TV Screens and Playlists

Configuring TVs and Playlists

The Alpha Timing system has highly configurable TV screens that allow a combination of pre-set screens, images and external url’s to be shown when various conditions are met.

TV Module

A TV screen uses a Web Page to display a playlist. A playlist defines what items should be shown and when to show them.  Playlists need to be configured on the Alpha Timing software running on the timing PC.  The TV and Playlist settings can be accessed by selecting the TV module from the left hand menu. TVs can be authorised by clicking the TV tab at the top of the screen. Playlists are configured by clicking on the playlists tab at the top of the screen.

Creating a Playlist

Click the new playlist button to create a new playlist.  First, give the playlist a name, then click on the Add new item button to add an item to the playlist.

Give the play list item a name, then select when the item should be shown. The options are:

• Any session status – the item will be shown regardless of the timing state
• Session ready – the item will be displayed when the next session has been selected as the current timed session (either by clicking or clicking the time next session button below the flags in the right hand section of the timing.
• Session running – the session is currently live (green flag clicked)
• Session finished – the current session has finished, but the event has not yet been completed
• No active session – no session is currently loaded in the timing software

If the session running status has been selected, additional boxes are shown to allow more fine-grained control of what is displayed.  

Entering a positive value in these boxes means that the item will only be shown once the race time (or number of laps) has reached this value.  A negative value means only show until the selected time or laps is remaining. This allows, for example, the grid for the next race to be shown 5minutes before the end of the session on the pit-lane TV screen, or the pitstops screen to be shown after 15 minutes of a race has been run. Multiple activations can be added so, for example, the grid screen can be shown when a session is ready, or the previous session has finished.

The next option is the length of time the play list item should be shown for.  If -1 is entered, the screen will be shown continually whilst the activation conditions are met.  If you want to cycle between various items, enter the number of seconds into the box.  

Note: if a video is being shown, the exact duration of the video in seconds needs to be entered into this box.

The next option is the type of item to show.  The options are:

• Screen – a pre-configured system screen:
• Live timing – the timing screen for the currently live session
• Last session result – the result of the most recently completed session
• Next session grid – the starting line-up for the next session to run
• Session timer – a screen showing the time or laps left for the current session
• Best lap times – the best laps for a particular class (kart type), track and date range
• Scoreboard – a cut-down version of the live timing screen suitable for large outdoor displays.
• Pitstops – Pitstop information for the current session (requires pit timing loops)
• Leaderboard - If a leaderboard merge has been configured for your event, this can be shown
• Image – an image
• Url – a link to an external resource (e.g. a YouTube video)

Additional selection fields are shown depending on which of the above options has been selected. Once all settings have been configured, click the Add item button.  Next, either add additional items, or click the save button to save the playlist. Once your playlist(s) have been configured, you can proceed to set up your screens.

Connecting a TV Screen

The screens are browser based, so can be run from a PC (using Chrome, Firefox or Edge), from a smart TV with a built in browser. To connect a screen, open your web browser and navigate to the following address:

http://[timingPC.local]:8080

You will need to replace [timingPC] with the device name or IP address of the timing computer. To find the device name of your Timing PC, right click on the Start button and select System. To find your PC's local IP address again right click on the Start button and select Network & Internet. Click Properties and look for IPv4 address.

‍Note: it should normally be possible to access the timing computer using it’s machine name, but some devices are unable to resolve the name so the IP address will need to be used.  In this case, please ensure that the timing computer has a fixed IP address.

If this is the first time that the machine has been connected to the timing computer, you will see the following screen:

Above "Localhost" will be replaced with the name of your device

Make a note of the information show, then go to the timing PC and go to the TVs tab of the TV module.  You will see an entry that corresponds to the information on the TV screen. Click the item, give the TV a name so it’s easy to refer to it later, select a playlist and click save. You will now see the selected playlist playing on the TV.  Normally the screen will auto size, but in the rare case it doesn’t you can manually adjust the size using the screen width and screen height boxes on the TV page, below the play list selection.

If the computer has more than one screen connected to it, you can add a unique id for each screen to the URL. Simply add ?sid= then a unique name to the end of the URL e.g. http://[timingPc]:8080?sid=[screenid] where [screenid] is an identifier for that screen (i.e left or top).  Each id will come up as a separate TV in the timing software so you can manage each of them independently.

Any time you want to change the playlist showing on a TV you simply need to find the TV in the timing software, select the new playlist and click save.