Running two events at once

Audience: Timing operators running two events on one meshO Manager on the same day: a morning race whose last runners are still out when the afternoon race starts, a foot-O and an MTBO side by side, or a schools event and a club event sharing a venue.

meshO Manager can have several events in progress at once. Each event keeps its own entries, results, downloads, backups and publishing, exactly as if it were the only one. The part they share is the radio network: every radio punch is heard by every live event. Most of this page is about setting the events up so that Manager can tell whose punch it is.

That setup is yours to get right. Manager goes on what the entries, the codes and the start windows tell it; where they leave a punch open to more than one reading, it has no way to know which is true, and a punch can end up in the wrong event. The more of the setup below you do, the less is left to chance.

How Manager decides whose punch it is

A radio punch carries two things: a card number and a control code. When the card is entered in only one of the events, that settles it: the punch counts there and nowhere else.

Two kinds of card are not settled by the card number alone:

• A card entered in neither event. A hire card that never made it onto an entry, or a late entry not typed in yet. Without more to go on, each event lists it as an unknown runner on its course.
• A card entered in both events. Somebody running both races, or a family card used by a parent in the morning and a child in the afternoon. Without more to go on, the afternoon start punch could put the morning entry back on the course.

For these, Manager looks at how the run began. Every run starts with a Start or Check punch, and Manager decides from that punch which event the whole run belongs to, up to that event's finish. You give Manager what it needs in one of two ways, depending on how the day is laid out.

How the day runs	What to set up
The two events start at the same time, or their start times overlap	Give each event its own Start and Check units
The events start at different times of day	Start windows — usually nothing to do

If you set up neither, Manager behaves as it always has: a punch counts in every event where its card is entered, and an unentered card shows as unknown in each event. With good entries that is often enough. It is the hire cards and the shared cards that need the setup.

Starts that overlap: give each event its own Start and Check units

When both events have runners starting at the same time, give each event's start and check boxes different control codes. A punch at the afternoon race's start code belongs to the afternoon race, whoever's card it is.

For example:

	Start codes	Check codes	Finish codes
Morning race	1	3	2
Afternoon race	10	11	2

1. Program the SportIdent units at each event's start and check with that event's codes. See Station configuration.
2. On each event's dashboard, open Event details → Radio controls, and under Start/finish/check radio control codes enter its Start codes and Check codes. Several codes go in one box separated by commas, for an event with more than one start.
3. The finish can be shared. A run ends at the first finish punch of the event it belongs to, so two events may use the same finish code.

New events take their codes from the defaults in Settings, so both events will start with the same codes. Change the second event's.

Starts at different times: start windows

When the morning race starts between 10:00 and 11:00 and the afternoon race between 13:00 and 14:00, both can use the same start and check units. The time of the start or check punch says which race it is: a punch at 13:20 belongs to the afternoon race.

Each event's start window runs from its first start to its last.

• Allocated starts or a mass start: nothing to do. Manager takes the window from the start list: from the earliest allocated start to the latest, including class and event mass starts.
• Punching starts: state the window. An event where runners start whenever they arrive has no start list for Manager to read. Open Event details → Starts, turn on Start window, and enter the First start and Last start.

A punch inside one event's window belongs to that event. A punch outside every window belongs to the event whose window is nearest, so a check punch five minutes before the afternoon window opens, or a late starter twenty minutes after the morning window closes, still goes to the right race.

Manager will not guess. Every event sharing the codes needs a window. If the two windows overlap and a punch falls in both, or a punch falls exactly halfway between them, the run is left undecided and behaves as if nothing had been set up. Leave a gap between the windows. If the starts must overlap, give the events their own Start and Check units instead.

Changing it during the day

You can set the codes or a start window after the runs have begun. When you save, Manager decides every run again. A runner who had been put on this event's course by the other event's run comes off it again, and the other event's runner stops showing as unknown.

Setting up the day

Work through this before the first start, on the computer that runs Manager.

1. Both events have the same date. Manager only matches runs between events of the same day.
2. Both events take the radio punches. Under Event details → Radio controls, turn on Use meshO Prime for radio punches, Accept SIRAP punches, or both, on each event that uses radios. See Connecting meshO Prime and radios.
3. Tell the events apart. Use separate Start and Check codes or start windows, as described above.
4. Enter people in the event they run. Somebody running both races is entered in both, on the card they will carry. Hire cards handed out for one race are entered in that race.
5. Decide which desk downloads which event. Each download desk reads cards into the event it has open. You can have a desk per event, or one desk that switches between them. See Downloading cards.
6. Point each screen at its event. A leaderboard, commentary or TV screen that isn't set to an event follows the most recently started one, so it jumps to the afternoon race when that starts. Set each screen to its own event. The spectator site, the kiosk and the info displays ask which event to show. See TV screens.
7. Check printing on both events. The splits and result label settings are per event; look at Event details → Printing on each. See Printing splits.
8. A live standby follows both. If you use one, it keeps a copy of every live event, and a take-over takes them all. See Live standby.

On the day

Starting. Start the first event as usual. When the second is due, open its dashboard and click Start event; the first carries on. A desk feeds the event it has open, so check the event's name on its dashboard before reading cards there.

Download desks. A desk reads into the event it has open. If you read a card entered in the other live event, the desk says so (This card is entered in Afternoon race (Jane Smith)) and links to that event's download page. Read the card again there.

The radio card download station. Cards read over the radio at the finish go to the live event where the card is entered. If both events have it, the event where that runner hasn't downloaded yet gets it, and after that the most recently started event. A card entered in neither event goes to the event that adds competitors for unknown cards, if only one of them does, and otherwise to the most recently started event.

Radio punches. Each event's Radio punches list holds every punch the network heard, including the other event's. Use the Show filter to choose what you see:

• This event and unknown cards (the default): this event's runners, and cards nobody is entered against.
• Other events' runners too: the other event's punches as well, named with their event in grey, for example Jane Smith — Afternoon race. They change nothing in this event.
• Unclaimed cards only: the cards nobody is entered against in any event today. These are the hire cards and late entries to chase.

On course and Pending. Each event's On course and Pending lists, and its unknown-card counts, show only its own runners. The other event's runners appear on the other event's lists. See Seeing who is still on course.

If Manager restarts. Every event that was live comes back as Interrupted. Manager offers to resume one of them when it starts. Open the other's dashboard and click Resume event to carry it on as well.

Finishing

Finish each event on its own, from its dashboard, when everyone in it is back. Finishing one leaves the other running: its backups, its live results export, its liveresultat publishing and its radio feed all carry on.

Don't finish the morning race while its last runners are still out. Once an event is finished it stops taking radio punches, so a straggler's finish punch reaches only the afternoon race, where it is recorded as another event's run and changes nothing. Do the safety check on each event before you finish it.

Good to know

• A replay can't run while any event is live, and no event can start while a replay runs.
• Codes beat windows. When the two events have different Start and Check codes, the code decides and the windows are not used.
• The radio card download station does not yet use the start punch to route a card that is entered in neither event. That card goes where the entries send it, as described above.