Introduction
The SimpleClient application has a built-in Announcer feature that can be used with either a Pro or MiniTrack controller and a pre-loaded participant file. In order for announcer functionality to work, you must be streaming data live from a controller that is set to Immediate Mode (read on for details). The announcer display will show all info included in the participant file and the total time elapsed since the last Gun Start on the connected controller.
Create a Bib File
- The bib file needs to be a CSV or semi-colon delimited file.
- The bib number column must be first. This column must be called BIB, but should contain the TAG numbers assigned to each athlete. So if the athletes' bib and tag numbers are not the same, make sure you use the Tag numbers in the BIB column.
- The bib number column can be followed by any columns of info of your choice.
You can download the Standard Announcer report from your event in Chronotrack Live to use with an announcer line. The report should be available by default. If it is not, you can add it. If you download the Announcer report, you should open it in Excel and then save it as a .CSV under a different name.
Set your controller to Immediate Mode
AeroTrack
Nothing needs to be done to enable Immediate mode on the AT. It is always on.
MiniTrack
Press Menu > 3 > 3 > 2 (Pressing 2 or ENTER will toggle Immediate Mode ON/OFF)
Pro Controller - BoxScore 1.26
Select Status > Operations and press the Immediate button to toggle Immediate Mode ON/OFF.
Pro Controller - BoxScore 3
Select Controller > Operations and press the Immediate Mode button to toggle Immediate Mode ON/OFF.
Pro2 - ChronOS
Select Race Ops > Controller and press the Immediate Mode toggle to turn Immediate Mode on.
Connect Controller to SimpleClient
Now establish a live connection between your announcer line Controller and SimpleClient. This can be done two different ways:
Option 1 - Direct LAN/WiFi Connection through CCS Lite:
- Establish a network connection between your laptop and your controller with a LAN Cable or via WiFi. (For information on how to do this, see our articles for Pro Controllers and MiniTrack Controllers)
- Double click on your controller in CCS Lite.
Option 2 - Streaming Data from the Server via SimpleClient:
- If your controller is connected to the ChronoTrack server, you can stream the data to your laptop if it is connected to the internet. (For information on how to do this, see our articles for Pro Controllers and MiniTrack Controllers)
- Within SimpleClient, click CCS Server > Connect to connect to the CCS Server.
- This will open up a Select Session window in SimpleClient
- Locate your session in the list. If necessary, the list can be sorted by clicking on the column headings.
Setting Up the Announcer Stream
- In the Select Session window, Set Tag Mode to Immediate (make sure Normal is not checked).
- If you would like to see Race Time instead of Time of Day, either drag an available Gun Start to the Time Shift field, or specify a time manually.
- To prevent tags from showing up on the Announcer Display multiple times, use the Minimum Time Between Same Tag feature. We recommend setting it to at least 1 hour due to athletes’ tendency to hang around the finish line.
- Click Select
- Click File
- Click Load bib file and select the Bib File you created/downloaded.
- Once you have selected the Bib File, click the Play button in the Simple Client window to begin streaming tags.
- In Simple Client, click View > Announcer Display. As athletes are read, the Announcer Line screen will display their information as shown below.
You can now set the preferences so that the information is displayed easiest for the person announcing the athletes. The settings are:
- View > Rows allows you to select how many rows of data are displayed at once. You can select increments of five between 5 and 25 rows.
- View > Colors allows you to customize the colors of the Odd and Even lines and the color of the display font.
- View > Hide Unknown Tags hides tags that are not included in the Bib File.
- View > Laps > First Pass is Start applies a lap number to each read, starting with the first occurrence and incrementing the lap number by 1 each time an athlete is read.
- View > Laps > Show Lap Count shows the lap number of each athlete as they are read.
- View > Laps > Show Lap Time shows the time between each athlete’s last read and their current read.
- Scroll Speed allows you to adjust the speed at which the software displays athletes as they are read.
- Queue allows you to manually flush the queue, or set the queue to auto-flush every 10 seconds.
- Headings can be resized to allow more or less room for data as it is displayed. Simply click and drag the dividing lines to resize as desired.
- Resizing or maximizing the Announcer Screen window will cause the rows to appear larger.