Australian Dance Review Article - July
2010
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DanceScore Live at the NCDC
The DanceScore ‘Live’ Scrutineering System was
used at this year’s National Capital DanceSport Championship. For
those unfamiliar with the system this is where the Adjudicator’s
marks are sent directly from the dance floor to the Scrutineers
computer to produce instant and highly accurate results.
The scrutineering area was headed by Leigh Steele and ably assisted
by Leanne Riley and Narell McFarlane, while the DanceScore Team
consisted of Dallas & Martha Williams, David Hadfield and Sky
Schouw.
To fully grasp the size of the task resting on the Scrutineers at
Championships of this size you need to look at the statistics ….
There were 144 programmed Items on Saturday and 87 Items on the
Sunday. Added to the mix was combined Events such as Adult 10 Dance,
Junior 8 Dance and a Juvenile 6 Dance. As the Adjudicator Data Pads
send back results for every Adjudicator, for every Dance, for every
Item on the programme, there were over 6,500 individual returns from
the Adjudicator Data Pads. Multiply that by an average of 12 Back
Numbers per return and you have an amazing 78,000 Back Numbers that
were processed to get the Results for the Championship.
In past years the Scrutineers had to franticly type these Back
Numbers into the system to get the Recall Back Numbers for the next
Round. Needless to say they saw none of the Championship. This year
using the ‘Live’ system the Scrutineers did not type one Back Number
to produce results for all programmed Items. This allowed
Scrutineers more time to truly oversee the compiling and sorting
Results ready for presentations.
The Floor Marshals, who were introduced to the system on the Friday
night before the Championship, effortlessly picked up the concept of
scanning in the Back Numbers for the first round of each Event on
the programme. Scanning Back Numbers is when the Floor Marshals lock
the Back Numbers to an Item using the Barcode Scanner. The barcodes
are 100% accurate, a faulty barcode will simply not read.
It should be noted that scanning Back Numbers is only required at
the first Round of a particular Event as all subsequent recalls are
produced from the DanceScore system, even special cases such as the
Semi Finals of the Open Standard and Latin which required the normal
recall for the Final and a repechage for those moving into the
Rising Star Event.
The odd hiccup, which only occurred early in the weekend when
couples failed to report to the Floor Marshals to be scanned, was
solved floor side by David Hadfield making adjustments for
Adjudicators as requested. This was easily done with a laptop floor
side.
The majority of Adjudicators had used the Data Pads at Competitions
prior to the NCDC. Those that were new to the system were coached by
Martha and Sky prior to the start of each day. Whilst the basic use
of the Data Pad is simple, Adjudicators need to be able to use the
Editing and Disqualification functions.
While the DanceScore program has been in use for over 25 years this
new ‘Live’ version has proved invaluable for Competition Organisers.
The ability to set a Competition Programme without the added stress
of allocating time for inputting Back Numbers, added to the fact
that no printing and sorting of Adjudicators Cards is required,
combine to lower the overheads of the Championship.
www.dancescorelive.net
