Results Displays

[summo]

At last years O-ringen there was a separate computer monitor with a download box, that you could go up at anytime, put in your SI Card and it would bring up your results for the day. I think it also showed your position out of so many that had finished so far and / or maybe splits.

No printing, linked to the main download computer, no manpower, automatically updated.

[SYO Member]

Having done results production and pasting at the JK Relays this year, here are a few tips for Mharky when he does the same the next time the JK is in Scotland or near wherever he's residing.

When I help at events, I never mind if I am given a menial task needing little brain power so initially I thought my luck was in when I was given the job. However, the first thing to do is to confirm how many classes there are (13) and mentally divide up a JK's very wide boards to accommodate them (I hadn't got any class name labels prepared) having estimated the relative numbers per class.

Next you're given a quick briefing on using the software printing module and then you're away. You're told the software will only produce prints of relay leg results that have changed, not full pages that have already been printed.

Now the most important part which you mustn't get wrong, mixing the paste. If you've done wallpapering before, you're OK. If not, be careful. You put the water in the bucket first then stir in the dry paste flakes, not the other way round. If you do it wrong, you're scuppered. Incidentally, don't staple the results to the board as they break when being pulled out at some later time and bits left sticking out could cause nasty injuries to whoever next folds up the boards.

Now to pasting up the results. The first legs of the Mini-Relay are in within 10 minutes and their parents immediately want to see their results, so only one page to print and paste. Easy. But by the time their first 3rd leg runner comes in, there are still 1st and 2nd legs finishing meaning these will be printed again. And by this time other classes have their first legs coming in. Therefore there might now be 8 pages to paste up. It continues like this approximately every 15 minutes for 2 or 3 hours until you get to the maximum point when there are 30 odd pages to print and paste up. And as soon as you've pasted these up, you print the next batch from the laptop where fortunately you can see how many runners are remaining and when the end is in sight.

How do you deal with the fact that you need at least 3 hands? Simple. There's always somebody desperate to see their own result and will happily hold the bucket of paste for you so if possible, guess which class they're in and put it up last from your latest batch of prints.

How do you deal with the groups of middle aged men standing right next to the boards discussing their route choices or merely socialising? Just put the paste on the board surface adjacent to them in a more vigorous manner. They soon get out of the way. Fortunately for them and you (as your sleeves get covered in it), paste does wash out.

You might get someone who's leading their class after a leg who wants to remove a sheet that you're about to paste over. On reflection, unless on their way home they wanted to study who they'd beaten, I couldn't work out why anyone would want to do this for a relay. They'd still be leading when they saw the online results that night, unlike an Individual race.

So until monitors replace pasting boards, go for it Mharky, it's quite an interesting job.

[roadrunner]

At this year's O-Ringen, they displayed the top 50 or so on each course in real time; these were printed in a large font, so everyone could read them from a distance, and slipped into plastic wallets already fixed to the results boards. The full results (in normal font) were displayed separately in the evening at the event centre, and at the assembly area the following morning. This doesn't seem a bad compromise between making things readable and taking up too much space. There might have been a computer monitor as well, as summo says, but I didn't see it.

Also, it seemed that the results boards were re-used every O-Ringen - something that we could perhaps consider for the JK and BOC.

[mharky]

I thought about having a set of "BOF" results boards that could be used each year. Only problem wouldbe where to store them, and then getting them from that storage place to the BOC and JK organising teams...

[NeilC]

I thought about having a set of "BOF" results boards that could be used each year. Only problem wouldbe where to store them, and then getting them from that storage place to the BOC and JK organising teams...

Alex Ross was starting to work along these lines and much of the equipment used at BOC and JK this was left over from WC2005. Not sure where it was stored but Alex would transport it around in his van. Perhaps the future of this scheme was discussed at MEC this weekend?