PowerHouse Timing provides the timing systems used in the Head Of The Charles©, America's Fall Rowing Regatta, including:

• A State-Of-The-Art Network Operations Center
• Highly Scalable Website
• Arguably the most sophisticated timing system for a distance event

What is PowerHouse Timing?

The Head of the Charles Regatta© features a results system that updates the web within seconds of taking an actual time on the Charles River course in Boston. Competitors can see their finish results after having just finished the race. Spectators at the site or across the globe can see their children, friends, or countrymen as they are racing several thousand miles away. In 2001, the Head Of The Charles© website had over 7.5 million hits from over 30 countries on race weekend and in 2002 the site received 23 million hits from over 65 countries.

The heart of the system is 5 timing stations on the Charles River deployed at the start and finish, with split timing stations at Riverside Boat Club, Weld boathouse, and Cambridge Boat Club. At the start and finish of the race, we use a FinishLynx camera system that can identify a competitor's time to the thousandth of a second. These PC based workstations allow our timing personnel to position a mouse cursor over the bow of a boat on the race course, giving extremely accurate times. We also use a timing system from Tag Heuer at the start, finish, and our split timing stations. All times are verified against other timing systems and a backup manual timing system.

We proudly use the FinishLynx system and have adapted it in a novel way for Head races.  This camera has performed consistently beyond expectations.  We've also received strong customer support from FinishLynx both onsite during the race and leading up to the regatta.

Our timing systems rely on an advanced communications network that interlinks them with our network operations center. Once a time is recorded, it is instantly uploaded to our main servers. Within seconds, it is available for on-site announcers which broadcast the result to spectators. The same result is also published on the Head Of The Charles© website. This entire process is managed from our Network Operations Center.

When spectators visit the website, they can view a constantly updating schedule showing the current race and see the times of competitors in real-time. The pages show the current rank of all competitors and highlights the fastest racers as they are racing down the river.

Our website uses hosting services provided by Bizland using a load balanced architecture, ensuring the website is always available and lightning fast.

Interested in learning more about the Timings Systems? Please email us at info@PowerHouseTiming.com