Live data
Description
By Live data we mean the immediate provision of results for the participant, speaker and organiser during the event. In orienteering, live data can be used to provide an intermediate result from a checkpoint or to announce the next finisher. At MTB Enduro events, live data can be used, to directly display the stage times for the riders on the Internet and at the event area.
Live data transmission thus consists of two sub-processes:
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The transmission of time stamps from the measuring point (e.g. control point or stage finish) via the Internet to the evaluation PC.
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The evaluation of results on the evaluation PC and the transmission of the results to a display, e.g. the Internet.
The basic setup of the system is given in the scheme below.
How do you get the time stamps of your card? You can download them with a readout station. Or you can use a BSF8-SRR control station, which sends the time stamp of the last punching via short range radio (SRR) to a receiver. If you use SIACs you can also send data via SRR. SRR receivers can be the SRR USB Dongle or the SI-GSM.
The data must now be transmitted via the Internet. The SPORTident Center serves as data hub (Cloud). As a transmitter are available: The SPORTident Mobile Reader App, the SPORTident Reader as desktop application, or the SI-GSM which transfers the data directly to the SPORTident Center.
To receive the data again at the evaluation PC, the SPORTident Reader can be used or the evaluation software SiTiming.
You are using SiTiming and just want to upload the results or an intermediate result to the SPORTident Timing website, then jump straight to section upload results to SPORTident Timing website.
Software and web services
This section gives an overview of the available software and web services. These are described in more detail in the following sections.
SPORTident Center
The SPORTident Center serves as data hub (Cloud). It is hosting the database that stores information on events, modems and timing data. The service allows you to assign your SI-GSM Modem to an event for a certain period. The data received by this modem are displayed.
You can register yourself for SPORTident Center. To learn how to use and configure the SPORTident Center read the section below.
SPORTident Mobile Reader App
SPORTident Mobile Reader is the (free) Android app for reading out cards, receiving punch data via short range radio with your mobile phone, and uploading the data to SPORTident Center.
To learn how data upload with SPORTident Mobile Reader App works read the section below. For detailed information regarding the SPORTident Mobile Reader App please feel free to visit the SPORTident website.
SPORTident Reader
SPORTident offers the (free) software SPORTident Reader as a universal data capture program. It is able to upload data to SPORTident Center. This data can be read directly from the SI-Card or received by the SRR USB Dongle via radio from SIAC or a BSF8-SRR station (in addition to the data from a SI-GSM Modem, that are directly sent to SPORTident Center). Furthermore the SPORTident Reader is used to download the data from SPORTident Center to an evaluation software. However, downloading data is frequently done directly by an evaluation software such as SiTiming.
To learn how data upload with SPORTident Reader works read the section below. SPORTident Reader can be downloaded from the SPORTident website.
SiTiming by SPORTident UK
SiTiming is a SPORTident UK Ltd results software. A license has to be bought if you want to use this software. More information is available at SPORTident UK website
To learn how data processing with SiTiming works read the section below. A detailed user guide is available at SPORTident UK website. Only a few features of SiTiming are highlighted in this guide.
SPORTident Center
The first step to upload data is the setup of the available modems for an event. Open SPORTident Center (Admin classic) in your browser. Four tab sheets are available: Events, Modems, Billing and Subscriptions.
| The functions described below are only available in the view Admin classic of SPORTident Center. Use the link above to get to this view. |
Events
Create a new event by clicking the + button. Choose the name, start date and end date of the event and complete the process by clicking create. Your event will now be added to the event list.
Any event can be modified by clicking on the pencil. Some additional information is shown.
| The Event ID and the SOAP API Key are necessary for the SPORTident Reader program to be able to upload and download data. |
Modems
The list displays the available modems assigned to the user. The modems are assigned by SPORTident to a user. There is no possibility to add a modem by yourself. In case of questions, please contact timing@sportident.com.
An icon indicates the state of the modem (grey if offline, green if online) and its battery level. This is useful information for testing the modem on site before the event (or even to monitor the modem during an event).
A modem can only be assigned to a single event at the same time. To assign a modem to an event, click on the flag icon at the top right of the screen.
Some extra fields are shown. Select one of your events from the list, choose a modem and confirm it. The modem is now assigned to that event.
Monitor
The monitor provides an overview of the data received. Go to the event page and click Monitor punches of your event. You can filter the punches by event, modem, card (enter the card number) or for any control number (enter the control number) for a selected time period. The default setting is the day and time of opening the program. The display is updated periodically.
| This functionality is useful for testing the configuration and correct operation of the equipment that will be used during the event. |
| Data uploaded by a PC and received with a SRR USB Dongle can also be uploaded and monitored. The field ‘Modem’ will be empty in this case. Also incoming data collected with SPORTident Reader and SPORTident Mobile Reader App will be shown without modem ID. |
Data upload with SPORTident Mobile Reader App
After installation, the app must be linked to SPORTident Center. To do this, go to Settings User account and enter your credentials to use the online functionality of the app.
Create a new event / session by tapping on the plus + on the start page. Enter a user-defined session name and select the corresponding event in SPORTident Center or use the function to create a new event in SPORTident Center. When you are asked, enable the automatic upload of the data. The app thus uploads received data directly to SPORTident Center.
Connect your SRR USB Dongle, BSM7-USB or BSM8-USB station using a USB OTG adapter cable to your smartphone.
Download your chip or send the data by radio to the smartphone. The received data is displayed in the menu List. The punches are uploaded directly into SPORTident Center.
Data upload with SPORTident Reader
After installing the program SPORTident Reader, it might be necessary to click Show/hide settings in the configuration bar.
| The desired language can be modified if necessary. |
Uploading data to SPORTident Center
The data collected with a readout station or a SRR USB Dongle (the input device), from a single punch up to all data records from a SI-Card, can be uploaded to SPORTident Center (the output device). The configuration of SPORTident Reader is a three steps procedure:
1. Configure the input device
Connect a readout station or a dongle to the computer and click on fresh list.
| If you want to use two SRR USB Dongles (as recommended for sports were competitors pass at high speed), or a dongle and a readout station, you need to open SPORTident Reader twice. Only a single input device can be selected per SPORTident Reader window. Choose a different device in each window. Now data from both sources will be uploaded. |
2. Configure the output device
There are many options, but these are mainly for developers of evaluation software. As a user, only the last button is necessary.
The API Key and Event ID of the target event have to be copied from SPORTident Center into the specified fields.
3. Activate the connections
The summary of the configuration is given at the top of the screen, in this example from a readout station (the input device) to SPORTident Center (the output device). The connections are not active yet and this is visualized by the two red dots.
Click Open/Close to open (or to close) the connections. Two green dots will confirm that the communication lines are open. SI-Reader is now ready to receive and to upload data.
| In case of a red dot, the connections should be checked. It might be that the internet connection is not available. |
Next to the monitoring page in SPORTident Center activity can also be monitored in SI-Reader by clicking on Show activity form.
Data processing with SiTiming
| To use this feature you need to install SiTiming by SPORTident UK and buy a license. |
Download raw data
First you have to configure your connection to SPORTident Center as a Telemetry Device.
Open your event in SiTiming and navigate to Data Collection → Collect Punches → Telemetry Device → Add Telemetry Device.
Select as Device Type SPORTident Center and enter your Event ID from SPORTident Center. Enter any description you like.
Click the Save Button.
Go back by clicking the Up Button. Now you’ve get a new menu item SPORTident Center Receiver. Enter this menu.
Enter the following Service URL: https://center.sportident.com/stamps/soap and the API Key of your event. You will find the API Key in SPORTident Center.
To download the data once click the Refresh Now Button or select the refresh Interval and click the Start Timer Button for continuous download.
| If SiTiming displays Server returned error code: 6, there is a difference in the number of stamps between SiTiming and SPORTident Center. This is the case after testing, for example. To solve the problem you have to reset your Telemetry Device. Navigate to Data Collection → Collect Punches → Telemetry Device → Open your Telemetry Device → Actions → Clear Down. |
To stop the continuous download click the Stop Timer Button.
Upload results to SPORTident Timing website
For the upload of the live results to the website you will open a new SiTiming instance.
| To be able to use this function in SiTiming go to Modify Event → Results Options and check that Enduro (Section Special Results Format) and Use Substage Reporting (Section Sub-Stage Options) are ticked. |
Open your event in SiTiming and navigate to Results → Export Results → Enduro Result Loader.
Enter the Service URL and Token for your event. Both you will get from the SPORTident Timing website. If you need assistance in setting up the SPORTident Timing website, please contact timing@sportident.com. We will be pleased to send you the URL and the Token.
To upload the data once click the Write Now Button or select the refresh Interval and click the Start Timer Button for continuous upload.
To stop the continuous upload click the Stop Timer Button.