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Photofinish Integration

OpenTrack provides integration with FinishLynx, TimeTronics, Seiko, Swiss Timing, and Alge.

To integrate with one of these, navigate to the TV and Photofinish tab of the management screens and click on the Integrate button corresponding to your system. If you've got a system not listed above, get in contact via info@opentrack.run and we'll see if we can add support.

Live results integration allows results to be published almost instantaneously, improving athlete and spectator experience.

A complete video demonstration is below, but please also read the documentation to get a full understanding of the process:

OpenTrack Uploader Setup

To integrate with photofinish, you need the latest edition of our uploader. On the right-hand side, click Latest EXE file and download the program. Your firewall may attempt to block this, so it could require an override. Once downloaded, open it:

PhotoFinish Uploader
  • Mode - Select the photofinish program you are using
  • Folder - Designate a folder where the uploader will look for results files. This folder needs to be accessible by photofinish, either on their machine or over a shared network drive
  • URL - The URL of the competition (finishing with the slug)
  • Email/Password - Your login details

When each item is correct, it turns green, as seen above.

Note

The uploader is an .exe, or executable file, and is only compatible with Microsoft Windows, not Mac OS.

Next steps:

  • Click download files. This will download the required files for the photofinish brand you have specified.
  • Click Auto Download if you want the files to keep updating whenever changes are made.
  • When ready to send results to OpenTrack, click Click to begin uploading. The program will look in the specified folder every couple of seconds. Once a results file is created, the program will recognise it and send the results live to the result page for that event within seconds. Nothing else needs to be done, other than marking results as official when ready.

Resolving Credential Issues

If you have trouble with logging into the uploader, then you may need to delete your _OTRUpload.ini file (usually in your top level documents folder, i.e. C:\Users\yourusername\) and let the uploader recreate it.

Working Without the Uploader

If you don't have consistent internet access, or are having trouble with the uploader, you can still use OpenTrack's photofinish integration functionality — it's much easier than copying results across by hand!

To download photofinish files for your meeting, head to the TV and Photofinish management screen, and select your chosen photofinish software.

In the Download Manually box, simply download the files you need, unzip them if necesary, and place them in the directory that your photofinish program is looking at.

To upload manually, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and use the 'Choose file' feature to select your chosen results file from your photofinish directory, and then click the Submit button to have it processed automatically.

In-Browser Uploader Configuration

On the integration page for your chosen photofinish brand, you will have a set of configuration options.

Alge Configuration

  • Results from photofinish automatically official - If ticked results will be marked as official as they're uploaded.

FinishLynx Configuration

  • Licence field contents - Select what the licence field will be populated with.

  • EVT file includes field event - If unticked, the EVT file will only contain track events.

  • EVT file should exclude completed events - If unticked, the download contain all events regardless if they've already concluded and have results.

  • EVT file includes people - If ticked the EVT file will include people.

  • Include Greek/Cyrillic - This should only be ticked if you have athletes with names containing Greek/Cyrillic letters.

  • EVT/PPL file includes full club name - If ticked full club names will be included in the file rather than the club code.

  • Results from photofinish automatically official - If ticked results will be marked as official as they're uploaded.

Seiko Configuration

  • Licence field contents - Select what the licence field will be populated with.

  • EVT file includes field event - If unticked, the EVT file will only contain track events.

  • EVT file should exclude completed events - If unticked, the download contain all events regardless if they've already concluded and have results.

  • EVT file includes people - If ticked the EVT file will include people.

  • Include Greek/Cyrillic - This should only be ticked if you have athletes with names containing Greek/Cyrillic letters.

  • EVT/PPL file includes full club name - If ticked full club names will be included in the file rather than the club code.

  • Results from photofinish automatically official - If ticked results will be marked as official as they're uploaded.

Swiss Timing Configuration

  • Results from photofinish automatically official - If ticked results will be marked as official as they're uploaded.

TimeTronics Configuration

  • Results from photofinish automatically official - If ticked results will be marked as official as they're uploaded.

FinishLynx

If using FinishLynx, there are some settings we recommend.

FinishLynx version

We recommend use of FinishLynx version 12.20 or later. You can check your version number by clicking on 'Help', then 'About', in the grey bar at the top of Lynx.

Unicode

As OpenTrack is used all over the world, we encode the text for photofinish files in Unicode. You will want to select the Unicode options within your photofinish software so these can be seen in the files which FinishLynx writes (the LIF and PPL files). This can be found in File | Options | Database | LIF Code Set, as shown.

Additionally, select the correct encoding (utf_16_le_bom) in the uploader to ensure the EVT and PPL files will be processed correctly.

Please note that any EVT or PPL files downloaded directly from OpenTrack will not be encoded - you can however encode these in a text editor like Notepad++.

Timing Precision

OpenTrack needs time given in thousandths to break ties, as this is important for seeding across multiple rounds, as well as breaking ties for position.

You can do either of the following:

  • Change File | Options | Results | Default Precision to thousandths or smaller, which changes the precision you see in your Lynx results, with File | Options | Database | Time Precision set to <on screen>
  • Change File | Options | Database | Time Precision to thousandths or smaller, with File | Options | Results | Default Precision set to hundredths as normal

Autosave

We recommend turning on auto-save, which will cause the LIF files to be written every few seconds. This allows OpenTrack to know within a few seconds that the race has started, and also to display the winners to the public as you are timing the later runners. This is hidden in an advanced menu - press and hold Ctrl + Shift while clicking File | Options, to reveal all FinishLynx settings, and select as below. We suggest a frequency of 5 seconds. Then you won't have to worry about saving results after each race.

Alge

If you have downloaded the meetxml file from OpenTrack, a right-click in the meet browser element of Alge will give you the option to Import a New Meeting, and add the details of your meetxml. Using the update option later on in the meeting will allow you to update Alge with any changes.

To ensure your results files will be sent to the correct place, open ATL Exchange Settings from the top left of your meet browser and ensure the OptiXmlExport AutomaticExportDirectory is set to the same location as in the uploader.

Seiko

Please follow the FinishLynx instructions above.

TimeTronics

Encoding

TimeTronics is capable of handling files with accents without any kind of encoding — when running the uploader, set encoding to 'no encoding'.