Commentator 2

We have developed a new plugin to make visualizing participants with reads in specific locations much easier: Commentator 2.

The principle charateristics of commentator 2 are:

• Much faster. With this new version, it takes only 1 to 2 seconds to display the participant's name when the reading is received at the selected location.

The participants name will be displayed once copérnico finishes calculating the time position. Both of these data points will be displayed 4 to 6 seconds later. 

• Personalized columns. You will be able to show all the participants data that you consider necessary. For example: bib number, name, surname, club, team, type of team, time of any of the available locations...
• Personalize style and format. Using basic CSS programming you can personalize distinct components of the style and format. 
  
  
• Personalized header and footer.
  
  
• Multiple devices. Share a link with anyone so they can view the data.
  
  
• Static page. The user can view it, but cannot interact with it. Neither search nor navigation is allowed. That is, the information is displayed as it occurs, but you can not navigate to see the first 50 that have been displayed, you can only view what you see on the screen. Therefore, you can't search for a bib either, for that you can always go to participants in copérnico.
  
  
• Data is only shown in streaming. The information displayed is not permenant. This means that if data is reloaded, either by reloading the page by pressing F5 or by any other means, the data displayed up to that moment will be lost, and data will not be displayed again until new data is received.

If by mistake you reload the page, once the reload has been completed, it will be shown empty until new readings occur at the selected location.

How to set up the new commentator 2.0?

The steps to set up commentator 2.0 are:

1. Select the plugins tool on the left hand side of the screen. 

2. Click on commentator 2

3. On the next window click on create first

4. On the next screen set up:
   1. Name. Select a name. This serves to help you diferentiate this commentator fro mothers. For example, FINISH.
   2. Location. Select the location where you want to show data.

This plugin works at a specific location, not at a control point. Select for example, META.

Remember that in a race with laps, you must select the fields where you see a MEGAPHONE so that it is automatically assigned and displays time and position in each of the laps.

3. View configuration. You shoud set up:
   • number of rows: maximum number of rows you want to appear on the screen. This depends on the size of the screen. 
   • Buffer size for duplicate calculation: we recommend that the value matches the number of rows. With this setting the same participant will not be displayed twice on the screen.
4. Table format. You must select the fields you want to display. You can display all the available fields in participants. For example, name, bib number, club, category, etc. You can also configure a custom name for each of the fields to be displayed. This will be displayed in the header of the table.

You can add as many fields as necessary. Everything will depend on the size of the display screen.

We have added the same symbols that exist in participants to make selecting fields easier. Thus, you can find the symbols for net time, category classification, leg time, among others.

We have also added a new symbol, the megaphone, to be used in the case that a participant will pass through a location more than once. For exampe, the finishline in a race with two laps.

5. Template: This refers to display customization. Using CSS/HTML programming language you can style different components.
   • CSS: Use it when you want to personalize the appearance.
   • Header. Use it to customize the header. By default, the race image will be selected with a height of 100 pixels but you can adjust it to your preference.
   • Footer. Use it when you want to personalize the footer.

Preview

On the left hand side of the screen you can see a small monitor to preview the visualization of the data. 

You also have a URL to test the visualization on the screen where you will be displaying data during the race.