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Countdown: Day 35 - numbers, times and a lot of technique - the timing system
2012-08-26
The yellow boxes at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON
© Mika timing
What would a marathon be without a finishing time? Certainly, not a good one. Therefore, we work with Mika timing, our timing partner. They are not only responsible for a finishing time of each participant, but also for each split time, every five kilometers throughout the 42 km course.
With the race number distribution every participant receives a yellow timing chip. The ChampionChip is a miniature transponder, inside a case. The transponder is a waterproof glass capsule containing a microchip and a coil for the supply of energy.
Once crossing the red tartan mats every five kilometers, this coil is charged by a magnetic field and enables the chip. Since the ChampionChip does not require batteries, it is with its four grams a real lightweight and guaranteed maintenance-free. During this charging, each chip transmits simultaneously its individual identification code to the timing system that transfers the data in real time to a computer.
208 of the tartan mats are placed around the 42 km long course. In addition, 65 so-called DigiBoxes are installed along the course. These yellow boxes receive, together with the mats, the individual chip-code of each chip. Furthermore 25 yellow cases, the so-called "ears" that store and transfer the results are used during the race as well as 23 people, who are administering the whole process. The whole equipment is distributed with ten vans to the locations in the night before the start of the BMW BERLIN MARATHON.
At the same time, the technique allows to follow the split times of the runners.
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