26th March 2025, Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC)
Today Olly Timing was unavailable during an event for 40 minutes due to 3rd party action. Swift and effective action by all involved resulted in no times being lost and a limited 6 minute delay to the event.
What happened
- At 11:55am the live camera feed to both the primary and secondary Olly Timing systems stopped and we were unable to provide any backup times. We quickly recognised this was a significant issue and escalated to the officials and event management who rapidly arranged backup timekeepers.
- Venue support quickly returned from lunch, we gathered our strategic spares, and together we climbed onto the gantry above the pool to diagnose and fix the problem. Upon arrival we discovered an electrician working above the pool had isolated the circuit that powered the Olly Timing equipment above the pool.
- At 12:23pm the Olly Timing primary system was returned to service and backup times became available again. At 12:35pm the Olly Timing secondary system became operational and full normal service resumed.
- Prior to the incident the meet was running 1 minute behind schedule, afterwards 7 minutes behind schedule. We understand that no results were lost during the incident.
Actions we are taking to avoid future occurrence
Reliability is at the core of Olly Timing’s design. Our temporary installations include an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) but we had previously considered this unnecessary at this venue. Although this incident was outside our direct control, we are taking actions to reduce the likelihood of future service interruptions.
- Escalated to venue management our concern that technicians were permitted to conduct work which directly impacted event operations, and enquired how to avoid such occurrences in future.
- Updating our standard operating procedures to include a step to check with venue Duty Room prior to any event that no works are planned during the event which risks timing delivery.
- Investigate adding an UPS to our gantry equipment, provided this will actually decrease the risk of service interruption.
Olly Timing sincerely apologises to everyone impacted by this issue. This is actually the first time in our history (61 swim meets and 84,898 times recorded) that we have failed to provide race times. We thank and appreciate the officials, event organisers and venue support who successfully kept the the event operational during the incident.
