MM88 Manual

TimeTronics Sports Timing Systems MeetManager Users Manual 2004 page 1
Table of contents
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................2
2 Concept .............................................................................................................................................................3
2.1 How does our MeetManagement system works? ..............................................................................................3
2.2 How is this MeetManagement manual written..................................................................................................3
3 Cable connection with MF or FT (optional)......................................................................................................4
3.1 Use of a Serial Connection with MacFinish II or MF III (optional)..................................................................4
3.2 Use of a Serial Connection with FieldTerminals (optional) ..............................................................................4
4 Installation of the Program ................................................................................................................................5
4.1 MeetManagement Software ..............................................................................................................................5
4.2 Installation of NAF (National Athletic Federation) athlete database file(s) ......................................................5
5 Producing a Meet File .......................................................................................................................................6
5.1 Starting up the Program.....................................................................................................................................6
5.2 Importing the NAF Athlete File (e.g. SHIN.1)..................................................................................................7
5.3 Importing Event Specifications .........................................................................................................................7
5.4 Entering general meet information and preferences ..........................................................................................8
5.4.1 General meet information..............................................................................................................................8
5.4.2 Preferences settings .......................................................................................................................................9
5.4.3 Serial port settings .........................................................................................................................................9
5.4.4 FieldTerminal settings ...................................................................................................................................9
5.5 Events..............................................................................................................................................................10
5.5.1 Adding new events ......................................................................................................................................10
5.5.2 List of events ...............................................................................................................................................12
5.6 Entering participants .......................................................................................................................................13
5.6.1 Adding athlete records to the athlete database (automatic) .........................................................................15
5.6.2 Finding athlete records in the athlete database ............................................................................................16
5.6.3 Entering heats and lanes (only for running events) .....................................................................................17
5.7 Getting results .................................................................................................................................................20
5.7.1 Results received from the MacFinish photo-finish system..........................................................................21
5.7.2 Results received from the FieldTerminal network ......................................................................................23
5.7.3 Manually entering performances .................................................................................................................24
5.7.4 Manually entering performances in chronological order.............................................................................25
5.7.5 Manually entering performances in best-first order ....................................................................................26
5.7.6 Printing results.............................................................................................................................................27
5.8 Combined events .............................................................................................................................................28
5.8.1 Note with reference to Youth Combined – events.......................................................................................31
5.9 Export of (text) results to (any) word-processor..............................................................................................31
5.10 Export to NAF .............................................................................................................................................31
5.11 Saving and opening a meet..........................................................................................................................31
5.12 Print results..................................................................................................................................................32
5.13 Press report..................................................................................................................................................32
5.14 Meet statistics ..............................................................................................................................................32
5.15 Deleting all events .......................................................................................................................................32
5.16 Deleting all performances............................................................................................................................33
6 Stadium scoreboard control.............................................................................................................................34
6.1 Setting the stadium control parameters ...........................................................................................................35
6.2 Buttons to control the stadium scoreboard live ...............................................................................................36
7 Manual (operator) control of the stadium scoreboard (data display)...............................................................37
7.1 Sending data to the scoreboard output table....................................................................................................37
7.2 Sending data from the scoreboard output table to the scoreboard ...................................................................37
8 Most occurring errors during the usage of the MM-program..........................................................................38
Software version MM88
1 INTRODUCTION
As an introduction we would like to enumerate the various advantages, which can be offered by using the ‘athletics
Meet Manager’.
When talking about the short-term advantages, we primarily think of:
1. Less work for the control of athlete identification through the use of the National Athletics Federation’s (NAF)
athlete file.
2. Less errors when processing the results thanks to the usage of the NAF-athlete file.
3. Elimination of double or triple times the same work when entering data through automatic transfer of MacFinish
II race results.
4. Making the sport more attractive by faster communication of information towards the public, speaker,
scoreboards, TV, photo-finish operators and judges.
5. A more fluent course of the meet by means of a systematic approach.
6. Recent and reliable ‘best-performances’ of athletes:
Top-ten or Top-fifty lists can quickly be published in athletic magazines. Clubs can apply this to compose the heats
faster and more efficiently and to electronically draw up Lexicaths for federations and/or teams.
7. Fast print-out of the result on paper which is even more neat, precise and uniform.
In this manual we take it for granted that you are well experienced with the usage and operation of a PC running
Windows 98 or Windows XP.
If you are not, we would recommend you to read through the computer manuals to get a grip of the matter and/or to
follow a computer course with your local computer dealer.
DO NOT FORGET THE FOLLOWING THINGS, TROUGHOUT THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE:
1) Set your computer to ‘decimal point’ under ‘Control Panels’ (-> numbers).
2) To edit (alter) a record (athlete, event,...), you can also double click the selected record.
3) To select numerous records (for example to delete), select the row of the first record, press the Shift-button of the
keyboard and keep it pressed. Then select the row of the last record by means of the mouse.
4) To make a new menu-selection, be sure that you first COMPLETE the current menu-function, by use the “OK”
button or the “Enter” key on the keyboard, sometimes even multiple times. In other words, you have to see the
screen, with the “TimeTronics” name (=logo), before you can make a new menu-selection.
Abbreviations
NAF: National Athletic Federation
FT: Field Terminal
MF: MacFinish
MM: MeetManager
PC: Personal Computer
NR: No Result
DIS: Disqualified
DNF: Did Not Finish
DNS: Did Not Start
DNP: Did Not Participate
EDM: Electronic Distance Measurement (electronic laser system)

2 CONCEPT
2.1 HOW DOES OUR MEETMANAGEMENT SYSTEM WORKS?
A) Installation of the system (only once)
1) Installation of the MeetManagement software on your MeetManager PC.

2) Installation of the photo-finish system (optional), Field Terminals (Optional), Laser Distance Measurement
system (EDM, = optional), WindSpeed (measurement = optional), FieldScoreboard (optional), and cable
connections between all systems.
3) Creating a database with the names, birth dates, category, gender, team or country name, athlete ID (bib
number) etc for all athletes. The best thing would be that you have this for ALL of your athletes of your
country, so that you can use this same datafile EACH (national) meet. As an alternative, you could make a new
file for each new meet, perhaps even with different ID-numbers. This would give you of course muc more
work, and most likely also more typing errors!
4) Creating a database with the names, specifications etc of ALL possible athletic indoor and outdoor events, for
each individual (age) category and gender. You can of course start with the standard file that we deliver with
this software, which is based on the IAAF list of athletic events and their specifications. Later you can modify
this datafile, with extra or modified (national) events, conform to your national athlete categories and the
national rules. The best thing would be that each national FEDERATION would create this file, verify it, and
distribute it to all possible users in its country. The same is true for the creation of a nationwide file with all
athlete information (see above NR 3).
B) Using the system, for each (national or international) meet
1) Entering meet specifications before the start of the meet (date and name of the meet, list of events, etc. = preparation).
2) Entering the competitors of the running events, at least fifteen minutes before the start of the running event or sooner.
3) Automatically receiving the results of running events from the photo-finish computer (MacFinish II or MacFinish III)
4) Entering the competitors of the field events, at least fifteen minutes before the start of each event, or sooner.
5) Automatically receiving the results of field events from the Field Terminal or manually entering these results immediately
after the event on the keyboard of the MM-computer.
6) Printing out a partial or complete result on paper during and/or after the meet.
7) Fast export of all performances on floppy disk and mailing to NAF, by regular post or email.
2.2 HOW IS THIS MEETMANAGEMENT MANUAL WRITTEN
We have written this users manual in a chronological order, in other words, we first describe what you have to do first,
and then what all the following things are that you should or could do. This because for this kind of program /
application it would clearly create a lot of problems if you first try to find a way to enter results, then type in different
event descriptions, without the availability of all athlete information, meet information, etc.
Therefore please take your time to read trough this complete manual, at least once, and later of course you can use all
different functions / buttons in a way and order that you need them.

3 CABLE CONNECTION WITH MF OR FT (OPTIONAL)
3.1 USE OF A SERIAL CONNECTION WITH MACFINISH II OR MF III (OPTIONAL)
Interface box
The computer covering the Meet Manager program is linked to the computer covering the MacFinish program by means
of a serial cable between both serial ports. See product numbers P244 and P245.
Should both computers be located too far from each other, then an extension lead may help you out:
3.2 USE OF A SERIAL CONNECTION WITH FIELDTERMINALS (OPTIONAL)
A serial cable (Product number P244) is used between the PC-serial port, and the FieldTerminal-interface box. The
connection between the FT interface and the different FT’s itself on the athletic track, can be done by separate
(MacFinish type, 5 pins) cable reels and one cable splitter for each FT, or “Fixed” cabling under the ground + the
MacFinish connection boxes and one cable for each FT.
A 12p connector from

the interface box to a SCSI or Ethernet
connection box OR reel Interface Box Example of a larger
on the track. configuration see next
The FieldTerminal is page
connected with a 5p 12pins
connector to a reel or
connection box.
WARNING: Be sure you have the required number of serial ports on your MeetManagement PC!! For example for the
connections to: Photofinish, Field Terminals, Stadium scoreboards, ...

4 INSTALLATION OF THE PROGRAM
4.1 MEETMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
The Meet Manager program for PC is delivered on CD. Insert the CD and open it onto your PC desktop. Locate the
“zipped” (=compressed) file with the latest MM software, and copy this file to your computer.
When you double-click this file, you start the de-compressing of the program, and it will ask you where you want to
store the program on your harddisk. The resulting file will be similar to;
When you open this folder you will find;
To start the program, double-click the icon:
4.2 INSTALLATION OF NAF (NATIONAL ATHLETIC FEDERATION) ATHLETE

DATABASE FILE(S)
You will need from the NAF a (.TXT-type) datafile, in the correct format, containing all athlete names etc, or you have
to type in later all these names, birth dates, categories, team names, etc yourself.
The example file “Athletes importfile” contains a demo ‘athletes file’, which is used in Belgium. If not already done,
copy this file onto your harddisk, for demo or test purposes.

5 PRODUCING A MEET FILE
5.1 STARTING UP THE PROGRAM
Double click the MM program icon to start up the Meet Manager program:
Click ‘New...’ in the following window that appears (to create a brand-new datafile).
You can now type in the name of the required data file (for example; “MMDatafile”) and save it by clicking ‘Save’:

Note:
Following window will automatically appear on your screen (in fact this is the main screen that should be visible on
your screen if you want to leave the program or execute whatever new MENU operation):
5.2 IMPORTING THE NAF ATHLETE FILE (E.G. SHIN.1)
To import the NAF athlete file, select ‘List sorted numerical’ or ‘List sorted alphabetic’ under the Athletes menu.
Subsequent window appears on your screen. You will notice that there is no athlete data available yet. Click the “Import
file” button to read the NAF athletes file.
You are asked whether or not you are sure to read the athletes file. Click ‘OK’. Locate and select the “Athletes
importfile”’ and click ‘Open’. Next you will receive the message that the computer is importing the athlete file. As soon
as the entire file is read, the following message appears; ‘All athletes have been read’.
5.3 IMPORTING EVENT SPECIFICATIONS
To import the file covering event specifications, select ‘Event specification s’ under the ‘Events’ menu. The password to
alter event specifications is secret; just click ‘OK’:

A window will appear, but no event specifications are available yet. Click on the ‘Import’ button, and then select the
event specifications file, for example “Eventspec020103”, and click ‘Open’:
After all events have been read, a window appears in which all possible events are shown. Use the scroll bar on the
right-hand side of the window to run through the file. Click ‘OK’ to leave this window.
5.4 ENTERING GENERAL MEET INFORMATION AND PREFERENCES
You can now start entering your first meet. Under the ‘General’ menu, select ‘Meet information and Settings’.
5.4.1 General meet information
Here you fill in all indispensable data such as date, choose between ‘indoor’ or ‘outdoor’, type the location or place,
name of event, extra info, meet code (use NAF coding!!).
The meet number (code with one or two characters plus a number (e.g.: ‘I12’)) is predetermined by the NAF, meaning
that you cannot fill in a random number on your own initiative!!

5.4.2 Preferences settings
Here you choose which are the preferential settings for your timing method for all races; electronic (photofinish) timing
or manual timing. Furthermore you can choose a specific location for your import and export files (for event participants
and results, see later). You can also select if you have unique numbers in your athlete importfile (select “Day”) or
overlapping number for each category/gender (select ”Year”). If you select “Year” then the program will make all
overlapping athlete-ID’s unique, by adding a “ten-thousand” figure in front of the athlete-ID (1...9999), for example the
male ‘Junior’ athlete 1972 will become ID 31972 and the female ‘Junior’ athlete 1972 will become ID 81972. Most
customers will always use “Day”.
5.4.3 Serial port settings
Please pay attention: the selected port(s) should be available for the program! Be aware of internal modems which could
also occupy some serial port(s) ! You will get an alarm if the selected serial port is not available.
The first two serial ports (MacFinish and FieldTerminal ports)) are used to (optionally) input race and/or field results.
The bottom three serial ports (Race results, Field results, and Stadium scoreboard) are used to (optionally) live output
the results.
5.4.4 FieldTerminal settings
In this window you can modify the type of (optional) fieldscoreboard and/or laser-measurement device that you may
have connected to one or more FieldTerminal(s).

5.5 EVENTS
5.5.1 Adding new events
The next step is to allot events to our meet. Select ‘list of all events’ under the ‘Events’ menu:
Subsequent window appears on your screen. You will notice that there are no events available yet. Click the button with
the “empty page” icon to create a new event..

In fact, you should first complete the data in the green frame. After having completed a field, go to the next one via the
‘Return’ key, ‘Tab’ key or by means of the mouse. Do not use the ‘Enter’ key; the entire window will then be closed
(after having saved the data).
• Event number: Is automatically increased by one unit at each new event.

• Time scheduled: (Optional) To be manually entered. Two characters (hour) + two characters (min).
• Category: Click the empty field next to ‘category’. Subsequently the following frame appears in which you
click the correct category for that event: (for example ‘Jun’ for Juniors):

Automatically the selected category appears in the -so far- empty field.
• Gender: Click the correct selection button, “Men” or “Women”.
• Event name: Click ‘Choose event’. Next, a window appears rendering a global survey of all the events, which
are eligible for the selected category. Now you should only click the required event (click only once!!):
Click the ‘OK’ button to enforce your selection. Automatically your selection appears in the proceeding window next to
‘Choose event’.
• Extra info: (Optional) here you can complete the necessary extra EVENT-information that you would like to be
printed on paper, for example “Semi-final”, “B-final”,...
• Record info: (Optional) will be printed in the header of each page.
• Event title: (Optional) here you can change the title of the event, as you want the event to appear on the stadium
scoreboard, on paper, etc.
Next, click the ‘Save’ button (floppy disk icon) or the ‘Enter’-key on your keyboard.
Again the ‘Information and Control’ window appears, but the event number is automatically increased by one unit.
Repeat the same working method for ALL of the events of your athletic meet.
To end the entering of events, click the ‘do not save’ button (crossed-out floppy disk icon).
5.5.2 List of events
When selecting ‘list of events’ under the ‘Events’ menu, a window covering all events of that meet will appear on your
screen. An example:

Note: In case of combined events, the various events are coloured green. The combined event itself is coloured red.
You can further sort this list according to event number, hour, and event name or according to category. To do so, click
the appropriate arrows just underneath the list:
It is also possible to alter this list, delete events, and add events or to print the list. To do so, click the appropriate buttons
underneath the window.
Erase all selected events
Add event save
change print
To modify an event, click the event in question once and press the ‘Change’ button. You will return to the information
and control window from which you can further introduce changes to the event in question. A different way is to double
click the event record. That way, you can return to the information and control window as well.
5.6 ENTERING PARTICIPANTS
Our list of events is ready. A following and logical step is adding participants to these events. Suppose we want to enter
the participants of event nr. 23; the 800m ‘B-final’ for junior men. We double-click this event in the list of events. Next
we enter the information and control window of this event. Click ‘Participants ...’:
Subsequent window appear in which the absence of competitors in this event is mentioned:

Usage: How to use the athlete-ID if you have selected Year type of athlete numbers.
a) For all athletes participating in their own category:

Just type the chest number 0001...9999. The program itself will automatically add the ten-thousands.
Example;
10356
chest number 0001 -> 9999
10.000 -> men ‘benjamins, pupils,miniemen’

20.000 -> men ‘cadets,schol ‘
30.000 -> men ‘juniors, seniors and veterans’
60.000 -> women ‘benjamins, pupils,miniemen’
70.000 -> women ‘cadets,schol ‘
80.000 -> women ‘juniors, seniors and veterans’
b) For a competitor from a different category (for example a cadet running with the juniors/seniors/masters):
Fill in the complete number (including the ten-thousands).
TIP: After having typed the chest number, first press the ‘Return’ or the ‘Tab’ key. That way, you can first check the
athlete’s name or club and if necessary (in case of an erroneously completed number) again enter the correct chest
number. If the athletes’ name and team data are correct, you can finish the participant input (= save) by pressing the
‘Enter’ key and proceed with the next participant registration.
To end the input of participants, click the ‘do not save’ button (crossed-out floppy disk icon).

5.6.1 Adding athlete records to the athlete database (automatic)
When entering a new participant, you sometimes type in an erroneous or non-existing athlete number. Then you will get
the following message: ‘This athlete-ID does not exist. Create new athlete record?’
If you persist to enter this athlete-ID, click the ‘OK’ button (or hit the ‘Enter’ key on the keyboard). You can enter this
athlete’s data in the next window. Then click the ‘save’ button.

5.6.2 Finding athlete records in the athlete database
When entering the participants, you can search for an athlete in the NAF athlete file. Suppose you are not sure of the ID-
number of athlete “WUYTS KAREL”. Click the ‘Find’ button:
A window appears in which you enter the name of the team or country (4 characters) and the name of the athlete (or part
of it). Then click the ‘Find’ button:
You will obtain a list covering all possible athletes, which can meet this description:
Select the athlete by clicking its record ONCE and by pressing the ‘OK’ button. The complete athlete data will be filled
in, and you can now modify the other data of the participants record;
- heat nr + lane/hip nr. for the running events
- order nr. for the field events.

5.6.3 Entering heats and lanes (only for running events)
This can be done very quickly and simply via practical +1 and -1 buttons to determine each athlete’s heat and lane.
Each time, the lane number is automatically increased so that (apart from having to click the ‘heat +1’ button once in a
while) you only need to type in the athletes’ chest numbers and press the ‘Return’ (control correct name) + ‘Enter’
buttons.
A change in the heat composition (even at the very last moment) must always and immediately be entered in the Meet-
Management computer.
After having entered all competitors, heats and lanes for the event in question, click the ‘Save’ button:
You will get for example the following survey:
You can always print this survey per event and pass it along with the officials at the track. Please verify your printer’s
adjustments so that this survey can be printed on one page. If you return to the ‘Control and information window’ (click
OK), the blue frame will tell you more about this event in question.
In the example below, the blue frame informs you that

- there is one heat of the 100 m covering a total of 8 athletes
- there will be wind speed measurement
- and the operator has already ‘checked’ (homologated) the results (at 19h34).
- Therefore the printout is ‘OK’ which also means that it is already printed.
For example for javelin, the weight of the javelin for that category is mentioned as well.

Now follow the same procedure for all other events.
TIP: We would also like to mention that in the information and control window, you can rapidly switch to the data of
another event by clicking subsequent buttons:
Show last event
Show 1rst event

Show previous event Show following event
Similarly, for many other screens (for example the participants entry), you can switch to the next, previous, first or last
participant with similar buttons.
You will also notice that the lay-out of the event surveys will differ from event to event.

Above you can see an example of a ‘Triple jump’ event and here below an example of ‘High jump’.
The various pages can and should be printed and handed over to the officials (sometimes in duplicate; 1x for the
performance and 1x for the wind speed measurement). In turn the officials can complete the good and bad attempts on
this sheet and return it to the meet administration after the event, or live type the results into the FieldTerminal(s).

5.7 GETTING RESULTS
You can get the results into the MM-program;

- Automatic, for the race events; by a serial link with the MacFinish photofinish system.
- Automatic, for the field events; by a serial link with the FieldTerminal network.
- Manual, for any event; by typing the results from the keyboard.
Under ‘results’ in your list of events, you will encounter 4 possible terms for the ‘status’ of each event;
‘Waiting’ means that the list of competitors in question has been (entirely or not) entered, but that no results are
available yet. From the moment that one or more heats have been entered, these can be automatically
evoked by the photo-finish program.
‘Available’ means that all results of this event were automatically send by the MacFinish photo-finish system or a
FieldTerminal for further control in the meet management program.
‘Checked’ means that you have completely checked the result of this event. To attach this status to the event,
click the ‘checked’ button in the ‘information and control’ window.
‘Correction’ is used if:

- The result of a race event has just been corrected and sends again by the photo-finish operator.
You will see this status automatically.
- You were notified that there was an error in the event results, or somebody was disqualified. Click
the button
’Correction’ in the information and control window of that particular event and correct the results.
In both cases, verify these new results, click the ‘Checked’ button again, and print the corrected
results. Note that a future printout with a word-processor will indicate that the results were corrected.

5.7.1 Results received from the MacFinish photo-finish system
As soon as a serial connection with the MacFinish photo-finish is accomplished, processed results can easily be sent
from the photo-finish program to the meet management program. Please read the MacFinish users manual for details of
this function. Of course, the photo-finish operator needs to have the (optional) keycode (license-code) to use such a
serial connection between both systems.
If the photo-finish operator conveys the results of the last heat of a race event to the meet management system, the MM
operator will notice the ‘available’ status under ‘results’ in the ‘list of events’ window. To take a look at these results,
double click the event in question, which is marked ‘available’. Now press the ‘Results’ button in the information and
control window. Immediately the list of performances (and possible wind speed measurement) appears for that event,
recorded by the photo-finish operator. Look at the example below, recorded during an outdoor meet in Belgium.
In this phase, obviously only major errors can be traced, such as for example an athlete who was registered, yet was not
given any result via the photo-finish. This may happen if the athlete is situated outside the visible picture area and is
‘forgotten’ because of that. The actual, detailed control should be done later by the main judge by means of a
comparison between the results on the event sheets and the official sheet of the photo-finish.

What if the program renders multiple short beep tones (alarm)?

This signifies that an incompatibility has occurred during the automatic processing of the MacFinish results. In other
words, the data have not been processed correctly. (Possible causes: MacFinish passes a lane, which has not been
entered / MacFinish renders a time for an athlete who has not been registered /MacFinish renders a time for an athlete
who has been registered twice).
If you get an alarm, or if the status of the running event remains “Waiting” even long after the photo-finish operator has
transmitted all heat results for that event, select ‘List of MF results’ under the ‘MacFinish’ menu:
A following window appears in which you can verify whether the photo-finish program has correctly processed a certain
event or not:
You notice that one event (3,1,1) could not be processed because of an error. Now double click this event. A following
window appears covering the MacFinish timing results for that specific event:

You notice that there is an error: there were 9 participants entered for that event,but place 9 = lane 5 = athlete 216 is in
the list, yet without a time result! This is only an example, other kind of (operator) errors are also possible!
1) You can ask the photo-finish operator to correct the error(s) and to send the adapted results again. Then the
status of this race event becomes ‘available’.
2) You can ask for the results of this heat and personally enter the results (Place and time), as described later in
chapter 5.7.2.
If you approve of this result, put the event into status ‘checked’ in the information and control window, and proceed as
usual.
5.7.2 Results received from the FieldTerminal network
When you have one or more FieldTerminals connected to your MM-computer, (see 3.b) you will LIVE receive all the
results from these terminals as soon as they are typed on the FT-numerical keypad, or measured by means of the
optional EDM laser distance measurement equipment. Such a laser system can easily be connected to the rear of each
corresponding FT, just like you can connect an optional WindSpeed (long- or triple-jump), or a rotating or fixed
FieldScoreboard (numerical or graphical).
Please read the ‘FieldTerminal’ users manual for details of the use and functions of the FieldTerminal.
Each FieldTerminal has a ‘NODE-NUMBER’, to identify them from the others on the same network. This number can
easily be changed by the FT-keyboard if necessary.
In de brown rectangle of the ‘Information and control’ window, you will see the FT-number that is used (as soon as the
FieldTerminal is started) for that event.
Further you should click on the check box next to “WindSpeed” if you have connected a TimeTronics WindSpeed
equipment to the FT (for long or triple jump), and optionally click on the check box next to “Lasermeas.” if you have
connected an EDM laser distance/height measurement equipment to the FT (for jumping or throwing events).
You further should enter the starting height in case it is a high jump or pole vault event, the height increment(s), and (for
all kind of events), the maximum number of attempts.
AFTER you have entered all these required settings, and the official(s) are ready to start working with their
FieldTerminal, go to the ‘Information and control’ window of the corresponding event, and press the button ‘Start
FieldTerminal’.

A window will appear and ask you which terminal number (1...9) you would like to use for that event. Type it in and
press the ‘OK’ button. Also the line number is asked on which you would like to see the results on the (optional)
stadium scoreboard (see chapter 6). In the ‘List of events...’ window you will be able to see in a red color the list of
terminal number(s), and scoreboard line numbers for all events in which you are using a FieldTerminal.
When you need to modify a setting for the FieldTerminal, or when the event is completed, you can use the button ’Stop
FieldTerminal’ to (temporary) abort the connection with THAT terminal. The FT-operator will be informed of that fact
by a message on his LCD-display. The other terminals can continue their activity.
WARNING: Do not open the ‘Participants’ or ‘Results’ list window of an event, which is being used by a FT, as this
could give a conflict with the data which is live received from the FT. If you would try this, the system will show you an
alert window, mentioning that you should close the window, or abort the FT connection.
5.7.3 Manually entering performances
This is done for any event, in case the optional serial connection (also called a ‘link’) with the MacFinish photo-finish or
with the ‘FieldTerminals’ is not available, or when a result has to be modified (e.g. disqualification of participant) or
corrected.
Suppose we have just received on paper the results from the triple jump event for men seniors. To edit or modify the
results, double click this event in the list of events. Click now the ‘Results’ button in the information and control
window:

If you have no FieldTerminal, or did not receive the results from the FieldTerminal, you can enter the results from the
keyboard of the MM-computer. We will describe here below two methods, which can be used. The first is based on the
fact that you have already entered the participants, and therefore only have to type the results, in the order of the
participant list, which was printed and given to the officials in the field.
The second method will explain how you first erase all participants of that event (IF you have typed them before..), and
then type the different athlete-IDs together with their result, in the order of best-first. Both methods have advantages,
and you can choose between them as you please.
During the phase that you will be entering results by the keyboard, we would like to advise you strongly to have
at least TWO persons for this job.
- One person to READ the result from the officials’ paper(s).
- One person to TYPE the result into the MM program.
This way you can do this job faster, with LESS RISK for errors. Also with two persons it is much faster and safer
to read and verify all results one more time, after you have entered them by the keyboard. This way an error can
be notified faster, without any operational implications, and corrected immediately before they are conveyed to
the press, television, national federation, IAAF,......
5.7.4 Manually entering performances in chronological order
A first method to fill in performances covers a chronological follow-up of the competitors. We take it for granted that
you have entered the competitors to be printed for the officials on the track.
To enter each athlete’s performance, double click the first athlete. In subsequent window, you can manually enter the
performance of that athlete and (optionally) award the athlete a place.
For each following athlete, click the ‘right arrow’ (=’next’) button:

First the entered performance is saved and then the next record is shown. After you have entered the result for the last
record, click the save-button (diskette icon).
NOTE: The lay-out of this window depends on the type of event!
5.7.5 Manually entering performances in best-first order
A second way to manually fill in performances (for example very handy for a race event including a wind measurement)
is: First delete all athletes by selecting all participants, and using the ‘Delete selection’ button, then click ‘New results’
and enter the result of the wind measurement for that particular heat:
Click ‘OK’. Subsequently you only need to fill in the chest number (ID) of each athlete and his / her performance. The
computer automatically registers for each participant the wind speed and the places.
When there is an ‘E’ next to “Electronically / manually”, this means that there was a default electronic timing. This
means that the times will be rendered up to the hundredths. When there is no ‘E’, this means that you can give in times
including hundredths of a second, yet that in your list of performances these times will be displayed to one tenth of a
second. Check this before you validate a race event with the ‘Checked’ button!
How to type the Performance (next to best performance)?

For example: for
9.05 sec. you type in: 9.05
1’03.65” 63.65 or 103.65
1024 pt 1024
2:12.24 212.24
Or click the buttons: ‘did not start’, ‘did not finish’, ‘disqualified’ or ‘no performance’.
How to type the wind speed measurement?

+1.3 becomes 1.3
-0.9 becomes -0.9
Typing in of valid performance and wind speed

Only if better performances have been registered, but whereby the performance could not be officially homologated as
being a record because the wind velocity (to the benefit of the athlete) exceeded 2 meters per second (at long jump and
triple jump).
Entering of electronic (E) or manual (M) time registration

Use these registrations in case you have respectively used a photo-finish Electronic timing or Manual timing.
Typing in of extra information

For example:
• Regional or national record: RR or NR
• Regional champion: RC
5.7.6 Printing results
If you have entered or received ALL results of an event and when you have put the event on ‘checked’, you can print
these results by clicking the button ‘Print result of this event’.
If you wish to print out a result of this category, click ‘Print result of this category’. This way all results (of all the
events) of this category (e.g. men juniors) are printed out. This may come in handy for a combined event if you require a
separate print-out hereof.

Next a window appears in which you can determine the printing adjustments:
Should you not have entered the specifications of the new event, following message will appear: ‘You should first enter
the most important event data such as category, sex and name of the event, before you can execute this command!’
This is the case for most buttons in this window.
5.8 COMBINED EVENTS
When you have entered a combined event in the list of events (in this example event 23= Pentathlon for men seniors),
you will notice that the sequence of the 5 individual events (24...28) was automatically respected and integrated:
The combined event is shown in red color, and its sub-events are indicated in green.
In the following example, we have registered 6 competitors before the start of the combined event. When clicking
‘Participants’ in your information and control window, you will obtain the following window:

Click ‘OK’ and go to the information and control window of the first event of the combined event (in this example it
will be the 60m hurdles = event 24). A short while before the start of the event, click the button ‘Copy remaining
participants’ in the 60m hurdles race window (event 24):
That way, all 6 competitors that are still competing in the combined event (of course for the first event, all of them) are
automatically transferred to this event (60mH). As such, you do not need to type in the competitors over and over again
for each individual event.
When clicking ‘Participants’, you will obtain a survey of the competitors to the first event:
Next, enter the division of heats and lanes for each athlete. See 5.6.3.: ‘Entering of heats and lanes’.
You now wait for the race results, which you can automatically receive by cable from the MacFinish photo-finish, or
have to type from your keyboard.
Then we would like to know the result in points for this event (important and required for any combined event!). These
points are CALCULATED by means of coefficients as mentioned in the blue frame within this information and control
window.
Now we click the ‘(Re) Calculate points of this event’ button:
Next click the ‘Results’ button, and in your list of performances under ‘Extra information’, you notice the award of
points for each athlete in accordance with the result. The example below shows the points for a 400m race;

Should you require an intermediate result of the combined event, click ‘Recalculate points’ in the information and
control window of the combined event.
Following message COULD appear IF one or more athletes did not participate OR if you have not entered a result for
these competitor(s): ‘Pay attention: not all athletes have participated in all events! You should personally remove these
athletes from the result.’
CHECK this, and if necessary, remove the athlete(s) who did not start their race, or did
not participate for a field event, from the participant list of the combined event!
For the next event (in our example 25= long jump) click ‘Copy remaining competitors’ in the information and control
window of that event. The remaining competitors are automatically transferred to the long jump event.
Check this by clicking ‘Participants’, and later type the results of javelin, or receive them automatically from a
FieldTerminal.
Again we would like to know the score in points. Points are calculated on the best performance. If this performance was
realized with a tail wind exceeding 2m/s (outdoor event of course), this performance will still be conveyed into a valid
amount of points, yet only the valid performance is eligible for a possible (national or international) record in the long
jump event.
Click ’Recalculate points’ in the information and control window OF LONG JUMP and subsequently click ‘Results’.
Under ‘Extra info’ in the list of results you will obtain the award of points for this event.
Via ‘Recalculate points’ and ‘Results’ in the combined events information and control window, we can get a survey of
the intermediate result after two or more events. It is always possible that some athletes were not able to add points to
their total because they did not manage to score points for the long jump or any other event.
Click ‘OK’. In the blue frame within the ‘Information and control window’ of the combined event you will notice that
an intermediate result was calculated after two events.
Follow the same procedure for all further events.

5.8.1 Note with reference to Youth Combined – events
For youth combined-events, the organizers can freely compose the combined-events themselves. Therefore the program
is not capable of doing this automatically. The MM program however will generate the correct amount of events, yet for
these events you will have to make the correct choice of events by yourself. For this, use the ‘Choose event’ button.
5.9 EXPORT OF (TEXT) RESULTS TO (ANY) WORD-PROCESSOR
As soon as an event has been given the ‘Checked’ status (click ‘ Checked’ in the information and control window), the
results of this event will be automatically sent to a result text file, named: WPdoc.txt.
The result text file WPdoc can be opened or imported via a random text-processing program. In the text-processing
program you can provide the results with a nice lay-out and with a header or footer. Use the ‘tab’ fuction of your Word
processor to neatly sort everything in columns.
Reading the ‘WPdoc’ file in a text processor can be done during or after a meet, and as many times as you like. After
four or five ‘checked’ events for example, you can return to your text-processing program, read the new results (from
the ‘WPdoc’ file on your harddisk) and print out a few pages of the final result.
It is very important to press the button ‘Delete WPdoc’ immediately after having switched back to the MM program.
This is to avoid that, when reading Wpdoc later again, the old data would turn up in your text processor for the second
time.
5.10 EXPORT TO NAF
To produce a file on floppy disk for the NAF, on which all results of your meet are covered, all events should be marked
‘checked’ in the ‘Results’ column of the list of events.
To export all (text-formatted) data, select ‘Export Results to TXT file’ under the File menu. For some countries the MM-
program also includes a menu function to export binary coded data, with more details.
- ‘Export Results to TXT file’ now automatically makes a ‘.TXT’ type of file on your harddisk.
- This file is called: ‘WPdoc’.
You can use this (text) file also to make an HTML-file, to put the results on the Internet, on your website.
- Now copy this file on a DOS formatted floppy and have it sent to the NAF. Please use a special extra protecting
envelope, or even easier, email the file to the NAF.
5.11 SAVING AND OPENING A MEET
After the meet, create a folder on your harddisk and name it ‘Archive Meet Files’. Then save the entire meet data in this
folder.
To do so, select ‘Save meet’ under the File menu. Select the folder ‘Archive meet files), give the meet a name and click
‘Save’:
Should you wish to open an old meet again (in above example the evening meet 06 July 1997), select ‘Open meet’ under
the File menu, and select the corresponding meet file: PAY ATTENTION! The program will first give a warning
because the program will DELETE the actual data in memory (events & performances), because only one meet at a
time can be loaded into memory!
Should you no longer need the actual data, you can have them erased out. In that case, click ‘OK’. In your file window
box, now select the meet that you wish to load.
5.12 PRINT RESULTS
Via ‘Print result’ under your File menu, you can easily print out the entire result of the meet.
5.13 PRESS REPORT
Via ‘Press Report’ under the File menu you also print out the result of the meet, be it only for the first three places of
each event! = Podium places or medals report.
5.14 MEET STATISTICS
Via ‘Meet Statistics’ under the ‘General’ menu, you will get a handy survey of the amount of events, amount of
performances, amount of athletes and amount of clubs having participated in the meet.
That way you can also verify how many seniors, juniors and veterans participated per club.
5.15 DELETING ALL EVENTS
Under the ‘General’ menu, select ‘Erase all events’:

Do this each time you want to prepare a new meet. An alert window with the following message appears on your screen:
‘Are you sure you want to delete all events?’ Verify that you first have saved your meet data (see chapter 5.11). If you
do want to delete the events and matching performances, click ‘OK’ in the alert window. If you click ‘Cancel’, nothing
will be erased; see picture.
NOTE: You now dispose of a data file in which there are no more events or performances. Still the complete, most
recent athlete file (name, chest number, club, etc.) and the file covering all possible athletic events, which can be
organized (event specifications) according to the NAF regulations, remain saved in the current datafile.
That is why we again start entering the general meet specifications, followed by the events, which are being held on that
day.
The working method that you must follow is the working method as described starting in chapter 5.4.
5.16 DELETING ALL PERFORMANCES
Only to be executed in case you only wish to delete all performances. The list of events remains saved. For example:
you still dispose of the meet file of last year covering the same events as scheduled for this year.
Fully in accordance with ‘Deleting all events’ a warning is given; ‘Are you sure you want to delete all performances?’
Click the ‘OK’ or ‘Cancel’ button.

6 STADIUM SCOREBOARD CONTROL
First of all, we would like to explain what you could show on the stadium scoreboard with our MM-program. We have
created a NEW and UNIQUE concept, where it is possible to split up a stadium TEXT scoreboard into two parts. The
top part we will name the DATA display, where the bottom part we will call the FIELD display.
On the picture below you see an example, where the data-display is shown in blue color, and the field-display is shown
in green color.
The idea is that the data-display can be used for an AUTOMATIC or MANUAL display of participants and/or results of
ANY event, where the field display can be used for a live display of the actual participant and his live result for one or
more field events. In other words, the field display area can be a (temporary) replacement for motorized rotating field-
scoreboard(s).
If you would like to synchronize the display of results on the data-display with for example a podium/medals ceremony,
you put the data-display in manual mode and you will need an operator to send the data at the desired moment. In
automatic mode, the data-display will act as a sort of ‘slide-show’, without the need of an operator, which will
CONTINOUSLY show all data. Each screen will be shown during a presettable period, and the most recent data will be
shown with the highest priority.
The field display contains all possible interesting live data of the field-events, including attempt number, height of the
horizontal bar, athlete name and team, and even the live placing of competitors DURING the event.
One extra very interesting thing is that we have created a computer program that can SIMULATE the stadium
scoreboard. This program is an option to the actual TimeTronics MeetManagement program, and when the computer on
which it is running serially receives the scoreboard data, it will show this data in presettable colors, and large scaled
characters on a computer window. The intention is to send this computer screen in PAL (television) format to one or
more (unlimited) number of television or monitor sets around your (indoor) stadium, to inform the public, athletes and
coaches of all this information in case you do not have an expensive stadium scoreboard!!! In the past you would need
an extra external box (SVGA to PAL video converter), but since a few years many computer video cards have this PAL
output feature standard available.
The example above shows a result list of the 800meter Men-B-final, together with a live display of pole vault (PV), high
jump (HJ), and triple jump (TJ). For the vertical events you can also see the attempt number, as a first bad attempt is
shown as “R=X” and the second good attempt will be shown as “R=X0”. The line number that is used for each field
event (in this example 11,12 and 13) is requested by the program when you start a FieldTerminal (see 5.7.2).
6.1 SETTING THE STADIUM CONTROL PARAMETERS
By means of the menu-selection “Scoreboards/Stadion scoreboard settings” you can open a window to control all
stadium scoreboard settings.
The following settings are visible and used to control the stadium scoreboard;
- SBType: Select the correct type and brand of stadium scoreboard. The corresponding serial communication protocol
will be used to send the correct data to the scoreboard. If your type/brand of stadium scoreboard is not (yet) in the list,
ask your supplier for the communication protocol that is used, and send it by email to TimeTronics. As soon as we have
received the complete communication protocol, we can give you a price offer for the programming of a new software
driver for your scoreboard.
- Nmb. of lines: Select the total number of TEXTlines for the stadium scoreboard.
- Nmb. chars/line: Select the number of TEXTcharacters that the scoreboard has for each line.
- Nmb.lines data display: Select the number of lines for the data-display area, read description of “data-display” in the
beginning of this chapter.
- Data display period (sec): The period in seconds how long each new screen is shown in the dta-display area in case
you have put the data-display in “Automatic” mode, see here below.
- Automatic (Slide-show): You can put the data-display in automatic mode, so that each new screen will be shown
CONTINUOUSLY for a presettable number of seconds. As soon as all new screens have been shown, it will show the
first screen again. The method used is the following; the system will count how many times each screen is already
shown. The screen with the lowest count will be shown first, which also mean that the MOST RECENT data is shown
immediately, and the oldest data (which is already shown many times) is not shown any more. Only when there was no

new data any more for a certain period, the older data will be shown again, so that you have a continuous use of the
scoreboard.
- Nmb. lines FieldEvents: The number of TEXTlines that you would like to use for a display of field-event data. Will
be equal to (Nmb.lines - Nmb.linesdatadisplay).
Field display period (sec): The period in seconds how long a result will be shown on the Field-scoreboards AND on the
lines of the field-display of the stadium scoreboard. After this period, the field scoreboards will show the next
participant.
6.2 BUTTONS TO CONTROL THE STADIUM SCOREBOARD LIVE
For each textline you have a “Send” and a “Clear” button (see picture below). This makes it possible to clear one or
more lines of the scoreboard, for example if you would like to show only the first three results (medals ceremony), or if
you would like to quickly send a ‘keyboard-typed’ message on the scoreboard.
Simply put the computer cursor at the desired location on the scoreboard display rectangle, type a text (for example
“Congratulations Mr. .... with your new WORLD Record”, and press the “Send” button of that line.
The buttons “Send all” and “Clear All” can be used for a control of all lines at once.
The check boxes in the window below can be used IN THE FUTURE (=not yet activated) for a flexible control of the
contents of the data-display. In case your (future) scoreboard would not have 40 chars but less, you will be able to limit
the text that is send to the board correspondingly.

7 MANUAL (OPERATOR) CONTROL OF THE STADIUM

SCOREBOARD (DATA DISPLAY)
We have made it possible that the MM-operator can prepare the scoreboard data (participant list and/or results list) and
send this data as soon as possible to a temporary table. This table will memorize this data for as long as you want, so that
it can be used at any time to be send to the scoreboard. This also means that you can send this data (manually) multiple
times to the board, once immediately after you have received the results (for example from the photo-finish) and once
later when you have the medals ceremony on the victory podium.
7.1 SENDING DATA TO THE SCOREBOARD OUTPUT TABLE
In the events input window “Information and control”, you can see two grey colored buttons to send respectively the
participant and the result data to the scoreboard. If you have put the scoreboard in automatic mode, then it will go
directly to the scoreboard, if you have put the scoreboard in manual mode it will go to the scoreboard output table.
Use these buttons as soon as you have the (correct, complete and verified) participant lists and/or results list of one or
more events.
7.2 SENDING DATA FROM THE SCOREBOARD OUTPUT TABLE TO THE SCOREBOARD
By means of the menu-selection “Scoreboards/Show stadion scoreboard data” you can open an EXTRA window to view
the scoreboard output table, from which you can send at any time a record to the scoreboard. Due to the fact that it is
shown in an extra window, you can put this window for example on the top of you screen, using only 1/4 of the screen,
and using the rest of the screen for the main MeetManager window.
The table will show all data, which you have, send (see 7.1), including the time-of-day, and the number of times that
each record already was shown on the scoreboard (in automatic mode).
If you select one record, by clicking on its line once, you can then use the buttons on the bottom of the window to erase,
send, send and erase that record.

8 MOST OCCURRING ERRORS DURING THE USAGE OF THE

MM-PROGRAM
1) I enter a chest number, but the computer keeps telling me that the athlete in question is unknown:
-> I have forgotton or not succeeded to import the athlete file.
-> The category and/or sex of the imported athlete do not match the event in question. For example; I try to find a
‘Cadet’ athlete for an event for which the category ‘Juniors’ is selected.
2) I want to make an event selection, but the computer merely displays a small part of the possible events:
-> I have entered the wrong category and/or sex for that event.
-> I have selected ‘Indoor’ instead of ‘Outdoor’ in the ‘General Meet Information’.
3) I enter times up to 1/100 sec. yet when printing the results, the program only displays tenths of a second:
-> Presumably you have selected ‘M’ instead of ‘E’ (electronic time registration) in the screen in which you enter the
performance, or the ‘M’ was entered automatically because you have selected ‘Manual timing’ in the General
Preferences.
4) I enter performances, but after entry, a totally different number pops up:
-> Your computer is probably adjusted to ‘decimal comma’. Switch to ‘decimal point’ for ‘numbers’ by means of the PC
windows control panel and RESTART the MM-program.
5) I get the results of some events sent several times to the text-processing program:
-> Each time you have read the results of ‘WPdoc’ in your Word processor, you must delete the file ‘WPdoc’ (just after
having switched back to MM) by pressing the ‘Delete WPdoc’ button and then click ‘OK’ in the warning window.
6) In my result (printed out on paper by the MM program instead of the text processing program) there is still 00:00
instead of the correct hour of processing of the final result:
-> FIRST press the ‘checked’ button (the hour will now be registered) and then ‘Print result’ or ‘Result of this category’.
7) The photo-finish operator does not get a connection with your MM computer:
-> You have selected the wrong serial port (or no serial port at all).
-> The selected serial port is not available, because it is occupied by an internal modem or by another program.
8) I have read the results (of WPdoc) in my Word processor, but the data are not perfectly aligned in columns:
-> All result fields are separated by a ‘TAB’ character. You can move the horizontal position of each column by means
of the tab functions of each text-processing program.

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TimeTronics Sports Timing Systems MeetManager Users Manual 2004 page 1

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2.1 HOW DOES OUR MEETMANAGEMENT SYSTEM WORKS?

A) Installation of the system (only once)

1) Installation of the MeetManagement software on your MeetManager PC.

B) Using the system, for each (national or international) meet

2.2 HOW IS THIS MEETMANAGEMENT MANUAL WRITTEN

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3 CABLE CONNECTION WITH MF OR FT (OPTIONAL)

3.1 USE OF A SERIAL CONNECTION WITH MACFINISH II OR MF III (OPTIONAL)

3.2 USE OF A SERIAL CONNECTION WITH FIELDTERMINALS (OPTIONAL)

A 12p connector from

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4 INSTALLATION OF THE PROGRAM

4.1 MEETMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

When you open this folder you will find;

To start the program, double-click the icon:

4.2 INSTALLATION OF NAF (NATIONAL ATHLETIC FEDERATION) ATHLETE

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5 PRODUCING A MEET FILE

5.1 STARTING UP THE PROGRAM

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5.2 IMPORTING THE NAF ATHLETE FILE (E.G. SHIN.1)

5.3 IMPORTING EVENT SPECIFICATIONS

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5.4 ENTERING GENERAL MEET INFORMATION AND PREFERENCES

5.4.1 General meet information

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5.4.2 Preferences settings

5.4.3 Serial port settings

5.4.4 FieldTerminal settings

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5.5.1 Adding new events

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• Event number: Is automatically increased by one unit at each new event.

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5.5.2 List of events

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Add event save

5.6 ENTERING PARTICIPANTS

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a) For all athletes participating in their own category:

chest number 0001 -> 9999

10.000 -> men ‘benjamins, pupils,miniemen’

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5.6.1 Adding athlete records to the athlete database (automatic)

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5.6.2 Finding athlete records in the athlete database

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5.6.3 Entering heats and lanes (only for running events)

You will get for example the following survey:

In the example below, the blue frame informs you that

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Now follow the same procedure for all other events.

Show last event

Show 1rst event

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5.7 GETTING RESULTS

You can get the results into the MM-program;

‘Correction’ is used if:

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5.7.1 Results received from the MacFinish photo-finish system

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