Championship Elite Start System

From Libre Aquatics Wiki, the free aquatics reference

The Championship Elite Start System (part number SSE) is the current deck-wired electronic start system for swimming made by Colorado Time Systems (CTS). It is the successor to the Championship Start System (SS). It drives the same under-block lane speakers, underwater speakers, and speedlights on relay-judging platforms as that system, and adds an LCD menu, programmable start tones and messages, a training mode, and an integrated Visual Start Signaling (VSS) system that presents the whole start sequence on multi-colored external indicators for athletes who are deaf or hard of hearing. CTS announced it in February 2024.¹²³

Naming and product line¶

The Elite is the deck-wired member of the CTS start line and the current model in the Championship family; the portable Infinity family is the smaller alternative. For the full lineup and a side-by-side comparison, see the start-systems overview.

Compared with the older Championship Start System (SS), the Elite has a smaller, taller enclosure and roughly the same weight, but replaces the older unit’s fixed knobs and switches with an LCD menu, and expands what it can drive: up to 12 relay-judging-platform speedlights, up to 13 External Visual Indicators (EVIs) or EXTSTROBE+ units, and 20 auxiliary block speakers or 2 underwater speakers.²¹ CTS’s European declaration of conformity lists the product under the model names “Elite” and “SSE.”¹

Design and hardware¶

The start system is about 14 in long and 6.5 in on a side, weighing 19.6 lb, with a 360° strobe dome and a carrying handle on top and a single control panel on the front. The panel has a backlit LCD, a power button, a status-indicator LED, four-way navigation controls, and the connectors: charging port, microphone, VSS, wallplate, start, lane-speaker, and external-visual-indicator/speedlight. Two microphone rests flank the panel, and either can be swapped for a VSS controller holder or a Dolphin adapter.¹

The built-in speaker is a 40-watt, 8-ohm moisture- and corrosion-resistant reflex speaker with its own volume setting in the audio menu; the manual does not identify the speaker’s manufacturer. In addition to it, the manual rates the Elite for up to 12 additional 45-ohm lane speakers (R-SP-6-45) plus one 8-ohm external speaker (R-SP-125 or R-SP-200), or up to two 8-ohm external speakers, and the datasheet lists the SP-UND underwater speaker among the accessories.¹² The system runs on two internal 12 V, 7.0 Ah gel-cell lead-acid batteries (PowerSonic PS-1270, CTS part R-420-003), charged by a 24 VDC supply. CTS rates more than 15 hours of normal use without EVIs or VSS; using EVIs, higher intensity settings, longer VSS times, or the microphone as a public-address system all shorten that. As on the Infinity, the unit will not operate while charging, to keep AC power off the deck. A status LED and an on-screen percentage show the battery state, and battery-protection logic locks the start function and then powers the unit down if the battery falls too low.¹

Operation¶

The starter presses push-to-talk with either of the microphone’s two start buttons to fire the start: a 0.25-second dual-tone blast, a simultaneous flash on the internal 360° strobe and any connected external strobes and speedlights, and a start pulse to the timer. Pressing a start button again within the recall window signals a false-start recall; the recall window is 15 seconds by default and settable from 5 to 25 seconds. Menu settings cover the start-tone volume (low, medium, or high; CTS notes high exceeds 120 dB and is for outdoor use only), a choice of the classic CTS beep or a shorter alternate tone for both start and recall, strobe and lane-indicator intensity, and start-signal polarity.¹

A training mode plays a recorded “take your marks” message and then, after a randomized 1.5–2.5-second delay, the start tone and strobe. The random delay keeps swimmers from anticipating the start. It repeats at a settable interval (5–45 seconds, or 15–45 seconds when VSS is used), and a custom “take your marks” recording of up to two seconds can be recorded through the microphone.¹

As with the other CTS start systems, officials and spectators are meant to start from the strobe or speedlights rather than the horn. World Aquatics rules require the starter’s commands and the starting signal to be heard equally and simultaneously at each block; see the start-systems overview for the reason and the governing-body rules.¹⁴

Visual Start Signaling (VSS)¶

The Elite’s integrated VSS presents the full start sequence visually, so that all athletes, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, get the same information the audible commands carry. It uses the multi-colored LEDs of the External Visual Indicators, driven from a three-button pendant controller operated by the referee and starter. In a forward start the indicators blink red (call to block), go steady red (step up), turn yellow (“take your marks”), and flash green at the start; a backstroke sequence adds steps for the swimmers entering the water. Two of the up-to-13 indicators can instead be set as white strobes. CTS is the official timing and scoring partner of USA Deaf Swimming.¹²⁵

This addresses the same need that governing-body rules formalize: USA Swimming’s rules for swimmers with a disability require a visual starting signal placed where the swimmer can see it, and allow lane reassignment and a false-start rope so a deaf or hard-of-hearing swimmer can see the start.⁶ The World Aquatics swimming rules likewise provide for a visual start for deaf and hard-of-hearing swimmers.⁷ Pairing a start signal with a visual display for deaf swimmers is long-established: a 1992 Seiko patent for a swimming-race timing system describes the same combination.⁸

Connections¶

A start jumper cable (R-INF-SJxx) connects the Elite’s start output to a deck plate, wall plate, cable harness, or the back of a Gen7 timer. The Elite can generate both normally-open (N.O.) and normally-closed (N.C.) start pulses, selectable in the menu. Normally-open works with all CTS timers, while Swiss Timing systems use normally closed; CTS warns that setting the polarity wrong for a given timer makes the recorded times inaccurate.¹ For older installations the wallplate connector carries the start, audio, speedlight, and strobe lines to a legacy wall plate through a CMP-WPxx cable, and a Gen7 starter cable (R-015-706-xx) connects the Elite to a Gen7 in-deck TDPI-S2 node.¹ The unit mounts on a tabletop, the TR-3 tripod, or a flagpole (START-FPM-2).¹

Specifications¶


Dimensions (H × W × D)	6.5 × 6.5 × 14.0 in (16.5 × 16.5 × 35.6 cm)
Weight	19.6 lb (8.9 kg)
Operating temperature	0–45 °C; humidity 90% non-condensing
Charger	24 VDC at 2.5 A (recharge only; no operation while charging)
Battery	Two 12 V 7.0 Ah gel cells (PowerSonic PS-1270); >15 h use; ~90% in ~4 h
Fuses	Two 10 A time-lag, 5 × 20 mm
Speaker (internal)	40 W, 8 Ω reflex (manufacturer not identified); output max 75 W at 4 Ω
Lane speakers	Up to 12 × 45 Ω lane speakers plus 1 × 8 Ω external (`R-SP-125`/`R-SP-200`), or 2 × 8 Ω external
Visual indicators	Up to 13 EVIs/EXTSTROBE+ and up to 12 speedlights
Start signaling	Normally-open or normally-closed; polarity-independent input
Start tone	0.25 s dual-tone blast with simultaneous strobe/speedlight
Certifications	cULus (UL 863/UL 1492, file E190097), FCC Part 15, CE, RoHS

Part numbers and accessories¶

SSE, Championship Elite Start System.²
M2-xx, Championship-series microphone; the suffix is the cable length (15, 25, 50, 100, 150, or 200 ft).²
R-INF-SJ-xx, start jumper cable to the timer or deck plate; lengths 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 165, or 264 ft.²
CMP-WPxx, Elite-to-wallplate cable (start, speaker, speedlight, strobe), 25 ft or 50 ft.²
R-015-706-xx, Gen7 starter cable to a TDPI-S2/WPI-S2 node, 8 m or 15 m.¹
R-LS40-x, lane-speaker cable harness for 6, 8, or 10 lanes; R-SP-6-45, 6-watt, 45-ohm lane speaker with 26 ft cable; R-SP-xxx, external 40 W speaker, 125 ft or 200 ft; SP-UND, underwater speaker.²
EVI, External Visual Indicator; EVI-FPM, its pole mount; R-015-747-xx, EVI connection cable (15, 33, 125, or 165 ft); R-015-752, Y-splitter to run EVIs and legacy speedlights together; R-015-755, Elite-to-legacy-speedlight adapter.²¹
R-420-003, replacement battery (PowerSonic PS-1270); R-920-061, replacement power supply; TR-3, tripod; START-FPM-2, flagpole mount.¹

References¶

Colorado Time Systems, Championship Elite Start System User Instructions (F1064 Rev. 202606). Figures cited from the local copy, revision 202606; an earlier revision (202509) is also in circulation. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶
Colorado Time Systems, Elite Start System datasheet (Rev. 05/24). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Swimming World, Colorado Time Systems Introduces New Championship Elite Start System (press release, 13 February 2024). ↩
World Aquatics, Competition Regulations (Part Two: Swimming Rules), article 15.16.3 (loudspeakers at each starting block; false-start detection equipment required). ↩
Colorado Time Systems, Visual Start Signaling (VSS). ↩
USA Swimming, Article 105: officiating swimmers with a disability. ↩
World Aquatics, Swimming Technical Rules. ↩
Google Patents, EP0557888B1, Timing system for swimming race (Seiko Instruments; start-signal detection with a visual display for deaf swimmers; priority 1992). ↩

Last updated July 27, 2026.