR200 or TR265 (I'm not sure).  Ideally, I'd like to get an eight port FX9500 and have eight antennas, including overhead antennas.

[Chris Hubbard]

We actually do all of them. I still have a hand scoring writing down numbers.

-RFID Chip
-FAT camera
-DSLR camera
-front facing video
-hand scorer

Zero issues

[Chris Hubbard]

We had more girls collapse at the finish line than I've ever seen. Not past, right at the finish line. Made one hell of a mess!

[Ohio Race Day]

@ Chris,
Awesome stuff!  Don't you love it when the meet official or race director is a happy camper?  Thanks for being involved in the XC scoring correction.  That helps us all.

@mstompro,
We try to fix missed reads right away.   Otherwise that person lingers around, walks up to the finish line and gets read with a badly incorrect time.  So if I catch a missed tag, I manually time stamp them in and add the bib number.  I make a note on paper in case I need to adjust their time later.  But get them in as quick as possible.  Then after I correct their time (usually just a few seconds off) then I cross them off the list on the paper so I don't try to fix them again.  :)  It helps if you are not positioned right near the finish line.  I'm about 20-25' behind the finish line so this gives me a chance to react and catch the bib number.  Here is my buddy's set up for a small race the other day.  See how he is a little further back from the finish line?

[John Kirby]

When I miss a read/tag I hit the space bar to mark the place, also recorded with plunger on back up laptop, the bib number is recorded and I move on with the rest of the finishers. When there is a break in the action I will then edit entry with bib number and time adjustment if necessary. 

[Chris Hubbard]

Here's the complete race album, scroll through and you'll see plenty of pictures of our set-up.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125675683@N08/albums/72157661003674811/page1

[Chris Hubbard]

[rtspt.usa]

Nice clean set up.
Are you using any type of special video monitor?
The ones I have are a royal pain to see in daylight.

[Chris Hubbard]

No, it was overcast so they were easy to see. We have setting that seem to work better in daylight but in full sunlight they'd hard to see, plus I made a sunshade(s) that seems to help.

For 2016 we are buying a large digital scoreboard that we can program. 

[mstompro]

When I spec'd my setup I got two 25' LMR 400 cables for the far side antennas and 15' LMR 240 cables for the near side.  I recently orderd a POE injector to try out with my FX7500.  With that setup I should be able to get pretty far back from my setup. 

 

I'm really interested in a digitial race clock.  I get so many complaints from runners about how they can't see the LED TV display.  It's just way to bright here in AZ for that to be an effective display. 

[Chris Hubbard]

We have several sets of LMR-400 cables but only use them with our 30' wide finish line set-up. I'm willing to pay extra for a way to connect a Daktronics or some similar style display to the Agee software.

[Chris Hubbard]

Actually, if we could change background colors on the tv monitors that'd be a great start- say black background with orange/white/yellow/red numbers. Anything.

[blueridgetiming]

A direct connect via cat 5 and an lss file would be unbelievable. I'm reating results in lynx in order to get my names on the board, but it would be cool to see names pop up automatically.