Transcript Mulka 2 Workshop

in Hong Kong 5-6 Nov, 2010
Yosuke MATOBA
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Introduction to the use of EMIT / SPORTident system in
Japan
Introduction to Mulka 2 software
Preparation for organising events
Managing Individual events
Managing Relay events
Managing Score-Orienteering (Rogaining) events
Commentary and stage management
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My name is Yosuke Matoba
I was born in January, 1979 (31-years old).
My career as a computer programmer: 22-year experience
since I was 10 years old...
I work at Planning and Coordination Department of a
software company in Tokyo.
I started Orienteering in 1998, when I was a university student.
To be honest, I am not a good orienteering runner... I would
prefer to work at backstage of events, rather than to
compete!
 In my busiest time, I joined more than 10 events as IT
staff every year. The number is now much fewer,
around five events per year.
 I worked as IT Director at WOC2005 and SWOC2009.
 My latest hobbies are growing vegetables, raising cats,
and organising marathon events.
 Hong-Kong goods at my house:
 A T-shirt printed「香港定向」(my wife got this in exchange
of a Japan team T-shirt at JWOC2003)
 An OAHK ballpoint pen (given at APOC / AsOC 2008)
 An OAHK pennant (given at AsOC 2010)
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About 3,000 Orienteering runners all over Japan.
Bigger events attract around 1,000 competitors.
Most runners start Orienteering at university, as
many clubs belongs to universities.
The biggest Orienteering event is the Intercollegiate
Championships.
Although there are several local Orienteering clubs,
not many university students remain as Orienteering
runners after they graduate, which is one of current
problems in Japan.
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Many international events have been held in Japan,
despite the lack of world-class competitors:
World Cup 2000 (Foot Orienteering)
World Games 2001(Foot Orienteering)
World Orienteering Championships 2005
(Foot Orienteering & Trail Orienteering)
World Ski Orienteering Championships 2009
(Ski Orienteering)
Asia Orienteering Championships 2010
(Foot Orienteering)
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World Cup 2000 and World Games 2001were rather
small 2-days events. Some organisations outside
Japan supported us to manage these events.
Compared to them, World Orienteering
Championships 2005 was enormously huge. It was
quite tough. However, we learnt a lot from
organising the international big event.
Mulka 2, which I am going to introduce today, was
developed mainly for WOC 2005.
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In SWOC 2009, we tried to organise the event as
simple but effective as possible. Thanks to many
people’s cooperation, SWOC 2009 was really
successful with receiving very positive feedbacks
from the participants, as well as having no
financial problems.
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For the first time, the EMIT system was used at the
Intercollegiate Championships in 1999.
Since then, more and more events have introduced the
electric punching systems.
Either the EMIT system or SPORTident system is used in
almost all competitions and some big training sessions.
The EMIT system has gained more popularity as the
Intercollegiate Championships mainly uses this system.
In average, about 70% of runners compete with their
own EMIT card at recent events.
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For the EMIT system, a European-made software
called “OEvent” was mostly used until around 2001.
I developed the first version of Mulka in 2002. Since
then, Mulka1/2 (for Orienteering events) and
ESPRESSO 2 (for training sessions) have been used
almost 100%.
For SPORTident, OE2000 series (made in Europe)
are widely used at the moment. As Mulka 2 has been
thoroughly compatible with SPORTident since 2010,
it is expected that Mulka 2 will be used more for
SPORTident data processing.
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Individual race events
Relay events
Score Orienteering / Rogaining
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EMIT, SPORTident, and needle punching systems
are acceptable.
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Any number of participants, from 1 to 2,000 or more
can be processed.
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Easy network access
Both individual events and relay events can be
processed with the same progamme.
Information from Intermediary controls can be dealt.
Supportive data for commentary and stage
management are provided.
Using a starting gate and photo cell system enables
counting by 0.1 seconds.
Any kind of starting and finishing procedures are
acceptable, such as with/without lift-up starting and
with/without punching finishing.
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A short cut is created on the desk top screen.
Click the short cut, then start menu of Mulka 2 appears.
Network Manager : Network Manager is used when
Mulka 2 is used by multiple computers via a network.
Main Window : Main window is used for starting regular
operation windows.
Event Manager : Event manager is used for creating
event data (original setting for each event).
Others : This function is used for starting a programme
for Score Orienteering data processing and a
programme for outputting the data to a big TV screen.
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Double-click “Competitor” on Main Window,
then ”Competitor Information Window” appears,
which shows detailed information about each
competitor.
Right-clicking “View” enables to amend contents
of the view.
The windows can be separated or merged freely.
A name, club name, EMIT card number, “P1” (i.e.
missing 1 control) , as well as start number are
usable to search a competitor on “Search box”.
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For individual race: A Start List file, Class Definitions, and Course
Definitions are necessary.
The Start List file can be prepared by Microsoft Excel based on
raw entry data.
In Class Definitions, details related to each class arrangement,
such as the number of prizes and course allocation, are set by
Event Manager.
In Course Definition, the length and total climb of each course,
course patterns, starting procedure, and finishing procedures
are defined.
 These details can be set by Event Manager, as well as by incorporating
OCAD data.
 In addition to the above, before locating the units at each point, you
can punch the control units used in the courses in the correct order by
an EMIT card, and then use the recorded data to set the details.
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Put a sticker indicating the start number, name,
and start time on the back-up label of each EMIT
card.
The stickers are printed by a label printer linked
to the entry details on a computer.
When participants do not have their own EMIT
card, EMIT cards are provided with the stickered
back-up label to prevent misusing.
In our experience, a couple of EMIT cards out of
several hundreds are found inappropriate,
especially when the outside temperature is low.
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Setting necessary devices and synchronise all
clocks
Reading out the data
Printing provisional results
Managing competitors who have not yet finished.
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It is an important factor that where the EMIT
cards are read.
Normally, we read the EMIT card data at the
finish area, and then transmit the raw data to the
event arena.
However, for some reasons such as no electric
supply at the finish area or short on staff
members, the EMIT card data may be read at the
event arena.
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Sometimes all EMIT cards are once collected at
the finish area to read at the event arena, then
return to the runners there. Although, this
procedure is complicated and troublesome.
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To recognise at least which competitors have
finished, we sometimes set an on-line control
unit at the finish area and ask them to punch at
the unit. The information is transmitted from the
on-line unit to the event arena.
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If all cards can be corrected to be read at another
place, only one PC is required for the operation.
If you read the card data face-to-face with
competitors, it is recommended to use more than
two PCs, particularly the number of competitors is
more than 100.
When two PCs are available, one PC is used for
reading the data and the other one is used for
printing and data processing.
In a big event, several PCs can be used for reading
the data.
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Set places based on “Relay Team” results for each
“Relay Class”.
The Relay Team results are calculated as the total
time of the team members.
The start time is allocated for the first runner only.
The start time of the second runner is automatically
set depending on the time the first runner finished.
Other functions and operations are same as the
individual events.
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”RelayClass.dat” file, to define the Relay Class.
“RelayTeam.dat” file, to define the Relay Team
and members.
In addition to the above, a full set of files which
are used in individual events (such as
“Startlist.dat”, “Class.dat”, “Course.dat” etc.)
In “RelayClass.dat” file, describe the start time, number of
competitors, re-start time for each Relay Class.
In “RelayTeam.dat” file, describe the team name, class of the team,
and bib numbers of each running order.
In “Startlist.dat” file, describe the name of competitor, card number,
and course name.
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Normally, EMIT-cards used for the Relay events
are defined in advance for each team and
running orders.
However, if the team orders have not yet fixed in
advance, enter E-card numbers in the bib
number field of each running order of
“Startlist.dat” file, leaving the names blank.
It is also possible not to define EMIT-cards in
advance. The bib numbers will be entered at the
time of reading the EMIT-card.
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In Relay events, problems of competitors using
inappropriate EMIT-cards or forgetting to
activate the cards.
When inappropriate cards are used, the results
may be shown as “DISQ” or the latter runner
looks to have finished faster than the former
runner.
If suspicions results are found, call out the
relevant competitors to ask for the details.
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Add “Score.dat” file and “Options.dat” file in a full
set of files for individual events.
In “Class.dat” file, describe the competition time
deduction rate if exceeding the competition time,
the finish closing time, as well as class name.
In “Score.dat” file, describe the points of each
control for each class.
In “Option.dat” file, describe a sentence that means
“this event is an score orienteering event.”
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Score-O Viewer is
mainly used for
Score Orienteering
and Rogaining.
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Some views of the Main Window (you can see the
views by clicking the screen and select the
contents) are very useful for live commentary.
For example, “Report View” shows the
information of competitors who have finished, as
well as the time of competitors who have passed
the intermediate controls in real time.
In [Speaker] menu, you can find “Runner Rank
View”, which shows the current placing
considering the information of the time of
intermediate controls.
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For “Results Board”, an auto-printing function of
the name and results is installed on Mulka 2.
Using this auto-printing function, anytime when
a competitor finishes, the name and time are
automatically printed with large characters
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The preliminary results can be shown on a big
screen or projector, if available.
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As explained, if you input the information of
passing intermediate controls into Mulka 2, the
supportive data are available for live
commentary.
On-line control can be used if Wi-Fi is available in
the area. Several other methods can be used, too.
Normally, a mobile phone that can connect to
the internet is used for this purpose. As soon as a
competitor passes the Intermediate Control,
register the data on a particular BBS.
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Mulka2 automatically download the information
from the BBS through the internet and save
them as the Intermediate Control information.
This BBS system is ready as a Web application
(by JAVA). I can provide the source code of the
application. Or an original web application server
(J2EE) can also be used for this function.