NCAA Tournament to use Precision Timing

Bout f-ing time.

[Hugh Refner]

Maybe they haven't done it in the past because they didn't have the money. I mean, it's not like they make any profit on their games and television contracts.

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by Hugh Refner

Maybe they haven't done it in the past because they didn't have the money. I mean, it's not like they make any profit on their games and television contracts.

I'm guessing it had more to do with the variety of facilities used. The thought was probably thought if you couldn't use the technology for all the games, you couldn't use it for any. We've probably also arrived at the point where all D1 officials are 100% comfortable with using timing packs.

This year is probably the first in which they've mandated and/or confirmed that all facilities, including the cavernous football stadiums usually used for the final four, can support the technology.

[Danvrapp]

Originally Posted by crosscountry55

This year is probably the first in which they've mandated and/or confirmed that all facilities, including the cavernous football stadiums usually used for the final four, can support the technology.

For those of us that don't work college, what would they need to "support?" I'm guessing it's just a little receiver that sits on/near the table and receives a signal from the pack on the official's hip.

Why would an old football stadium be any different?

Thanks for the insight!

[zm1283]

Originally Posted by Danvrapp

For those of us that don't work college, what would they need to "support?" I'm guessing it's just a little receiver that sits on/near the table and receives a signal from the pack on the official's hip.

Why would an old football stadium be any different?

Thanks for the insight!

I'm not an expert on the devices, but I'm pretty sure it is contained entirely on the official as far as equipment. To start the clock, they push a button on the pack attached to their waist. They attach a microphone-like device on their shirt (See the Lauren Holtkamp picture in the shoe thread) which picks up whistle frequency and stops the clock. I think the technology part had to do with syncing the timing packs to the clocks in the arenas. I'm not sure how that works though.

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by Danvrapp

Why would an old football stadium be any different?

Not sure it would be, but my thought was that echoes from the whistle might be tricky. Also, in a regular arena, all of the electromagnetics are centered on the floor and bounded by the stands/walls, but in a football stadium the court is often offset around the 20 yard line with temp bleachers on one side, leaving the other half of the field dark and empty. Might be some interference or signal scattering from the timing pack's signal.

But there is probably an easy engineering solution or two to solve these problems, assuming they are even problems at all.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by crosscountry55

Not sure it would be, but my thought was that echoes from the whistle might be tricky. Also, in a regular arena, all of the electromagnetics are centered on the floor and bounded by the stands/walls, but in a football stadium the court is often offset around the 20 yard line with temp bleachers on one side, leaving the other half of the field dark and empty. Might be some interference or signal scattering from the timing pack's signal.

But there is probably an easy engineering solution or two to solve these problems, assuming they are even problems at all.

Echos don't matter. The whistle is only used to stop the clock. The system detects the initial sound of a whistle and sends a stop-clock command. If there is a second whistle, either from the same official or another official, the system will get another stop-clock signal...but already being stopped, it does nothing. Additionally, the echo probably wouldn't be loud enough to trigger the stop anyway. It is probably even immune to someone in the stands blowing a whistle. I'm guessing here, but, the microphone, being so close to the whistle, is probably very insensitive and wouldn't even register a whistle from 20' away.

The clock is started by a push button, not the whistle. And like the stopping action, multiple start commands don't cause a problem.


Interference, doubt it.

[Raymond]

It's the air from the whistle that stops the clock, not the sound of the whistle. You can blow directly into the microphone and the clock stops.