Do you have an announcer at your race who'd like to have real-time access to the results to provide commentary about who just finished and who's leading in each category? Results posted live to Webscorer.com can have up to a 30 second delay which is too slow for real-time announcing.
The solution is to setup a separate device running Webscorer PRO in "Announcer View" - and hand this device to the race announcer. The announcer device gets the timing data directly from the device running Webscorer PRO via Bluetooth or via Webscorer.com within a fraction of a second of when the data is recorded on the timing device.
Advantages vs. using website live results:
- No internet connection required (sync via Bluetooth)
- Results are available in real time
- The data is local on the device, making navigation quicker
- Makes it practical to use a phone as the announcer device
On the main timing device:
1. Setup the race for timing as usual
2. On the "Race Start" panel, tap "Timing mode" option
3. Set "Use helper devices = On"
- Set timing device role as Master
- Set to sync data either via Bluetooth or via Webscorer.com
- The option whether to accept data from Helper does not matter for Announcer view
4. Tap "Post start list"
- Tap "Post the start list to Webscorer.com", or
- Tap "Share via Bluetooth"
On the announcer device:
1. Tap "Race with start list"
2. Tap "Download start list from Webscorer.com / My posted start lists", or
Tap "Download start list via Bluetooth"
3. Once the start list has been downloaded to the device
- The app will auto-navigate to the "Timing Mode" panel
- Set device role as Helper
- Select "Helper in Announcer view"
- The sync setting is already selected to match the Master
On both devices:
- Return to the "Race Start" panel
- On Master, tap "Activate master"
- On Helper, tap "Connect to master"
- On Master, tap "Start race on all devices"
- On Master, start timing the race as usual
- On Helper, wait for timing data to be synced from Master
Announcer view features
- The results will appear automatically (no user action required)
- The view will jump to the distance / category of the latest finisher
- The latest finisher is always highlighted with grey background
- Tap "Pause jump" to keep the view in the present distance / category
- Tap "Resume jump" to get back to jumping to show latest finisher
- Tap "Next distance" or "Next category" toolbar button to navigate between results views
- Tap "Results options" to restrict which results to show, e.g. only show "Overall results"
- Tap "Show difference" toolbar button to show time difference to leader vs. finish time
- In "Show difference" view, tap a racer to calculate the difference to that racer vs. leader
- Tap "Show time" to return to showing finish time
- Top 3 will always stay visible on top when scrolling down a long list of racers
- In a race with laps
- Tap "Next lap" / "Previous lap" to toggle through the laps
- Tap "LAP times" to show lap time for all racers
- Tap "SPLIT times" to return to showing cumulative race time
- Tap to highlight a racer, then tap "Next lap / Previous lap" to view that racers lap / split times
- When syncing data via Bluetooth
- Tap "Resync results" to re-download all timing data from Master
- You'd want to do this only if you believe the results are out of sync
Additional notes:
- The main timing device can be doing manual timing, or chip timing
- After the initial setup, the Announcer View feature does not affect main timing in any way
- Master / Helper timing mode cannot be mixed with other timing modes (bib sync or multi-device splits)
- You can have multiple Helper devices
- One Helper device can be set in Announcer View, and another to assist with timing
- Or you can have multiple Helper devices, all in Announcer View
- The Announcer View is locked to view results only
- The announcer device will not be able to mess up the results on the main timing device
- The announcer device is not able to post the results during the race
- After the race is finished, the results can be found by navigating to Home / Race archive / My results
- The Master can start, restart and finish the race on the Helper
- The Helper device must have the Webscorer app on the foreground for this to work
- When using just one Helper device
- The Helper can be switched off, or the app does not have to be on the foreground at all times
- Helper device can temporarily leave Bluetooth / WiFi range
- The Master will resend the data when the Helper app becomes available again
- When using multiple Helper devices
- Make sure all devices have the app on the foreground at all times
- Ensure that the devices do not go to sleep during the race
- Keep Helper devices within Bluetooth / WiFi range to maintain connectivity
We tested this feature at 3 of the MFG Cyclocross series races - the last event had 7 separate races with more than 1000 cyclists competing in 35 different categories. Series standings: https://www.webscorer.com/seriesresult?seriesid=365530. Photos form the last event attached.
