Start Beeps
Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:42 am
We use a sysem in yhe UK that seems to cut down on false starts a fair bit.
On some dual races we say:
"racers Ready, 5 seconds warning"
when the racers say "yes" the starter then says "GO!" with a 5 second window.
As racers don't know when the start will happen they cant anticipate the start. We found that it was pretty much self regulating, if a racer jumped the start it was often quite clear. We also found we needed the starter to not look at the racers as they could sort of be influenced to say "go!" when they say a racer move forward...so.....
I came up with this solution with Martin Drayton. Not sure if we'd seen it written elsewhere so apologies if its already been done.
I made 6 mp3 files with beeps on.
1) beep, beep, xxxxxxxx, beeeeurpppppppp. followed by 10 seconds silence
2) beep, beep, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, beeeeurpppppppp. followed by 10 seconds silence
and so on for 6 seperate start tones up to the 5 second window.
I loaded them on to an IPOD and a CD. So now we put the IPOD connected to speaker and press shuffle and repeat. The IPOD chooses a random start tone and we press 'play'.
After the "beeeeeurp" the starter has 10 seconds to press pause, and fast forward. The Ipod has then selected the next race start out of the 6 tones, randomly! Ready for the next racers.
I have the six tones as files if anyone wants to pm me to see what the hell i'm on about.
On some dual races we say:
"racers Ready, 5 seconds warning"
when the racers say "yes" the starter then says "GO!" with a 5 second window.
As racers don't know when the start will happen they cant anticipate the start. We found that it was pretty much self regulating, if a racer jumped the start it was often quite clear. We also found we needed the starter to not look at the racers as they could sort of be influenced to say "go!" when they say a racer move forward...so.....
I came up with this solution with Martin Drayton. Not sure if we'd seen it written elsewhere so apologies if its already been done.
I made 6 mp3 files with beeps on.
1) beep, beep, xxxxxxxx, beeeeurpppppppp. followed by 10 seconds silence
2) beep, beep, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, beeeeurpppppppp. followed by 10 seconds silence
and so on for 6 seperate start tones up to the 5 second window.
I loaded them on to an IPOD and a CD. So now we put the IPOD connected to speaker and press shuffle and repeat. The IPOD chooses a random start tone and we press 'play'.
After the "beeeeeurp" the starter has 10 seconds to press pause, and fast forward. The Ipod has then selected the next race start out of the 6 tones, randomly! Ready for the next racers.
I have the six tones as files if anyone wants to pm me to see what the hell i'm on about.