MULKA 2 WORKSHOP in Hong Kong 5-6 Nov, 2010

Yosuke MATOBA

Agenda 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

About myself 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!

About myself 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)

Introduction to the use of EMIT / SPORTident in Japan

Orienteering society in Japan 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.

Past international events held in Japan 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)

Past international events held in Japan 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.

Past international events held in Japan 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.

Electric punching system 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.

Event management software 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.

Main functions of Mulka 2

Which events & systems Mulka can be used for? Individual race events Relay events Score Orienteering / Rogaining

EMIT, SPORTident, and needle punching systems are acceptable.

Any number of participants, from 1 to 2,000 or more can be processed.

Main features 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.

Basic operations

Starting Mulka 2 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.

Main Window 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”.

Preparations before events

Prepare “Event Data”(necessary data sets) 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.

Prepare EMIT-cards 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.

Managing individual events

On the day of an Event Setting necessary devices and

synchronise all clocks Reading out the data Printing provisional results Managing competitors who have not yet

finished.

EMIT-card reading points 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.

EMIT-card reading points 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.

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.

The number of PCs used for the operation 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.

Managing relay events

Data processing procedures for relay events 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.

Required data ”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.

How to use EMIT-cards effectively 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.

Some important points for reading the cards 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.

Managing Score Orienteering (Rogaining)

Necessary data and settings 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.”

Software used for Score Orienteering Score-O Viewer is

mainly used for Score Orienteering and Rogaining.

Commentary and Stage management

The screen for speakers 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.

Printing result boards 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

Showing the results on a big screen The preliminary results can be shown

on a big screen or projector, if available.

Intermediate Controls 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.

Intermediate Controls 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.