The rules governing team sports in addition to describing the gameplay also deal with procedural aspects.
All team sports keep score, and, as a rule, clearly set time limits for the various parts of the process.
Simply put, there is the duration of the game as a whole and its parts, as well as penalties, if they exist, and in some sports attack time.
In the past special judges with stopwatches kept track of game process timing.
To understand how difficult it is, let's imagine the following situation in ice hockey: Team A player is penalized for 2 minutes. After 30 seconds another player from the same team is penalized. 50 seconds later a player from team B goes to the penalty box and so on…
To control the penalty box timing for each player together with the game period time becomes quite a task!
There are also simpler situations, such as the countdown 24 seconds attack in basketball. But even here there are nuances - for example, foul by the defending team. In addition to timing, the game information must also be displayed. So it is quite clear that it can’t be done without a specialized computer.
The information displayed on scoreboards varies depending on the sport. In addition to controlling the scoreboard the computer must control other devices like siren for signaling the end of time intervals. It also should be able to provide information to broadcasters TV graphics systems.
Such a device is called Scoreboard Controller. The term is not exactly correct because, beside controlling the scoreboard, it performs other functions.
It consists of several main blocks: a computer with specialized software, special keyboard with current information display and various interfaces for connecting external devices.
At the moment, the most popular scoreboard controllers combine all these blocks in one compact device with low power consumption, high reliability, and protection from accidental erasure of data.
Among the world-famous brands are: Westerstrand, Nautronic, Bodet, Omega, Megalux, TecnoVISION.
Also popular are: NataInfo, Victory, VITA, Araneus-NGLight and ElTablo.
