ClearStream Puts the Track in Track and Field

With ClearStream RFID, Entry App conquered a challenge it had with crowded fields at any particular measuring point that made manual timing a challenge, tending to result in missed and inaccurate data collection.

United Kingdom (July 17, 2018) - Since 1997, UK’s Entry App has provided a full menu of services for timed sporting events such as running races, triathlons, and duathlons. For everything from registration to PA systems and race timing, Entry App is the company to go to for getting your competition, big or small, out of the starting blocks and headed toward a successful finish.

For the larger events Entry App serviced, it faced a challenge—crowded fields at any particular measuring point made manual timing a challenge, tending to result in missed and inaccurate data collection.

Entry App founder and director Andy Harsant decided to address this issue with RFID technology. With RFID tags embedded in competitor’s ID numbers, times could be read at pre-determined, fixed RFID points—allowing for automatic timing of races. It was the right idea but, in practice, difficult to achieve. Taking hundreds or thousands of individual RFID readings and managing the resulting data proved to be cumbersome tasks using the demo software that had come bundled with the hardware readers he had purchased.

Andy realized that Entry App needed a more powerful solution. He found another, more feature-rich application that enabled Entry App to unlock more of RFID’s potential, but as he realized the technology’s capabilities he found himself wanting a more customized experience. “I realized,” he says, “my application needs would benefit from a deeper mix of facilities, some of which were present in both trialled software packages to date.”

One app allowed him to do some things he wanted, another app allowed him to do others. Wasn’t there an app that would give him all the features Entry App needed?

That’s when he found ClearStream fixed RFID software by PTS.

“When I discovered ClearStream,” Andy says, “it was almost as if it had been written with all of my needs as part of the specification.”

Andy and Entry App had a long wish list: “Individual antenna session setting, tag moderation, field mapping, configurable GPO state settings, individual control of reader operation (start/stop), reader auto recovery, data repository choices (file/MsExcel/MsAccess/SQLserver), log files—etcetera.” ClearStream checked all the boxes with a single, easily customizable application.

Andy is still discovering new ways that ClearStream’s powerful feature set can improve efficiency and his clients’ experiences. But Clearstream’s flexibility is already saving Entry App time and effort in pre-race preparations. ClearStream’s profiles facility enables pre-configuration according to the layout of a given venue, reducing hassle and errors. And because ClearStream delivers configured, read-ready information straight to a database, Entry App can easily deliver racers’ progress and final times to leader-board displays—the type of features that enhance any race and make clients smile.

ClearStream fixed RFID software can track anything—even track events. How can it help your business?

About PTS:

Portable Technology Solutions, LLC (PTS) is a leading provider of user configurable, mobile data collection software and systems with 7,000-plus, active customers. PTS -- developer of the TracerPlus line of mobility software along with ClearStream RFID creates user customizable and affordable mobile data collection and integration software that does not require programming experience to configure, deploy or use.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Calverton, NY, Portable Technology Solutions also maintains an active presence in Europe and partners with mobile hardware manufacturers, worldwide distributors, and OEM solution providers.