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Scoreboard control

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Scoreboard control covers the hardware between a data source and the board it lights up. A timing console or a display computer produces the figures; the equipment here carries them the last stretch, whether over a radio link in place of a cable, from a keypad with no console involved at all, or through a video controller that turns a computer’s output into panel data.123

Three kinds of device sit in that gap, and they are not interchangeable: wireless adapters, which replace a cable; controllers, which are themselves the data source; and video board controllers, which drive an LED video wall. The boards they feed are covered on the scoreboards overview.

Wireless adapters

An adapter converts a console’s serial output into a radio link. They work in pairs, one at the source and one at the board, except where the board has its own receiver, in which case the one at the source is enough.14 The Otter boards are the case in point: their radio is built in, so a console needs only its own adapter.2

Both ends must agree on a channel, and on the later generations a PAN ID as well. CTS’s guides give the valid range as channels 0 to 11 and PAN IDs 0 to 15, set on DIP switches inside the equipment.25 Three generations are documented: the Sky-Fi WA-1, which switches between transmitting over RS-232 and receiving over RS-485; the WA-2, which appears only in other products’ manuals; and the current WA-3, rated at 2.4 GHz over 1000 ft (100 m) with 12 channels of 8 networks each.146

Controllers

A controller holds the data itself rather than passing on someone else’s. The score, the clock or the workout lives in the controller, which sends it to a board with no timing console in the circuit, and that suits a sport or a session that does not need one.67

The WTTC-1 is the tabletop version, worked from a keypad at the officials’ table, and the WHC-1 is the handheld equivalent; both reach a multisport board directly, without an adapter of their own.6 On the Otter boards they can also set the time of day and change a board’s channel.2 The pace clock controller, UPC-C, does the same kind of job on the training side, storing workouts and playing them out onto a pace clock or a scoreboard, and is covered with the pace clocks.7 The oldest of the group is the GameLink console, a keyboard for team-sport data that could feed a matrix display through DisplayLink or, with a standalone template loaded, drive the display on its own.8

Video board controllers

An LED video wall is not addressed over a data port. The display computer renders a frame, and a controller between the computer and the wall turns that video signal into panel data.3 CTS names five it has shipped that can also produce an output suitable for streaming: the MCTRL-300, MCTRL-600 and MIC-VPU-01, which need a pass-through capture device, and the VX4 and MCTRL-660, which do not.39 Four of the five are NovaStar products that CTS resells; the maker of the MIC-VPU-01 is not established.

Older installations used a different generation again. The DisplayLink Plus help file names CVC, CDC and VPU video processors, and specifies that a CVC has to be set to PC mode for the computer’s output to appear on the board. None of the three has a page here.10

Products

Every entry below is a stub. The two overviews divide the hardware by what it does rather than by who made it, so a NovaStar controller and a CTS adapter sit in the same table.

ProductMakerTypeStatus
Sky-Fi WA-1Colorado Time SystemsWireless scoreboard data adapterSuperseded
WA-2Colorado Time SystemsWireless scoreboard adapterSuperseded
WA-3Colorado Time Systems2.4 GHz wireless scoreboard adapterCurrent
WTTC-1Colorado Time SystemsTabletop controller for multisport boardsDocumented
WHC-1Colorado Time SystemsHandheld controller for multisport boardsDocumented
GameLink consoleColorado Time SystemsKeyboard console for team-sport data entryDiscontinued
MCTRL-300NovaStarLED video display controllerShipped by CTS
MCTRL-600NovaStarLED video display controllerShipped by CTS
MCTRL-660NovaStarLED video display controllerShipped by CTS
VX4NovaStarLED video display controller with built-in scalingShipped by CTS
MIC-VPU-01Not establishedVideo processing unitShipped by CTS

See also

See everything tagged Scoring.

References

Footnotes

  1. Colorado Time Systems, Sky-Fi Wireless Adapter (WA-1) User Instructions. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Colorado Time Systems, Scoreboard for Swimming & Track With 2.4 GHz Integrated Wireless, Installation and User Guide (F1004 Rev. 202605). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Colorado Time Systems, DisplayLink Video to Broadcast Software Instructions (F1062) (Rev. 202104). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Colorado Time Systems, 2.4 GHz Wireless Scoreboard Adapter datasheet (Rev. 04/19). ↩ ↩2

  5. Colorado Time Systems, Diving Scoreboard With 2.4 GHz Integrated Wireless, Installation and User Guide (F995 Rev. 202605). ↩

  6. Colorado Time Systems, 2.4 GHz Wireless Adapter WA-3 User Guide (F1045). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Colorado Time Systems, Pace Clock Controller User Guide (F901 Rev. 1007). ↩ ↩2

  8. Colorado Time Systems, Template Editor v1.5 Users Guide (F855 Rev. 0404). ↩

  9. Colorado Time Systems, A Guide to Live Streaming with DisplayLink+. ↩

  10. Colorado Time Systems, Display Link Plus Help, troubleshooting topic (CVC, CDC and VPU processors). ↩

Last updated September 25, 2026.