[07/16/09]
ChronoTrack Systems Inc. announced that the company's race timing system, based on Impinj UHF Gen 2 RFID technology, performed flawlessly at the inaugural running of the Seattle Rock & Roll Marathon on June 27.
The sold-out event saw over 25,000 participants and featured both a half and full marathon that utilized the RFID-based system to record runners' times at more than 18 points along the course.
At each timing point, Impinj Speedway readers and Threshold reader antennas supported the monitoring of runners' times. All runners wore ChronoTrack "D-tags," powered by Impinj's Monza tag chip and UPM Raflatac's DogBone tag antenna. The "D-tag" allows race organizers to print an integrated bib and tag for each participant, encoding the runner's bib number into the tag's RFID chip at the time of printing. The tag peels off the bib and attaches to a runner's shoe. ChronoTrack's tag solution is lighter and less expensive than previous timing methods, and - most important to race organizers and participants - disposable. Runners no longer need to stand in long lines to "chip-return" their timing devices as with previous solutions. The system scales to any size race, operates in all weather conditions, and provides reading accuracy that exceeds all other timing solutions on the market today.
"Through our partnership with ChronoTrack, we've been using Impinj technology to time more than 300,000 runners at the Rock & Roll series of marathons," said Dennis Ikenberry, CEO of Race Central. "We switched to Impinj UHF RFID products to remain on the cutting edge of timing technology as we have done over the past 30 years when we first brought computer and barcode scanning technology to road runs."
"The rapid adoption of Impinj UHF RFID technology in race timing applications is no surprise to us," said Kerry Krause, vice president of marketing for Impinj. "Our products are a perfect fit because they enable measureable improvements in the accuracy of the entire race timing infrastructure, which the athletes like, while providing real cost-efficiencies for the race organizers."
To date, ChronoTrack Systems has successfully timed more than two million race finishers, and the company expects as many as 1,200 North American events will utilize the race timing technology in 2009. When combined with the industry leading performance of Impinj RFID technology, ChronoTrack brings event organizers, race timers and athletes a timing system that meets real-world needs by providing simplicity, accuracy, reliability and convenience.
About ChronoTrack Systems
ChronoTrack Systems Inc., the pioneers of disposable timing, is a timing and tracking company that has developed a system for timing athletic events including road races. ChronoTrack offers full-service race timing packages including over 50 internationally certified race timers, tags and race timing equipment. For more information, visit www.chronotrack.com.
About Impinj, Inc.
Impinj Inc., is the world's leading technical innovator in developing UHF Gen 2 RFID solutions for both item-level and supply-chain tagging. Impinj draws on its technical expertise and industry partnerships to deliver a wide range of products and solutions comprising high-performance tag chips, readers, reader chips, software, antennas and systems integration. Impinj's products provide unprecedented performance, integration and cost effectiveness to a global customer base across numerous vertical markets with applications including inventory management, asset tracking, authentication and serialization. For more information, visit www.impinj.com.
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