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Colorado Time Systems (CTS) is an American manufacturer of aquatic timing, scoring, and display systems, based in Loveland, Colorado. Founded in 1972 by engineers from Hewlett-Packard, it is one of the principal suppliers of swimming, diving, and water polo timing equipment, particularly in the United States, and since the early 2010s has been part of the recreation company PlayCore.12

Much of the named hardware documented in the equipment reference is made by CTS.

History

CTS traces its origins to the Test & Measurement division of Hewlett-Packard (HP). HP was exploring the sports-timing market and chose aquatics because it demanded especially precise measurement; in 1972 a group of four HP engineers left to found the company.123

CTS’s co-founder William “Bill” Beierwaltes had worked at Hewlett-Packard from 1964 to 1974 as a product manager for its electronic measuring equipment. In 1985 he started Colorado Memory Systems as a division of CTS to sell computer data-storage products; that business became independent in May 1990 and was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in September 1992.14

CTS was later acquired by PlayCore, a Chattanooga, Tennessee recreation company, and became part of its EverActive Brands group. Sources give slightly different dates: several industry and trade reports place the deal in 2012 (reported that July, and effective around October), while Wikipedia dates it to July 2011.156 Manufacturing remained at the Colorado facility and general manager Anita Sayed continued to run day-to-day operations; PlayCore was itself owned at the time by the private-equity firm Irving Place Capital.56

Products

CTS designs, manufactures, sells, and services timing, scoring, and display equipment, with a core focus on aquatics.2

  • Aquatic timing, timing consoles (the current line is the Gen7 platform), AquaGrip touchpads (which use a patented non-skid surface), start systems, and dedicated water-polo and diving scoring systems.27
  • Scoreboards & displays, aquatic and multisport scoreboards and LED video displays.23
  • Other sports, beyond aquatics, CTS also supplies scoreboards and timing for sports such as basketball, football, and track.2
  • Software, CTS AquaSync overlays official timing and scoring data onto a live video stream in real time for swimming, diving, and water polo. It works with the Gen7 and System 6 platforms and outputs graphics over NDI to streaming software such as OBS and vMix, without additional timing hardware; CTS says it carries no subscription or annual fee.89

Individual CTS products are catalogued in the equipment reference: the Gen7 timers, the connect-hub Serial and multi-pin Legacy consoles and the earlier System 6 and System 5 they replaced, and the start systems, the portable Infinity and Infinity Pro, and the deck-wired Championship and Championship Elite, which replaced the earlier deck-wired CHAMP-SSM and the 1990s loudspeaker SS2 starts, and the AquaGrip touchpads that sense each lane’s finish, the backup pushbutton that backs it up, the RJP relay judging platforms that judge relay exchanges from the blocks, the backstroke start device that gives backstrokers a fixed foothold at the start, and the lane speakers the start systems drive under each block. Scoreboard models are added as those pages are written.

In swim timing

The first electronic swim-timing system using in-lane touchpads is generally credited to the Swiss company Omega, in 1967. CTS is one of a small number of major aquatic-timing manufacturers, alongside Swiss Timing (Omega), Daktronics, and Seiko.10 The company describes itself as having pioneered the first fully automatic swim-timing system and has been a long-standing developer of touchpad technology in the United States.11

In competition

CTS equipment is widely used in United States collegiate and club swimming and at national and international competitions, including NCAA championships and US Olympic Team Trials.23 The company has been an official timing, scoring, or display partner to organizations including USA Water Polo, US artistic (synchronized) swimming, the Mexican Swimming Federation, the American Swimming Coaches Association, and the China Swimming Association, and says it serves customers in roughly 120 countries.15

Recognition

CTS’s touchpad technology has been featured on the History Channel program Modern Marvels (2008) and in a sports-invention exhibit associated with the Smithsonian.111

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Wikipedia, Colorado Time Systems. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Colorado Time Systems, About Us. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Campus Rec Magazine, The Legacy of Colorado Time Systems. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Wikipedia, Colorado Memory Systems. ↩

  5. Aquatics International, PlayCore acquires Colorado Time Systems. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. PE Hub, PlayCore acquires Colorado Time Systems (2012). ↩ ↩2

  7. Colorado Time Systems, product pages (Gen7, AquaGrip). ↩

  8. Colorado Time Systems, AquaSync overlay graphics for live streaming. ↩

  9. Swimming World, Colorado Time Systems introduces CTS AquaSync. ↩

  10. Wikipedia, Aquatic timing system. ↩

  11. Colorado Time Systems, Swim timing innovations since 1972 (blog). ↩ ↩2

Last updated July 27, 2026.