By default the Start Times (T0) will be set per Contest, however many races require wave starts according to other criteria such as age group, a pre-defined wave number or at scheduled intervals in races such as Time Trials, they may even be random waves with athletes checked in for each. 

Pre-Assigned Waves

If wave starts are pre-defined by some criteria then you can set the Start Times to Wave Start according to: and then enter the required field or expression in the entry field, this can be any text or numerical value. 

The list of Start Times will now show a record for each value which is entered in that field or returned by the expression, it will also return an entry with a blank title where no value is returned. 

You can now enter a Start Time for each wave as normal. 

 

Calculated Wave Starts

The alternative is to calculate a wave start time or assigned start time directly in a result, this is useful for Time Trials or races where waves of participants start at fixed intervals, such as pool-based triathlons. 

In a result create the calculation, for example if participants are in pre-assigned waves and each wave starts 30 seconds apart then you could import the Wave number to an ATF and then your Start Time Calculation could be:

We still use T0 for the first wave to start and then for each wave 30 seconds is added, similar expressions could use a Bib number or sorting rank for individual time trial starts. This does rely on each wave starting on time. 

When using a calculated wave start then you should disable Subtract Start Time (T0) in your Timing Point setup, and you would need to subtract the calculated start time for the relevant results. 

 

Random Waves

The final option occurs when no fixed waves are assigned, participants may be checked in over a specific timing point and then started in groups of a certain size. 

In this way T0 is irrelevant, so again ensure this is not subtracted from your results. Setup a result using an advanced rule to take the appropriate check-in time, most likely the Maximum detection at your check-in Timing Point. 

You can then use the Marker on the decoder and capture a marker for each wave start, and use a second result with an advanced rule to look for the appropriate marker. This is most likely to be the First Marker after the check-in result. 

You can now use this result as your reference to subtract as the Start Time. 

 

Participants in the Wrong Wave

If a participant does not start in the correct wave then you can either change the value of the assigned wave value or overwrite the time in the individual participants results. A second wave override ATF is also commonly used as part of an expression so that waves can be re-assigned if the waves are based on a fixed value such as Gender or Age Group.