Race Timing System: Separate camera-station application

Separate camera-station application

Download Race Cameras separately from Site Admin Studio → Application downloads and install that package on the camera machine. It is an independently runnable application with its own launchers and setup guide. Central Control no longer starts camera decoding/OCR on the timing machine; it pairs with the separate station, selects it, and sends capture/disconnect/discovery/replay commands. The central timing receiver itself no longer needs FFmpeg/Tesseract/NDI for remotely controlled cameras.

Open Cameras to pair the station’s reachable HTTPS address and printed pairing key, and supply the central receiver’s reachable HTTPS upload address. Launch the station once on its computer first; Central Control then initiates camera sessions remotely. Both applications remain foreground programs. Remote LAN control requires trusted HTTPS certificates on both ends; localhost HTTP is for testing only. Use distinct, stable station IDs for multiple machines. The detailed station README includes launch commands and trust/network setup.

Supported station inputs are RTSP, SRT, NDI and RTMP/RTMPS pull; plain RTMP listener mode accepts a camera pushing to the station. The page shows the selected remote station’s actual capability flags, camera states, previews and saved logs. Unpaired/unreachable stations are explicit. NDI discovery occurs on the selected station rather than Central Control’s computer. Bib detections feed existing enrollment/approval rules; no automatic crossing approval is added.

Each paired station receives a namespace-scoped camera-upload token rather than the central account password. Pairing/upload secrets stay in memory centrally; re-pair after application restart. The station’s own control key persists in its private local pairing-key file. Closing Central Control leaves the station running and retaining local observations during upload failures. Re-pair/reconnect as needed and replay saved logs through the GUI; original timestamps are retained and duplicates are suppressed. Saved archives can be replayed after station restart. The independent station manages its own process cleanup on exit.

45 regression tests passed. End-to-end local testing used separate central/station processes and real RTMP video with bib OCR: pairing, remote start, preview, scoped upload, disconnect, deduplicated replay, station restart and saved-archive replay all passed. Fifteen embedded scripts parsed. Cross-machine TLS/physical camera reception and real NDI hardware were not available for verification. Live camera timing remains an arrival estimate and requires synchronized clocks/calibration/review.