Answers to some Swimmingly Questions by Hayes at Swimmingly
February 25th
We do have a cord that integrates with the Infinity starter system. It plugs into the “Starter Output” and directly into the phone. You would start like you typically would from the starter and all you would need to do on the devices is select the next event. Can show you more in person as well. Most of our teams have actually moved away from those older, pricey starter systems and purchase a PA system. Our app has the original Infinity Starter Sound programmed into it so it sounds the same! No plans here. I totally understand the hardware investment it takes for Dolphin - as well as the replacement costs. We developed Swimmingly so that anyone could quickly download and use to avoid those hardware costs in the future. Of course you have some teams that ask team parents if they have extra, old phones lying around the house and might come up with 10 dedicated devices. Some will even go out and purchase some old phones. But, the majority will use their own devices and in 7 year (knock on wood) we have never had or heard of a phone spilling into the water. Swimmingly integrates with Team Manager. There is no more need for Meet Manager as the app collects on the data automatically on the Scorekeepers iPad. Once the meet is over, you can easily export those results into other systems! On the other end, you can import/export entry files. I know that SwimTopia is finishing that up this month for this summer! Very easy. Most of our leagues actually run a timer shift change at their meets. Bring in the volunteers, have them close out of the app, bring in the new volunteers, give them the Meet ID and send them off!
Great question. For any accidental tap/touch there is a back button in the top left that will bring you back to the running clock! 6. I saw something about stop the race at the touch. Is that the starter doing that, or is that just resetting when the next heat starts? We don't have touchpads in the summer league, but have always done flyover starts for most events. All timers will need to do is tap their screen at the finish of the race. It will bring up a screen to capture the 3 digit ID of the swimmer. It will tell you the swimmers name and then you would hit “Save & Continue” to “reset” the watch.
A couple things to note:
1. The 3 digit ID is great because it allows for any flexibility or changes that have been made on the fly. If you want to combine heats/events on the fly, awesome! As the timer captures that ID it will know exactly who the swimmer is vs. the complexity of Dolphin with those changes being made - wrong swimmer etc.
2. Another great feature is the “”QuickStart” feature that allows for the flyover. As soon as the last swimmer touches the wall, you can start the next heat. The timers can take their time getting the ID in because as soon as the hit “Save & Continue” it will be caught up to the next event in the water! 7. What happens if a swimmer swims in the wrong lane or heat? Is that easy to correct? Addressed above! Because the timer is capturing the swimmer based on their ID, it will know exactly who they are! 8. How easy is it to change DQ codes and/or overturn them? Do you find that most people still write down notes so that they can go back to them for challenges, questions from the head ref, etc.? Or do teams where the head refs approve it still go with the radio and then the head ref enters them all in? We have always had our head ref approve calls, especially since we have so many new stroke judges every year. All of the DQ’s are the USA Swimming codes. The great thing about the Judge role is that it will only show you the infractions of the specific stroke in the water. It is very easy to overturn DQs. The Scorekeeper and easily make that happen. To be honest with you, 40% of our new leagues will continue to use the DQ slips and have the Scorekeeper enter them in like it is typically done. I think a good amount of RMSL teams will use the DQ slips the first year. From summer swimming to the Olympics, I understand the role of the ref very well : ) If the head ref can in fact see all of the DQs in the water and needs to approve them, I would stick to the paper slips this year. Our leagues that move away from the slips just have the Scorekeeper by the pool and alert the Ref when there is a DQ etc. (Kelli Smith note: I can't imagine the league going back to DQ slips at this point but we can revisit this in a league meeting. Alternatively, the scorekeeper could sit with the ref and be in communication about DQ's in real time) 9. How often do updates come out? Is there compatibility across versions? I saw something about off season development cycle. Are there regular updates or is this more traditional waterfall annual (or other long interval) release? We like to release the season version of the app in April. If we have time for some last minute updates (minor) we might push a small update during the season. For the most part, the version that you download at the beginning of the season will be the one you use until August! 10. Can the scorekeeper use a browser-based version or only an ipad? I see that there are some functions that will work with a browser version. For the Swimmingly App, it is only on the iPad. We are waiting on Apple to have the cross platform OS that will allow for apps to be run on mobile and desktop. Hopefully soon! 11. For the parent app, is that pushed through cellular, or do they need to be on the same wireless network as the rest of the system (my understanding is that the rest of the system all runs through it's own wireless network, rather than using cellular service or the pool's WiFi). Our pool is in a cellular black hole with mediocre at best internet bandwidth. For SwimminglyFan, only ONE device will need to be on mobile to push the results out. We have had some pools similar to this that have been fine. If it is that bad to where nobody can be on their phone at all (parents around the pool deck etc.) then not sure what we can do unfortunately. If there happens to be a bar of service, should be fine. As far as bandwidth goes, surfing Facebook for 1 minute is equivalent to pushing an entire meet of results out! 12. Is there a backup system in case of hardware failure, data loss, a crash, etc.? In year-round meets, we have a touchpad, but still have 2 stopwatches plus a pickle, but for summer league we only have one timer (so if there is any data loss, we are screwed). Even with our Dolphin timers we write down the times to be on the safe side.That is totally up to you. The only time we have seen “LOST” data was when a kid unplugged the router during the meet to charge his own iPad haha If that does happen, it will alert all devices that wifi has been disconnected. If it’s during an event in the water, it will actually be able to finish capturing that race but won’t be able to start the next race until the wifi is back up (90 Second Reboot) 13. If there is a hardware failure in a lane and you use a backup stopwatch, is it easy to update/change the time in the system? Very easy. The scorekeeper has all of this functionality on the iPad. I will also cover all of this at the trainings : ) 14. When will all functionality be available on Android? Great question. We aren’t sure yet. We wanted to cover the majority of volunteers being the timers first. We will certainly know more after this season! 15. Can any other apps be run while using your app? Can a volunteer be getting texts while timing? Before the meet starts - in the timer huddle and on the app - each volunteer is instructed to be in “Do Not Disturb Mode” or “Airplane Mode” when they are volunteering. This will ensure that there is not issue! 16. Do you have any recommendations to comply with Safesport? This would give us a bunch of phones behind the blocks, with no way of knowing are they taking pictures or videoing starts from behind the blocks (both of which are not in compliance with SafeSport) vs using it for timing or judging.So I’ll do my best here and share what other teams have told us. Believe it or not, we hear from teams that it is better to utilize the device to time. They are paying so much attention to capturing the data that if they were to leave the app and “Take a picture or video” it would cause a missed time. On the other hand, if a timer has a stopwatch or Dolphin timer, they can easily pull their phone out to take a picture etc. Unfortunately, everyone on the pool deck, spectators included will have phones out taking videos and pictures of their kids similar to year round meets. Hope that helps and I certainly understand the concern. Please let me know if you would like further explanation on any of these! All the best, Hayes |
