Results display at big events

[andy]

Freefall wrote:

We (SOA) are trying to set up an evening workshop on Tuesday 6 March, likely venue Stirling.

We're actively considering electronic results display (no paper) and wireless networks for the arenas at this year's Croeso (http://www.croesomultiday.org.uk) so it would be good to know what came out of the workshop which might be of use to us ...

We didn't talk a huge amount about results boards (or equivalent), but what we did chat about was fairly inconclusive. It's initially costly for an event to put up banks of monitors where everyone can see what they want to see. It's hard to fit everyone onto a single screen thus scrolling screens need to happen, which means discussions like 'oh there I am, oh the screen has moved on, that's another few mins waiting for me to come back'. The other issue with screens is that it requires (yet more) technical expertise to set up and deal with any issues, whereas paper pasting anyone can do (and setting up a printer at the start of the day isn't an onerous task)
The above is definitely doable with a bit of thought and participant number crunching / technology buying but you're talking about £1000s to get enough kit to do it well.

We talked briefly about other solutions like a bank of self-administered laptops (have to wait, competition for laptop time) or a master station and screen, pop your SI card in and your class results pop up with your result highlighted or similar (issues with wanting to see other results).

Wireless networks aren't that hard to set up so I think any major event should aim to please the smartphone users and do this as a matter of course.

[Tatty]

I paid extra for a rolling screen at the BNC and didn't see anyone look at it! They were all aroubd the normal results boards Old habits are hard to change!!

[NeilC]

I paid extra for a rolling screen at the BNC and didn't see anyone look at it! They were all aroubd the normal results boards Old habits are hard to change!!

Where was it? I never saw it and there was no mention of it in the final details. That's the reason that I never looked at it.

[Tatty]

In the tent right next door to where you downloaded! You will of had to walk passed it to get to the results board!

[Knee Deep Mud!]

At Malvern today they had the scrolling results projected up onto a screen (indoors). Seemed to work quite well, though you'd have to replicate a few times for a bigger event, and I'm not sure a projector would necessarily work successfully outdoors in the brighter daylight.

[andy]

At Malvern today they had the scrolling results projected up onto a screen (indoors). Seemed to work quite well, though you'd have to replicate a few times for a bigger event, and I'm not sure a projector would necessarily work successfully outdoors in the brighter daylight.

In my experience it's one thing borrowing a projector (and screen?) for the day, it's another sourcing 5 or more and having the lighting conditions to successfully project. It's a really tough one.

[Zokko!]

The way to go has got to be WiFi / mobile devices surely!?

Has anyone experimented with WiFi to transmit live results? We often use a WiFi router to link laptops at events anyway, so perhaps it would be a small step to set up a local web server, which I assume is what is needed. Any pointers as to the steps required to make this work would be helpful.

I have XAMPP installed as I have used it to do local testing but I am unsure where to start in creating a website that could be accessed over the WiFi network. I would be using a feed from Autodownload to update the results as the event progressed, and I hope to allow suitable mobile devices to log onto the network and then view those results. My IT knowledge is not great but I can usually follow a set of instructions, if anyone is able to help!

[andy]

I have XAMPP installed as I have used it to do local testing but I am unsure where to start in creating a website that could be accessed over the WiFi network. I would be using a feed from Autodownload to update the results as the event progressed, and I hope to allow suitable mobile devices to log onto the network and then view those results. My IT knowledge is not great but I can usually follow a set of instructions, if anyone is able to help!

Getting the files in the right place is very easy, Autodownload has automatic html results production to a specific directory. If you just set it to produce every X seconds into the xampp public directory and it'll be instantly accessible. The setup I used at the St Andrews weekend recently did exactly this then I used an ftp script on a loop to upload to my web server, which was pretty easy.
It's the routing/server config for the wifi/lan network that's harder, and pretty high up my 'todo' list, I'll let you know once I've tried it...

[Zokko!]

Thanks Andy. I await your further updates . . .