Getting started
Install EVENT, choose your context on first launch, share the database with FINISH, then take a tour of the screen: modules, File menu, search, and the two ways to rank a race (Time mode, Position mode).
Install EVENT
- Download the installer
Get the ChronoFEED-EVENT installer from the ChronoFEED website (EVENT tab of the downloads page). Install the same version as FINISH if the two programs are to work together: a database updated by a newer version refuses computers still on the older one.
- Run the installation (administrator rights)
Accept the terms of use and, if you wish, the desktop icon option. The installer also sets up the local database: a PostgreSQL engine reserved for ChronoFEED, installed as a Windows service, with nothing to configure (its password is created during installation and kept encrypted by Windows).
EVENT is in the Start menu. If FINISH is already installed on this computer, EVENT connects to the same local database: there is only one engine and one database.
First launch
At launch, EVENT checks its licence (menu to view it), connects to its database, then opens two windows one after the other: the context, then the list of events.
The context window
It is the same window as the session configuration in FINISH, with the same panels in the same order: the sport and discipline, the country and province, the venue and track. The lists come from the common data; the logos of the national and regional federations are deduced from the sport, country and province.
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- The federations of the context: national (SKF) and regional (HSK). The national federation is offered in the record of a new event.
- One panel per topic; its title recalls the choice (here “Long track”). The track length comes from the discipline and can still be changed.
- The venue and track are chosen with the panel's Edit button (the same search as in FINISH).
- The countdown: at launch, the context is confirmed automatically after 10 s. Touching the window stops it; it does nothing while the sport and discipline are missing.
The sport, discipline, country and province filter the list of events; the venue and track do not filter, they are only offered to new events. Nothing is kept before Confirm. To change it later: . Cancel goes straight to the main window.
The events window
| Name | Dates | Type | Entries | Races | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coupe Hollywood longue piste | 2026-11-14 → 2026-11-15 | Time | 80 | 3 | Published | Anneau de Starford |
| Finale régionale HSK 2026 | 2026-03-21 | Time | 54 | 4 | Archived | Anneau de Starford |
| Essais d'automne | 2026-10-03 | Time | 22 | 2 | Draft | Anneau de Starford |
- New… opens the record of a new event: you first choose the type (Time or Position), then the starting template. Duplicate… copies the races and rules, without the entries. Delete… is refused if there are results: EVENT then offers to archive.
- A double-click (or Enter, or Open) opens the event in the main window.
Continue without an event opens the main window with no event: the History module remains available. Later: or Change event… in the banner.
The Coupe Hollywood longue piste scenario creates an event step by step.
The database shared with FINISH
EVENT and FINISH work on the same database as soon as they share it: the heats EVENT forms are FINISH's races, with no file to exchange, and the times FINISH writes come back into EVENT.
| Situation | Database to use | Where to set it |
|---|---|---|
| EVENT and FINISH on the same computer | The local database (nothing to do: both connect to it) | — |
| Several computers on the same event (EVENT in the race office, one or more FINISH at the trackside) | A PostgreSQL server on the venue's network, the same for all | On each computer: , “A network server” section |
| No shared network | Each its own local database; heats go through a .cfevent file and results come back through .LIF files | Banner: Export to FINISH…, Import results |
In the Database window (, or a click on the database in the status bar), enter the Server address, the Port, the Database, the Account and its Password, then Test the connection and Use this server. Close EVENT and restart it: the status bar then says “Database: server 192.168.1.10” instead of “Local database”. The same window gives the procedure for installing the server (Copy the text).
The complete case, with two FINISH computers: Two FINISH and one EVENT on the same database.
The main screen
| Bib | Name | First name | G | Birth | Age | Club | Category | Group | Status | Joker | Guest | Races | 500 m Femmes 40 | 500 m Hommes 40 | 1500 m Femmes 32 | 1500 m Hommes 32 | 1000 m Femmes 37 | 1000 m Hommes 37 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | CORBINEAU | Maëlle | F | 2015-04-08 | 11 | CLAP | U13 | Entered | 1 | |||||||||
| 102 | VERHAEGEN | Lotte | F | 2001-12-12 | 24 | SLB | Senior | Confirmed | 3 | |||||||||
| 103 | SOLBAKKEN | Ingrid | F | 1986-08-28 | 40 | BOB | Master 35 | Entered | 3 |
- The three modules: Event, History, Broadcast.
- Search for a setting, a tab or a command (Ctrl+K).
- The File menu, Settings and the Help menu (“?”: common data, licence, about, report a problem, language).
- The banner of the open event: its name and type, the status of the exchange with FINISH under the title, then the exchange commands, the template and changing event (workspace reference).
- The event's modules, in the usual working order: races, entries, performances (Time mode), line-up, schedule, results (Position mode), standings. You can go back to any module at any time.
- The status bar: the last message (and, in orange, a warning when the licence is about to expire), then the log button and three buttons — the current event, the
.LIFfile folders and the database (a click opens the matching setting).
The modules
| Module | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Event | The open event, in modules (on the left, the event log): Races (distances, track, heat names, “Broadcast” box), Entries (athletes, import, categories, bibs), Performances (Time mode: past performances and the seeding calculation), Line-up (form heats or rounds), Schedule (the program, numbers and times), Results (Position mode: entry, correction, making official heat by heat), Standings (combined standings; in Time mode, also the overall standings in tiles). |
| History | The imported heats, laps and overall standings, all competitions, read-only: sort, filter, select; nothing can be changed there (history reference). |
| Broadcast | The standings of each race of the open event sent to the TABLEAU scoreboards: start or stop broadcasting, the transports (local network, database, Redis for a remote scoreboard), each race's Broadcast box, the connected scoreboards and the log (broadcast reference). |
The selected module is kept from one launch to the next.
Search (Ctrl+K)
The Search for a setting, a command… field in the middle of the header finds a function, a tab, a field or a menu command, and takes you there: it selects the module and tab, opens the menu or window, scrolls to the control and highlights it in yellow for a few seconds. Nothing is run: the item is only shown.
- Ctrl+K (or Ctrl+F) puts the cursor in the field. Case, accents and punctuation do not matter; a typo is tolerated.
- Up to ten suggestions, each with its path. ↑ ↓ choose, Enter goes there, Esc clears then gives control back.
The windows of the startup sequence (context, events, an event's record), athletes, import and export are not indexed: search leads to the button that opens them. Grid columns are not indexed either (the grid is).
F1 and this help
Each search function has a key (for example courses.generer), and each section of the
reference by screen carries that key as its anchor: F1, on an EVENT button, field or
tab, opens in the browser the section that describes it (the help installed with EVENT). The Help menu (“?”) also opens
the home page of this help and that of the suite help. In the help, search with its own search field (Ctrl+K
on these pages), using the same word as in the software. The details: Context help (F1).
Time mode and Position mode
An event is either in Time mode (the final time counts) or in Position mode (the finishing place counts). The type is chosen at creation, before the template, and cannot be changed afterwards; it is shown in parentheses in the banner title. The screen shows only what the mode of the open event uses.
| Time mode | Position mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Example | Long track: pairs, quartets, group starts, mass start, pursuit | Short track: qualifications, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals A and B |
| A heat | A wave of athletes who start together; the race is ranked by time, across all heats | A heat of a round; the places decide who moves on to the next round (X+Y criterion) |
| Line-up module | One column of heats in rows; groups G1, G2… side by side (raced together); performances in the Performances module; heat formation settings; Replay; Whole event | One column per round of the plan; Plan, Groups and entry, Standings sub-tabs; engine proposal to accept |
| Results | Race standings by time | Place column, “Places from times”, “Advances?”, round exit, “Make the round official” |
| Standings | Combined standings (formula, points or converted times) and overall standings in tiles (laps by technology) | Combined standings (point table points) only |
Both modes share the entries, point tables, officiating codes, start colors, schedule, log and broadcast.