No. FinishLine runs on the phones and tablets your crew already has. There is no finish-line rig to buy, no cables to run across the track, and nothing to store between seasons.
That is the whole point of the design. Traditional fully automatic timing means a dedicated camera on a tripod, a wired or radio link to the starting gun, a laptop running proprietary software, and someone who knows how to set all of it up. For a youth league or a small high school program, that equipment costs more than the season does and usually ends up in the hands of the one volunteer who understands it.
What you actually bring
- Phones and tablets. One per crew position. See how many devices do I need for the shapes that work.
- A normal mobile connection. No track Wi-Fi, no hub, no base station. See connectivity at the track.
- Your usual starting pistol, if you use one. FinishLine listens for it rather than replacing it.
That is the list.
What replaces the hardware
Each piece of a traditional timing system has a software counterpart that runs on an ordinary device:
| Traditional rig | What FinishLine uses instead |
|---|---|
| Wired start sensor on the gun | A device at the start that hears the gun and timestamps the sound |
| Finish-line camera and controller | Any device's camera running in line-scan mode |
| Timing console and cabling | Every device on one shared clock, coordinated over cellular |
| Laptop and results software | The record keeper's device, publishing as the meet runs |
Photo finish is not a paid add-on. Line-scan photo-finish capture is available at every level, including the free standalone timer. It is a standard capability, not an upsell.
Where the accuracy comes from
Without hardware, the honest question is where the precision goes. Two answers:
- Every device measures against the same clock. Times captured on separate phones are directly comparable because each one continuously tracks a single shared time source, not its own wall clock. This is covered in how the clock sync works.
- The remaining error is human, and it is removable. A finger tap carries roughly 150 to 250 ms of reaction time. The acoustic start removes that error at the start, and photo finish removes it at the line for the heats where places are close.
If you do add hardware later
Nothing in the design blocks it. A hardware trigger at the finish, if you ever want one, produces a timestamp on the same shared clock that a tap does. Everything downstream, results, corrections, publishing, and export, is unchanged. The upgrade path stays open without asking you to buy in now.
Did this answer your question? If something here is wrong, missing, or out of date, tell us at support@finishlinetimer.com and we’ll fix it.