Appearance
The spectator site and kiosk
Audience: Event organisers deciding how competitors and spectators will follow the race, and the operator who puts a kiosk up in the finish arena.
Manager has a complete public results site built in. Anyone on the event's network can open it on their own phone and follow the race as it happens: live results per class, a feed of starts and radio passes, start times, splits, the finished results and a set of analysis graphs. Nothing has to be installed and nothing has to be set up in advance — the site follows whichever event you have started.
The same site comes in two forms:
| Opened at | Made for | |
|---|---|---|
| Spectator site | http://<server-address>/ | Phones — each spectator or competitor on their own device |
| Kiosk | http://<server-address>/kiosk | A shared touch screen in the finish arena, where competitors walk up after downloading and look themselves up |
Both only read. Nothing on either can change the event, and neither asks for the access PIN.
Note: These are separate from the arena TV screens you build on the Screens page (a leaderboard, a Live top 10 wall, start times) and from the info screens at
/info(a start clock, a radio-control feed). Those show one thing, chosen by you, to a crowd. The spectator site and kiosk let each person look up what they want. See Creating screens and Event info screens.
Getting people onto it
Both links are in Settings → Server → Access links, listed as Spectator and Kiosk, each by the computer's name and by its IP address.
- Spectators' phones — use the name link. Phones find the computer's name on their own. Press Show QR code beside it and put the code where people will see it — on a printed sign at the arena, the event information, a TV — so a phone camera opens the site with nothing to type. See Reaching the server: name or IP.
- The phones have to be on the event's network. The site is served by the Manager computer itself, so spectators join the venue Wi-Fi you are running. If you let the public on that network, set an access PIN first — see The public on the same network below.
- People at home can't reach a computer in a field. For them, publish to liveresultat during the race, and to the meshO cloud afterwards (see On events.mesho.live).
- The QR code on the splits slip. If you print splits with a QR code set to Use this server's spectator URL, a competitor who scans their slip lands on the spectator site with themselves already set as the phone's Focused competitor (below). See Splits printing → The QR code.
Which event it shows
The site always shows the event that is Live — the one you have pressed Start event on. The link carries no event, so the same link and the same QR sign work at your next event.
- Before you start the event, and after you finish it, there is no live event. The site's front page then lists Recent events — finished events on this computer, newest first — and a visitor can tap one to browse it after the fact. The kiosk shows "There is no live event at the moment. Check back when an event is underway." above its own, shorter list.
- An event still in Setup is not shown to the public at all, so nothing you are still building leaks out early.
- With two events live at once, the front page and the kiosk ask which one to show, and stay on the one chosen while it is live. See Two events live at once.
- On a local server the front page also offers a link to events.mesho.live, where finished events published to the cloud can be found.
What's on the spectator site
The front page is a column of tiles, with the event clock and a flag menu (language and theme) in the header.
| Tile | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Live results | Every class (or course) as a card with how many have finished and how many are on course. Tap one for its live table |
| Action stream | A live feed of starts, radio passes and finishes, newest first |
| Watching | A personal list of competitors to follow |
| All competitors | Everyone in the event, searchable by name or card number, as one list, by class or by club |
| Start times | The start list, grouped by class or by course |
| Results | The results by class or by course — the tables to read once a class is done |
| Analysis | Graphs of the race: a live board while it runs, and many more once cards are read |
| Splits | Full split tables, by class or by course |
Focused competitor
At the top of the front page sits a Focused competitor card: Tap to set, search for a name or card number, and that runner's card stays pinned there — class, course, start, last radio control seen, finish, time, position and how far behind, and once their card is read, their full splits and an analysis of their run (Mistakes and Strong legs). It is meant for "my runner": a competitor checking themselves, or a parent following a child.
The choice is kept in that phone's browser, not in the event, so each phone has its own. Scanning the QR code on a splits slip sets it to the runner on the slip.
Live results
The Live results list shows every class with an N on course and N finished badge. A class opens as a table: name, club, time, and a penalty or points column where the class is scored that way. Runners still out are shown On course, with a predicted time where a radio control lets Manager estimate one.
The ⋮ menu in a class's header switches between Finished order and Predicted order. Relay classes show teams, with each leg's runner beneath.
Switch to By course at the top to list courses instead, and open one for everyone on it — see By course.
Action stream
Every start, radio pass and finish as it arrives, each with its time and how far behind the leader that runner is. Tap the bar at the top (Tap to select classes or competitors…) to narrow it to some classes or a handful of people. The filter is remembered on that phone.
Watching
Add any number of competitors and their cards stay together on one page, updating as they start, pass radio controls and finish. Sort by status or by name, and expand or collapse all the cards at once. The list is kept in the phone's browser.
Start times
Every class's start list, with start time, name and club. Filter to some classes, or to one club, at the top — handy for a club coach checking their juniors' starts. By course lists each course's starts instead, with the class on every row.
Results
The by-class results. Pick which classes to show, how many places — All, Top 3, Top 5 or Top 10 — and optionally one club. A summary table lists each class's entries and how many are OK, mis-punched, did not finish and so on. While a class still has runners out, its heading says it is still in progress; a top-N table that someone still out could break into is marked Provisional top N.
By course shows one table per course, with the same Top N and club choices; the summary table is by class, so it is left off there.
By course
Live results, Start times and Results each have By class and By course tabs at the top, and the phone remembers which you last used. By course lists everyone on one course, whichever class they entered, with a Class column saying which. On the two results screens the places and the time behind are worked out across the whole course, so the fastest runner on a course shared by M20 and W20 is first there even though each class has its own winner; choosing one club or a top N shortens the table without changing anybody's place. Relay classes are left out of the course lists, because a leg runner's time is the team's; they are under By class as always. A runner in a class with a choice of courses appears in the course results once their course is known — assigned to them, or read from their card. Start times lists them the way a Start times screen does: under their course if it is known, otherwise under the class's first course.
Splits
Pick a class (or switch to By course) to see every downloaded runner's split at every control. The View control colours the same table different ways: Ranks, Rainbow, Pace, Behind and Position. A class running several courses asks which course first. Splits come from downloaded cards, so a class appears here once its first runner has downloaded.
Analysis
Analysis has three tabs: By class, By course, and Multi class.
Pick a class or course and choose a graph from the menu. Every graph has an About this graph button that explains, in plain words, how to read it; a Competitors button picks whose lines are drawn (all, top 3, 5 or 10, or by hand); and a graph can go Full screen.
While the race is running, the graph on offer is Live top 10 — the race as it stands, ten deep, including everyone still out in the forest. Each lane is one runner's course from start to finish with a node at each radio control. A runner still out stands on a projected finish (marked ~), worked out from their time at their last radio control, which is what lets someone well up at radio 3 sit above a runner already home. The colour of each stretch compares it with that runner's own pace over the rest of the course, so deep red is a stretch that cost them.
Once cards are downloaded, the finisher graphs join it. In brief:
| Graph | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Time behind Superman | How far each runner was behind an imaginary runner who took the fastest split on every leg — sharp dips are where the time went |
| Time behind leader | The gap to whoever was actually leading at each control |
| Stacked breakdown | Each runner's whole race as a bar, leg by leg |
| Time behind heatmap / Mistake heatmap | A grid of runners against legs, coloured by time lost |
| Mistake frequency by leg / Mistake time percentage by leg | Which legs caught the most people out — useful to the course setter |
| What-If clean race | The finish order if nobody had made a mistake |
| Pack dynamics | Who led and who followed when runners were together on course |
| Percentile band | How spread out the field was on each leg |
| Fatigue / Split vs distance scatter | Whether runners faded as the course went on, and pace against leg length |
| Position bump / Split rank progression | Overall place after every leg, and who won each leg |
| Race timeline / Race replay | The race drawn against the time of day, and an animated replay of the field |
Some graphs only appear where they can mean something: the mistake graphs and Fatigue are left out for score courses (nobody ran the same legs), and Fatigue and Split vs distance scatter need leg lengths in your course data. For a relay, the graphs lay the legs end to end, and you can pick a single leg to compare just that leg's runners.
Multi class
Multi class draws one graph for several classes side by side — up to twelve. Pick the classes, choose Live top 10 or Live position under Graph, and press Show. Tap one board to look at it alone, and again to bring the others back. The classes picked are remembered on that device.
- Live top 10 is the same board as above, one per class.
- Live position is a line chart of each class: where every runner stands in the field at each radio control, counted across everyone who has reached it — so it shows who is closing on whom during the race.
A board that cannot be drawn says why instead:
| What the board says | What it means |
|---|---|
| This class has no radio controls | Live position only — it needs at least one radio control on the class. Live top 10 works without one |
| This class runs several courses | The class has more than one course, so there is no single board to draw |
| No board for this class | A relay, a score course, or a class with no course — nothing to fix |
| Nobody has been seen yet | No punches for this class so far |
| Live data could not be loaded | A connection problem, not a fact about the class — it recovers on its own |
Tip: For a wall of these on a TV that nobody touches, use a Live top 10 screen or an analysis wall from the Screens page instead — its classes are set in Manager rather than on the device. See Creating screens.
The kiosk
The kiosk is the same site laid out for a large touch screen: big tiles, larger text, and no typing needed to get started. Put it where competitors come after downloading — next to the download tent or the results board — so they can look up their time, their place and their splits while they are still standing there.
Its home screen has six tiles — Live results, All competitors, Start times, Results, Analysis and Splits — with an Action stream button, the event clock and the language menu across the top. Classes are chosen from a grid of large tiles rather than a dropdown. Results has tabs for By class, By course, Top 3, By club and All results.
Live results, Start times and Results can be read By course here too, as on the spectator site (By course): the course is chosen from a tile, and opens as that course's own page.
Two things from the spectator site are left out, because they belong to one person's phone: the Focused competitor card and Watching.
It goes back to its home screen on its own. After a minute with nobody touching it, the kiosk returns to the tiles, so the next person doesn't find the last person's splits half-scrolled. A replay that is playing (Race replay, or the Race timeline's replay) holds it where it is until the replay ends. A kiosk opened on a past event from its Recent events list stays where it is.
Setting up a kiosk
- Use a touch screen big enough for two or three people to read at once — a large tablet, a touch monitor on a laptop, or an all-in-one. It was designed for a large-format touch screen.
- Open the Kiosk link from Settings → Server → Access links. A tablet can use the name link; a laptop running Chrome should use the IP link.
- Make the browser full screen (
F11on most desktop browsers) so there is no address bar to wander off into. - Choose its look under Settings → Appearance → Theme: Kiosk has its own light/dark setting. Dark is easier to read in a tent; light in sunshine.
- Switch off the device's sleep and screen lock, and keep it on power.
The kiosk keeps working through a lost connection — it shows "Failed to connect to server. Retrying…" and picks up again on its own when the server is back.
Tip: To have a kiosk start on its own every morning — a mini PC or a Raspberry Pi behind a touch screen — start Chromium in its kiosk mode pointed at the IP link, as described for the info screens in Starting a screen on its own. Use
/kioskin place of the/info/...address.
Warning: Anyone at a kiosk can leave it — the browser is still a browser. If that matters, lock the device itself to the one app (Guided Access on an iPad, screen pinning on Android, or a kiosk-mode browser on a computer).
What the public can't see
The spectator site and kiosk are public, and Manager treats them that way whatever the device:
- Quarantined classes. While a class's results are held back, both show its start list, and in place of its results, splits and graphs a notice such as "Results will be shown from 11:34." (or "Results are not being shown yet." when the release depends on something not yet known). The class appears on its own when released — nobody needs to reload. See Results quarantine.
- Birth year and sex are never sent to either, locally or on the cloud. See Birth year and sex.
- Notes and custom competitor fields are not displayed — but they are carried in the competitor data these pages read, so don't write in them anything you would not want a competitor to see. See Notes.
The public on the same network
If spectators join the network the operators use, set a PIN in Settings → Access protection. The manager screens and the registration desk then ask for it, while the spectator site, the kiosk, the leaderboard and the other public screens stay open without it. A PIN also matters for a results quarantine: without one, Manager cannot tell an official's screen from a spectator's. See Settings → Access protection and Multi-operator setup.
On events.mesho.live
If cloud sync is on, a finished event is published to events.mesho.live, and the spectator site is how people browse it there. See Settings → Cloud sync for when it is uploaded and how to keep an event off it.
The cloud copy differs from the site at the arena in a few ways:
- It opens on a list of events (Events, newest first, with a LIVE mark on any still running) rather than on one event.
- A finished event shows only the after-the-fact tiles: All competitors, Results, Analysis and Splits. Live results, the action stream, watching and start times are about a race in progress and are left off.
- There is no Focused competitor card — the cloud is a shared public page, not a phone at the event.
- There is no kiosk, and no leaderboard or commentary screen. Those addresses lead to the events list.
The same rules about what the public can't see apply there.
Languages and appearance
The flag in the header of the spectator site and the kiosk opens a menu with every language Manager is translated into and a light / dark / follow-the-device choice. A visitor's choice applies to that browser only and is remembered there.
Until someone chooses, a screen starts in the Default language set in Settings → Appearance, and in the Theme set there for Spectator or Kiosk. Set the kiosk's language there before the event, so it greets everyone in the language most of your competitors read. See Settings → Appearance.
Note: The names in your event — classes, clubs, controls, the event name — are shown as you typed them. Only Manager's own wording is translated.
Spectator analytics
Manager counts how the spectator site and kiosk are used, so you can see whether people are watching and what they look at. Open it from the event menu: Event live → Spectators. It appears once the event has started, and stays available after you finish it. The dashboard's Spectators tile shows the same "watching now" number at a glance.
The page shows:
- Spectators, Home views, Peak, Avg and Watching now across the top. "Watching now" counts browsers that did something in the last five minutes.
- Concurrent viewers — a chart of how many were watching through the day.
- Engagement funnel — of everyone who visited, how many viewed a competitor, set a focused competitor, and added someone to a watch-list.
- Session duration — how long visits lasted.
- Engagement — how many focused competitors were set, split into Manual and QR (from scanning a splits slip), and how many watch-list adds.
- Breakdowns of the Popular analysis charts, Most-popular classes, Platform / browser, Most-viewed pages, and the most-viewed, most-focused and most-watched competitors.
Until anyone visits, the page says No spectator activity yet.
Good to know:
- A visitor is a browser, not a person. Each browser gets an anonymous id the first time it opens the site; nothing about who they are is recorded. A kiosk counts as one visitor however many people use it.
- A browser that refuses to store anything — a private window, for instance — is not counted, though the site works normally for it.
- The figures belong to the event and are kept with it for its life. They count visits to this Manager's own site and kiosk; people browsing the event's cloud copy on events.mesho.live are not included.
Related
- Reaching the server: name or IP — which link to hand out, and the QR codes
- Multi-operator setup — every device at the event and what it opens
- Creating screens and TV screens — the arena displays you configure yourself
- Event info screens — start clock, radio-control feed and the other
/infodisplays - Results quarantine — holding back elite results from every public display
- Splits printing — the QR code that brings a competitor to their own result
- Publishing live results online — results for people who are not at the event