TheMightySkunk
journeyman
Reged: 12/26/03
Posts: 82
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I've posted some pikkies of the Northcote Velodrome in North Melbourne under construction. They're in the Photo Gallery in the "MISC" section. If you've never seen a velodrome being built, these pikkies might be of interest.
The Northcote 'drome has an interesting design. It's industrial-looking, but clever. Unlike the new 'drome at University of California Dominguez Hills, which looks like a Home Depot with a track built inside.
The world's coolest velodrome, IMHO, is the Vodafone Arena at Flinders Park, where the Australian Open tennis is played. It's the only velodrome in the world with a convertible roof.
Victoria Cycling and Melbourne Park have been extremely unhappy with the permanent timing equipment installed by Swiss Timing at Vodafone. All the wiring is proprietary and non industry standard (for example, sensor circuits are closed-normal), so other vendors coming in to do big events have had to run their own temporary wire all over the arena. Anyone installing Swiss Timing equipment BEWARE, because it "locks you in" to using only Swiss Timing gear. At Northcote, Victoria Cycling are getting around this by installing standard wiring (CAT 5) and plenty of conduit, and no timing equipment whatsoever, so any timing company can come in and just plug in to industry-standard stuff with CAT5 plugs (available at any Wal-Mart) rather than dealing with the proprietary Swiss Timing medusa-head.
Victoria Cycling and Cyclists International asked me for a design showing a "generic" wiring layout for Northcote, so I submitted one that's as flexible as possible, and dirt cheap to deploy. So now any competent timing technician will be able easily install a full photofinish / commentator info / tape switch / scoreboard setup at Northcote in an afternoon. Even Swiss Timing, potentially, will be able to do it, although they'll have to adapt their byzantine 1960's technology to modern networking standards, rather than the other way around.
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"I haven't failed. I've just managed to find 100,000 ways that don't work"
--Albert Einstein
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Kahuna
Forum Admin
Reged: 12/11/03
Posts: 162
Loc: Maui, Hawaii
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This, coming from arguably one of the best sports timing systems developers on the planet, the Might Skunk knows of what he speaks! 
If the Mighty Skunk says Swiss Timing is bad, then you might want to consider selling your Rolex!
-K
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TheMightySkunk
journeyman
Reged: 12/26/03
Posts: 82
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Thanks for the kind words, Kahuna. One small item, however. Rolex is not a Swiss Timing brand. Rolex is another company entirely. So keep that Rolex on your wrist.
Swiss Timing consists of the SWATCH group: SWATCH, Omega, Longines, Rado, Blancpain, Tissot, FlikFlak, and a few more boutique brands.
Swiss Timing have been sued successfully several times in the past few years in Swiss court for unfair business practices in professional sports (particularly ski racing), including illegal restraint of trade and a litany of other things coming under the heading of "throwing your weight around". The SWATCH brand throws off so much cash that the Swiss Timing group has a lot of weight indeed to throw around when they want to throw it. They are very Microsoft-ish in that respect.
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"I haven't failed. I've just managed to find 100,000 ways that don't work"
--Albert Einstein
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