Nowadays the supervision, control and documentation of the events of a racing track is significantly easier by using a race control video system like RingView2. One of the main advantages of these systems is the possibility of the full visual control of the circuit and the immediate detection of any event that risks the safety of the the drivers, personnel or visitors not only on the track but all over the circuit (boxes, pit lane, paddock etc.).

Most of the existing race control video systems are „wired in” and cannot be adopted to another circuit. The RingView2 system, however, can easily be tailored to tracks of different size and facilities and can be downsized even for smaller circuits.

Of course, not only the direct video control but the detailed video documentation of each racing event is very important for the race directors, stewards and for the circuit management. The analysis of the recorded material may later help to overview the disputable situations and clarify the responsibilities. This way the further undue investigations on the responsibility of the race control personnel or the circuit management can be avoided.

Furthermore, the analisys of the accident videos can help to reveal the problematic sections of the track and allows to improve safety.

Scalability is ensured via the high-level modularity of the system meaning that any concrete installation can be put together from a set of basic building blocks, so no time-consuming development process required. Furthermore, this philosophy makes a kind of step-by-step race control system development possible, that is, no elements earlier installed should be thrown away when new modules are to be included. This shortens the time of delivery and saves earlier investments of the track owners.

Quality at an affordable price – that’s our policy. This means that the price differences between larger and smaller circuits are due to quantity and not to quality.

By quantity here we mean the number of cameras, the length of the optical fibres, number of channels to be digitally recorded, the required storage capacity, the number of control and auxiliary monitors etc.

So you can share the race control quality of a F1 hosting circuit like Hungaroring even if you are a smaller one.

The main function of the RingView2 is to ensure that no event on the track avoid the attention of the race management – especially that of the race director.

This is achieved via the optimal positioning of the race control cameras around the track based on the twenty-years experience of our FIA expert advisor. In this way any object on the track – moving or stopped alike – can be observed on at least one of the control monitors in the Race Control Room (RCR).

The applied high-speed dome cameras allow the race director to immediately react to and zoom on any event for having very detailed visual info on the situation in question.

Typical „danger zones” of the track can be pre-programmed using the preset functions of the cameras and this way the required visual info can be displayed in a second via a single click.

The incoming live video from the race cameras are displayed on a monitor wall including 32 LCD screens at a maximum (apart from the aux monitors, see later).

As to the cameras applied in our race control system we generally use Panasonic, Merit-lilin or Pelco speed dome cameras with a typical resolution of 540 lines (570 in B/W mode) and 25x optical zoom. In some cases part of the cameras are fixed ones but generally all cameras are speed domes with a set of preset positions.

Of course any other type of cameras can be used assuming that the camera control protocol is available.

Since our basic philosophy is that no hidden points can be allowed on the track each camera is displayed on one monitor in the video wall. A specific control board is used to select the camera to actually be controlled by the operator. The movement, zoom, focus, stepping etc. of the controlled camera can be done via a multifunctional joystick.

It was an important design issue that the operator be able to perform all camera control activities with one single hand – since the other one usually holds the radio for communicating the marshals or handles the light system– especially in case of hazardous situations.

The other important feature of the RingView2 is the fully computerized 32 channel digital video recording and retrieval system using the highest resulotion SD video (720x576 PAL) at 25 fps.

The recorded video can be reached via a sophisticated software system allowing a detailed analysis of the events on the track.

Video retrieval can not only be done on the basis of time and camera number but via a set of predefined event names associated to a specific video clip. For instance you can look for video clips associated with double yellow flag sign events at a specific marshal post etc.

The video and other info can be distributed over a computer network among the RC, steward room, boxes, press etc.

Beside the screens of the monitor wall the RingView2 system involves four large LCD screens as auxiliary monitors displaying the following items:

• the live video from selected race camera just controlled by the operator,
• fullscreen replay of a previously recorded digital video clip,
• graphical display of the track layout with camera and marshal post positions plus GPS based system time,
• time measurement display.

Each of the functions above can be reached through the central graphical computer screen of the RingView2 system as displayed below.

The recording of the video channels is made in full-triplex way, that is, any video channel is displayed on the monitor wall, recorded and can be replayed simultaneously. This means that any event recognized on the monitor wall by the observer can immediately be replayed and analyzed while the recording is uninterruptedly going on.

This feature helps the race management and the stewards making the necessary „on the fly” decisions influencing the course of the race (for instance drive-through penalties etc.) immediately after the video analysis of the event in question.

Two other important features of the RingView2 system are the event-based video database and the report making facility which both help the detailed post analysis of the race and the preparation of a final event report about the whole race.

The default report language is English, but other language options are also available on request.

The start lights are composed of 4x5 individual LED lamps arranged in five colums with four lamps in each column.

The high brightness LED illumination lamps we use for the lights ensure the perfect visibility from more than half a mile even in bright sunshine.

At the rear side of the start lamp the repeater lights can be installed in different ways according to the needs of the of the track owner - from the simple repeated red lights to the complete duplicate of the front side lights.

The RC room operating unit is the central device by which the race director can manage all of the events on the track depending on the state of the start and pit exit lights. The scale of the events extends from the „red flag” situations when all lights must be switched to red up to the initiation of different starting sequences depending on the race type.

Each function can be activated via simply pushing a button while two-state switches are used to change between the operational modes of the unit (for instance race/practice). For switching the lights on/off high-quality long lifetime LED illuminated buttons (indicating the color of the light switched) are used.

Since the unit is used outside and near to the pit exit it has an extremely robust metal housing with IP65 protection to resist not only the environmental effects but the potential mechanical impacts, too.

All functions of the pit exit lights can be activated from this unit but it is important to note that these commands can be overridden by those from the RC room.

The start lights are composed of 4x5 individual LED lamps arranged in five colums with four lamps in each column.

The high brightness LED illumination lamps we use for the lights ensure the perfect visibility from more than half a mile even in bright sunshine.

At the rear side of the start lamp the repeater lights can be installed in different ways according to the needs of the of the track owner - from the simple repeated red lights to the complete duplicate of the front side lights.

The RC room operating unit is the central device by which the race director can manage all of the events on the track depending on the state of the start and pit exit lights. The scale of the events extends from the „red flag” situations when all lights must be switched to red up to the initiation of different starting sequences depending on the race type.

Each function can be activated via simply pushing a button while two-state switches are used to change between the operational modes of the unit (for instance race/practice). For switching the lights on/off high-quality long lifetime LED illuminated buttons (indicating the color of the light switched) are used.

In the above we briefly introduced our systems developed for auto and motor racing circuits intending to improve the safety and race management quality on their tracks. Both our race control video system RingView2 and the start and pit exit lights management system LightMan are not only the result of many years of development but they have many successful years of operation on different circuits, too.

The system is also suitable for complete  management of  kart and training tracks, test facilities etc.