On the morning of 26 September 2020 more than 1,300 skaters started the Shaanxi Roller Marathon at Shuangzhao Lake in Xianyang.
TMK timed the race with the Active system, mechanical clocks and TMK score software, all TMK products.
The crew laid and tested the gear before the start and watched it live, so a lost read could be caught.
A TMK timing engineer at work.
At 9:30 the gun sent them onto a new course. The clocks moved and the result screen refreshed as they finished.
Active timing was the right tool: a high read rate, strong rejection of interference, and a light sealed chip that transmits on its own. The same system is used for swimming, skating, triathlon, cycling, karts, motorcycles and drones.
The mechanical digital clock syncs to internet time, with error under 0.05 s. A wireless link keeps several clocks together. It runs on the internal battery or external power, draws little current, and needs no cable, so it can sit on a car roof, the start line or a wall. The digit ticks are part of the noise of the race.
TMK score runs without a network. For a lapped roller marathon you set laps, distance, the start time, and whether start and finish are the same point. One action pulls the decoder data and writes the results.
The race ended. The field, across ages, showed what mass sport looks like. TMK will keep building the technology that lets events start again.