HOW IT WORKS

Producing timely and accurate results in the race environment is often a challenge. Readers must perform by reading multiple tags while dealing with motion, distance, crowding, demanding environmental conditions and a variety of materials. IPICO Sports timing systems are designed to meet this challenge.

The IPICO Sports system consists of 3 core components:

  • IPICO Sports Tag
  • IPICO Sports Antenna Mat
  • IPICO Sports Reader

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IPICO Sports timing solutions utilize IPICO's patented Dual Frequency technology (IP-X™ RFID Air-interface Protocol). This technology was developed to overcome the limitations faced by Low Frequency (LF), High Frequency (HF), and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID technologies.

Dual Frequency technology utilizes magnetic induction for both energizing and for communications (similar to LF and HF).

  • Low frequency signal is used for energizing the tags (Advantage:less restrictive regulations compared to HF band allows longer energizing range)
  • High frequency signal is used for communication from tag to reader (Advantage: significantly higher data rates support robust anti-collision, i.e., many tags can be read in a short period of time).

The technology’s real advantage lies in its ability to work even in harsh and challenging environmental conditions. The patented Dual Frequency technology virtually eliminates signal loss and tag read collision and works especially well for objects high in liquid, carbon and electronic content, such as the human body.

Dual Frequency RFID technology offers the following benefits:

  • Short well defined charge range (0.3 m) and read range (2.0 m) allows for better accuracy and precision as compared to UHF RFID technologies (long and variable charge and read range of up to 10 meters)
  • Much longer read range than LF (1.2 – 2.0 meters compared to LF 0.6 – 0.7 meters in ideal circumstances)
  • Higher anti-collision than LF (100 tags/second vs. <5 tags/second)
  • Can read through liquids (in contrast to UHF which reads primarily line of sight)
  • Performs reliably and consistently in close proximity to metals (in contrast with UHF )
  • Works in all weather conditions – including very low to very high temperatures; high moisture environments (antenna works when submerged or buried under snow and ice); and wide-range of problematic surface conditions (salt water soaked sand; granite, reinforced concrete, mud, etc.

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Maximum read rate: 120 tags per second
Read percentage: 99.99
System interface with scoring hardware: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, GPRS Cellular Modem
System interface with Lynx products
Compatibility with scoring software: Apple Raceberry JaM, ChuckScore, ElfScore, LynxPAD, The Race Director, Runrace.net, RunScore, SportScore, Trumin and many other scoring software globally – both commercially and privately developed. Many of our customers have developed custom software packages for their own use.