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Championship Start System

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The Championship Start System (part number SS) is a deck-wired electronic start system for swimming made by Colorado Time Systems (CTS). Unlike the portable Infinity family, the Championship drives speakers and visual indicators wired into the pool deck: it can feed a speaker under each starting block, an auxiliary speaker, an underwater speaker, and the speedlights on relay-judging platforms, all synchronized with its horn and strobe. CTS lists the product as discontinued and end-of-life; its successor is the Championship Elite (SSE).12

Naming and product line

The Championship is the deck-wired, full-featured member of the CTS start line; the portable Infinity family is the smaller alternative. Its successor is the Championship Elite (SSE), and its predecessor is the legacy Championship Start System (CHAMP-SSM) generation. For the full lineup and a side-by-side comparison, see the start-systems overview.

Versions and part numbers

The Championship name has attached to several part numbers over the years, and the labels differ between the unit’s faceplate, the manual, dealer catalogs, and the CTS website. The unit itself is simply badged “Championship Start System.” CTS’s current product page catalogs the system under the part number SS.2 Its power-supply compatibility list groups several Championship variants, SS, SSF, WSS, and WSSF, alongside the Infinity (INF-SSM/INF-SSMF) and two legacy start systems, SS-01 and SS-02.3 Following the suffix conventions CTS uses elsewhere in the line, the F denotes the 230 V international-power variant and the W prefix denotes a wireless variant (the unit has a wireless-receiver connector on its front and right panels).1

The earlier, pre-2005 generation of the unit, badged the same “Championship Start System” but carrying the designation CHAMP-SSM, and likely the same generation the SS-01/SS-02 legacy numbers refer to, is documented separately as the Championship Start System (CHAMP-SSM).

CTS also sold the Championship as the start system of its Train Right one-lane training package (TR-SYS-2), paired with a relay judging platform, a Pace Clock Pro, a pushbutton, and a training-size touchpad; with the Championship in the package, the platform’s speedlights flash with the start. The package, now discontinued, is described in the relay judging platform article.45

Design and hardware

The start system is a rectangular case about 13 in on a side and 5.75 in deep, weighing 17.4 lb, with a 360° strobe on top and connectors on three panels. The case itself contains no built-in speaker: all start and public-address audio sounds through the externally connected lane, auxiliary, and underwater speakers, and the left panel carries mounting holes so the auxiliary compression speaker can bolt onto the unit.1 The front panel carries two microphone inputs, each with an independent volume control, a green power LED, a red low-battery LED, and the auxiliary-speaker volume control. The left panel has the strobe on/off switch, the auxiliary-speaker connector and mounting holes, the external-power connector, the unit on/off switch, and three fuses. The right panel carries the connectors that make the Championship a deck system: a wireless receiver input, a speedlight output, a lane-speaker output, a timer-start output, an external-strobe connector, and a 10-pin military-style wallplate connector that bundles the speedlight, speaker, timer-start, and strobe lines for in-deck wiring.1

The system uses two speaker circuits. The main circuit drives up to twelve 6-watt, 45-ohm lane speakers mounted under the starting blocks, plus any underwater speaker; its start tone is fixed at full volume. The auxiliary circuit drives one 10-watt, 8-ohm compression speaker, for example on a backstroke pole or bolted to the side of the unit, and its start-tone volume is adjustable. Power comes from two internal 12 V gel-cell batteries, and unlike the Infinity the Championship can operate while charging.1

Operation

Each microphone is from CTS’s M2 family, with a push-to-talk switch and two start buttons for either hand. Pressing push-to-talk with a start button fires the start: a 0.25-second dual-tone blast, a simultaneous strobe flash, a simultaneous speedlight flash on any relay-judging platforms, and a start pulse to the timer. Pressing a start button again signals a false-start recall, a repeating dual tone sounded from all connected speakers, including any underwater speaker. The microphone volume controls affect only the public-address audio; the start and recall tones are fixed at full volume except at the auxiliary speaker.1

Officials and spectators are meant to start their watches from the strobe or the block 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.16 The strobe circuit needs about 30 seconds between flashes to recharge.1

Connections

The timer-start output sends only normally-open (N.O.) start pulses, which work with all CTS timers such as System 5, System 6, and Dolphin; a timer needing a normally-closed pulse requires factory modification of the unit.1 The Championship interfaces to a CTS timer through a start jumper cable, models SJ-50 through SJ-200 (the number is the cable length).1 It can be wired on-deck, with lane speakers, speedlights, and the timer cabled directly to the start system, or in-deck through the wallplate connector and a facility’s deck plates and cable harnesses. The unit mounts on a tabletop, a wall (with the wall-mount kit), the TR-3 tripod, or a flagpole (START-FPM-2); CTS specifies not to use a standard camera tripod.1

Specifications

Dimensions (H × W × D)13.25 × 13 × 5.75 in (33.7 × 33 × 14.6 cm)
Weight17.4 lb (7.9 kg)
Power110–240 VAC or internal batteries; operates while charging
BatteryTwo 12 V gel cells (R-420-003)
Built-in speakerNone; audio through the external speakers
FusesAC circuit plus one per battery; all 5 × 20 mm, 5 A slow-blow
Lane speakersUp to 12 × 6 W, 45 Ω under-block reflex speakers
Auxiliary speakerOne 10 W, 8 Ω compression speaker (adjustable volume)
SpeedlightsDrives relay-judging-platform speedlights in up to 12 lanes
MicrophonesUp to 2 wired (M2 family), independent volume
Start outputNormally-open pulses; strobe recharge ~30 s
Start tone0.25 s dual-tone blast with simultaneous strobe/speedlight

Part numbers and accessories

  • SS, Championship Start System; SSF, 230 V-charger variant; WSS / WSSF, wireless variants (suffix meanings follow the CTS line convention).3
  • M-25 / M-50 / M-150 / M-200, replacement wired microphones (M2-C15 with a coiled 15 ft cable); the number is the cable length in feet.17
  • SJ-50 … SJ-200, start jumper cable to the timer; the number is the length.1
  • LS40-6 / -8 / -10 / -12, lane-speaker cable harness; the number is the lane count.1
  • SL-6 / -8 / -10 / -12, speedlight cable; the number is the lane count.1
  • SP-6/45, 6-watt, 45-ohm under-block lane speaker; SP-UND, underwater speaker.1
  • CMP-WP5 / -WP25 / -WP50, start-system-to-wallplate cable, 5, 25, or 50 ft.1
  • CES-25 / -50 / -100 / -50m, external-strobe cable; the number is the length (ft, or metres for -50m).1
  • R-920-059, replacement power supply; R-420-003, replacement battery; TR-3, tripod; START-FPM-2, flagpole mount.3

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Colorado Time Systems, Championship Start Instruction Guide (F875 Rev. 202202). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18

  2. Colorado Time Systems, Championship Start System (SS) product page. ↩ ↩2

  3. Colorado Time Systems shop, Start System Power Supply (R-920-059), compatibility list covering SS/SSF/WSS/WSSF, INF-SSM/INF-SSMF, and legacy SS-01/SS-02. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Colorado Time Systems, Train Right with Championship Start System (F958, Rev. 201102). ↩

  5. Colorado Time Systems, Training Package (TR-SYS) (package contents and discontinued status). ↩

  6. World Aquatics, Competition Regulations (Part Two: Swimming Rules), article 15.16.3 (loudspeakers at each starting block; false-start detection equipment required). ↩

  7. Colorado Time Systems shop, Start System Microphone (M2-C15). ↩

Last updated July 27, 2026.