Polaritas strives for continuous innovation. RowLux is a start light system designed either to complement or to replace the traditional flag and command word methods used in the canoe-kayak, rowing and dragon boat races. It makes the communication between the athletes and judges straightforward and most importantly it gives an equal chance for each boat in the starting zone.
The RowLux system provides visual and acoustic signals to fully support the judges in the conduction of the complex start procedure. The signal posts are placed on the pontoon for each lane at start, whilst the control box that also operates the Automatic Starting System is installed in the control tower.
The four light signals from the top to the bottom are: yellow light, numerical display, red and green light. The numerical display shows the pre-assigned lane number, set from 0 to 7 by default. This could be overwritten to other characters or boat numbers by connecting the system to a computer.
There are four stages of use:
ATTENTION
The aligner judge can indicate that the start gate area is empty for raising the ‘shoes’. Once the boats are in the starting position, the aligner judge gives the ‘ready to start’ signal, which appears as a white light on the control panel of the starter judge. The starter judge may press the red ‘attention’ button now, which keeps the red light on until the moment of start.
START
The race kicks off upon pressing the green ‘start’ button, which switches the red light to green, supported with a short sound.
FALSE START
For a short period of time (circa within the first hundred meters) the starter judge may stop the race. When this happens the red light starts flashing on the signal posts complemented with an intermittent sound lasting for 15-20 seconds. The aligner judge may also request a false start by pressing the red button that turns on a red light and a beeping sound on the control panel of the starter judge.
WARNING, DISQUALIFICATION
Upon false start, the starter judge warns the athlete(s) with the yellow light flashing. In case of a disqualification, the numerical display starts pulsing on the given signal post and eventually it turns off indicating that the lane has been excluded from the race.
