Customized FOR-A System Used During Winter Games' Ice Skating Competition

Making its first Olympics appearance, FOR-A's customized "InstantReplay" system found itself in the midst of the heated Winter Games'figure-skating judging controversy. FOR-A designed the Instant Replaysystem, which uses 12 FOR-A LDR-110 digital disc recorders to capture askater's performance for fast and easy review.

"Using Instant Replay, the judges can quickly locate a portion ofthe skating program they'd like to see again," explained AndrewAlexander, Vice President of FOR-A Canada. "It's extremely easy to useand offers instantaneous access. While this is the first time thesystem has been used in the Olympics, it has performed flawlessly forthe International Skating Union (ISU) for three years now. The systemwas designed and selected by the ISU as a new tool for their judges."Research and development took place over two years with considerableoperational input from the skating community.

The custom system, based on FOR-A's LDR-110 digital disc recorder,uses programmable AMX video touch panels. As the skaters perform theirroutines, a system operator marks the in and out points of the skater'srequired elements ("death spiral," "triple jump," etc.) in his/herroutine. All skating judges have their own touch panels and can thenreview the segments by pressing buttons with the name of the element.The Instant Replay system also interfaces with computer scoringsystems. The ISU uses the Instant Replay system at its four majorevents: the World Championships, the Junior World Championships, theEuropean Championships, and the Four Continents event.