PowerHouse Timing provides the timing systems used in the Head Of The Charles©,
America's Fall Rowing Regatta
Brighton, MA – October 19, 2002 – PowerHouse
Timing performs timing for 2002 Head Of The Charles.
Background
- 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
