Race day moves quickly. A runner crosses the finish line, and within seconds they want to know their time, their place and how they stacked up against the competition. Behind that seemingly simple moment is a lot of technology and a lot of experience making sure it all works.
At Arsenal Events, we use ChronoTrack RFID timing technology to capture every runner’s finish. Each runner’s bib contains an RFID tag with a unique number. As runners cross the finish line, ChronoTrack timing equipment detects their timing tag and captures the exact moment they cross the finish line. No one has to stop, scan a bib or hand anything to a volunteer. The system simply records the runner as they pass.
Those tag reads are sent to our ChronoTrack controllers, which serve as the connection between the timing hardware and our timing computers. The controllers receive the signals from the antennas, turn them into usable tag reads, and send that information to our timing software. Think of them as the bridge between the runner crossing the line and the result appearing on the screen.
From there, our timing software takes over. It combines the tag read with the runner’s registration information to calculate finish times, determine overall and age-group places, and generate the awards and results for the race. Because everything is happening in real time, results can be available almost immediately after a runner crosses the finish line.
And we don’t stop at a website. We can provide real-time text message and email updates and display customized results panels on large-screen TVs at the event. Instead of printing stacks of paper and posting results after the race, runners can walk away from the finish line and see their results on screen.
Of course, technology is only part of the equation. Redundancy and experience matter. We use keypad entry as a manual backup and have processes in place to monitor the timing system throughout the race. Our goal is to make sure that when something unexpected happens, we have another way to capture the information and keep the results moving.
The technology may be sophisticated, but the goal is simple: fast, accurate results with as little waiting as possible.
Your runners are fast.
So are we.