OmniTrainer
is a training
tool for Formation Skydiving and Canopy Formation Skydiving
judges. It is intended to familiarize judges with:
- The overall
OmniSkore! electronic judging sequence (Ready, Preview,
Confirmation, etc.)
- Operations of the
OmniSkore! judging panel, especially the procedures for
editing and confirming the scoring results after the skydive is
viewed and before the Event Judge saves the results.
OmniTrainer can be used as a stand-alone
application, but it's real value is in practicing judging with a TV and
VCR playing archived competition footage. By setting up a TV and VCR next
to your computer and practicing with OmniTrainer, and you will a
virtual judge in a virtual competition!
OmniTrainer mimics the
judging sequence without the actual scoring hardware or the Event
Judge. When the OmniTrainer program is
run, two windows appear: the Control Window on the left and
the Panel Window on the right (see pictures below).
The Control Window shows you the status of
the scoring panel shown in the Panel Window. Each status
represents one stage of the judging process as shown in the table
below. Use the "Working Time" option on the Control
Window to select a working time for 4-way FS or 8-way FS.
The Panel Window is a picture that closely
resembles an actual OmniSkore! scoring panel. Although you
can use the mouse to click on the buttons and operate OmniTrainer,
the software was designed to use the keyboard using the Shift
key as the white (confirmation) button, the Ctrl key as
the gray (shift) button, and the arrow keys as the red
buttons. See the Scoring Panel
Operation section below for more detailed information.
Using OmniTrainer - Step-by-step
(if you have not yet done so, install and run the
OmniTrainer program, and optionally set up your TV and VCR with a
training tape)
|
Control Window Status
|
Panel Window
Status |
Comments (what
is going on here during an actual competition) |
| Ready |
Click on the Panel Window title
bar to make it the active window and hit "Enter"
to proceed to Preview Standby.
At any time, press F1 to reset OmniTrainer to the
"Ready" state. Also, while OmniTrainer
is in the "Ready" state, pushing any of the Ctrl,
Shift, or arrow keys will display their
respective functions in the panel LCD. |
The
"Ready" state corresponds to OmniSkore in its
'idle' state, when no judging is taking place. Time for
coffee and donuts. |
| Preview
Standby |
The scoring
panel is now waiting for you to press any red button (any
arrow key) to start the clock. At this point, you should
have the jump cued on the VCR. Play the tape and hit one
of the arrow keys when the team exits to start the clock.
The Control Window automatically changes to "Preview" mode. |
The event judge
cues the tape and waits for all the judges to be ready.
During live judging, this is generally jump run. |
| Preview |
Watch the jump. OmniTrainer
will beep once with 8 seconds of working time left, four
more times for each of the last four seconds, and again at
the end of working time. The Control Window automatically
changes to "Scoring Standby" mode. |
The
event judge rolls the tape. During live judging, the event
judge is recording the jump instead of playing it. |
| Scoring
Standby |
Rewind the tape
to the beginning of the jump and play. Start the clock by
pushing any arrow key when the team exits; the Control
Window automatically changes to "Scoring" mode. |
The event judge
rewinds the tape for the actual scoring pass. Have your
fingers ready on the buttons, and don't be the one to miss
the exit! |
| Scoring |
Score the jump
using the arrow keys as red buttons. Again, OmniTrainer
will beep once with 8 seconds of working time left, four
more times for each of the last four seconds, and again at
the end of working time. The system will wait several
seconds after the end of working time for you to add
another button push if desired; this is the "freeze
frame" during real scoring. OmniTrainer now
switches to the Confirming Score mode for editing and
confirming scores. |
The "DZ
TV" viewing area is packed as everyone watches the
scoring in progress! |
| Confirming
Score |
This is a very
important step! Before confirming your score, you can edit
your score. Look at the LCD panel on the Scoring Panel;
the first scoring formation is highlighted by a blinking
cursor. Use the left and right arrow keys to move the
cursor to a scoring formation you would like to change.
Press and hold the Ctrl key and press an arrow key that
corresponds to the type of button push you wish to change
to - notice the character change under the cursor (see
explanation of symbols below). When
you are done editing your score, press and hold the Shift
key for several seconds until your score is confirmed - OmniTrainer
will now switch to the Score Confirmed mode. |
You don't want
to hold everyone up while you're trying to change that
"0" to a "J" or likewise -- remember
you might be judging live -- so know how to edit your
score quickly and confirm it. |
| Score
Confirmed |
This is where
you would be waiting for other judges to confirm their
scores. Press Enter to proceed through the last state and
back to the beginning to start the whole process over. |
Grab your cup of
coffee while you can, there's another team turning on jump
run! |
Event
Judge Check
|
This
simulates the OmniSkore state during which the Event Judge
modifies, saves, or discards the results of the sequence.
The final, collated score will briefly appear in the
judging panel after the Event Judge saves the results. |
|
Make sure the Preview Standby
mode is selected in the Control Window. Press any scoring (red) button to
start. Then, press one and only one scoring
button for each scoring formation. You can still press a button for a
few seconds after the freeze-frame. Be careful to avoid confirming actions
until after the freeze-frame duration has
expired.
An Important Note on Scoring
Values
The four most commonly used scoring values
are assigned to the buttons: Point, Inter Penalty, Penalty, and Not Judgeable.
Use of the Inter Penalty is optional
and is intended to provide more information to competitors and spectators
on the score sheets. Alternatively, or at the discretion of the Event
Judges, judges may use the Penalty button for both types of
infringements.
The scoring values No Video and Omitted Formation can be entered by the Event Judge after the score
is saved. If this is necessary, be sure to press a button during scoring
as a "place holder" for its later modification.
Editing & Confirming Scores
Use the left and right red buttons as
"cursor" keys while in the Confirming Score mode.
To change a score, press and hold the Shift
(gray) button down while you press the red scoring button of the new
scoring value (Penalty, Point, Not Judgeable, etc.).
If you change a score, the character for a point changes from
"-" to "/", a penalty changes from "0"
to "o", an inter penalty changes from "I" to
"i", and "J" changes to "j".
To insert a score (at the end only), move
the cursor past the end and press Shift+Point. Inside OmniSkore!, the point is registered one second after the last
scoring entry.
To delete a score, highlight the desired
score and press the lower red button for one full second.
To undo your changes and start over, press
and hold the upper red button for one full second.
The above illustration shows a confirmation
example where the judge has changed the fifth scoring entry to a
penalty and has moved the cursor to the sixth scoring entry. The time
of the selected scoring entry and its position in the scoring sequence are
shown in the first line of the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). The
scoring entries (up to 60) are displayed in the second to fourth lines.
Still Confused?
No
worries - give us a holler at timw@omniskore.com
or tedw@omniskore.com
and we'll do our best to straighten out the mess we've made.
Happy
OmniTraining!
- Tim (webmaster) &
Ted (chief engineer) Wagner
http://www.omniskore.com
