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Lynx is always striving to make a more complete suite of products for event management and athletic training. You may have heard something about LynxPad and ReacTime but there is more to know, as written in these pages.

The new Lynx web site is well worth checking out for its latest offerings and updated information. The Lynx training videos and schematics come to mind as two of the most exciting new features that have been long requested and are now available at www.finishlynx.com.

While the team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was expecting to see a decrease in the lynx litters of early June, what they found were litters twice the size of those found in the previous years of this five-year study. In all, 26 kittens were found in 6 dens. All these kittens have since been ear-tagged and had hair samples taken in order to study their future movements.

The reason that the team was expecting a decrease in the lynx litters this year is because of the decrease they have observed in the snow hare population for the last two years. As the lynx main food source, the snow hare population and the lynx population are entwined. The norm is to see a predator population decrease within two years of the decrease in its prey. For this reason, the team believes that this year’s litter may be the peak of a ten-year lynx population cycle that has been observed in other studies of lynx in the northwest United States and Canada.

The team will return in late summer to examine the six vacant dens to learn as much as possible about the lynx habitat requirements. The main thrust of the study has always been to determine the status of this threatened species and to see what, if anything, can be done to help to conserve the population in the study area.

Lynx has signed up with local company Sun Power to run its operations on green power.

We may not be off the grid but Lynx is contributing to the overall health of the environment through the purchase of Tradable Renewable Certificates. By purchasing these TRC’s, Lynx is supporting power generated from environmentally friendly power sources and power plants.

In August, the Lynx Team traveled to Quebec City, Canada for the 2nd IBSA (International Blind Sport Federation) World Championships. The team conducted events at the Athletics venue of this multi-sport competition.

In perfect harmony with their running guides, athletes from 55 different countries competed against one another for world championship status. And by this competition, getting one step closer to qualifying for the Para-Olympic Games to be held in Athens next summer.

The people at Lake Lanier in Gainesville, GA are used to seeing world class paddling at their venue after hosting the canoe and kayak events of the 1996 Olympic Games at Atlanta. In early September of this year, Lake Lanier hosted the 2003 Canoe and Kayak World Championships. This qualifying event for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens meant for a wide and excitable audience.

Lynx recently began to distribute the LynxPad program, an easy to use, file-based program for administering your athletic competitions. This new program is far more substantial than Lynx’s first foray into database management with its ability to import user created event, schedule and people files. LynxPad makes it virtually painless to create a list of events, enter athletes’ names, affiliations, and seeding marks.

Easily navigate through the program by way of drop-down lists and icons. With a simple click on an icon, the LynxPad software will automatically create heats or flights according to the criteria you have entered for each event.

And how will the program interact with your various Lynx hardware? The included FinishLynx, FieldLynx, ReacTime and ClerkLynx interface is as simple as choosing a directory to store your data files. Connectivity between LynxPad and the FieldLynx and ClerkLynx programs will be made through the Net Exchange Server.

Ken Jakalski of Lisle High School, Lisle, IL, working with Gary Heusner of Faster Than Gravity, wrote to Kevin days after receiving an order of a Two Meter OptoJump kit.

"Gary and I set up OptoJump on the track Sunday night. We are VERY impressed! It took about as much time to line up the rails and plug in the computer as it does to set up our infra-red beams for our fly 9.8 meter tests, which means for all the apparent hi-tech nature of the equipment, it's really pretty easy to set up and get running. This was really a piece of cake. We laughed a little to think that we'd have some problems as first time users. That was NOT the case. We even programmed in our own contact time tests, and set up the program to get subsequent trials for different athletes we have entered into the database.

"We are so pleased with the system that we are going to call you today to order two more meters worth of sensors so that we will be certain to catch stride lengths for more elite athletes.

"For those with bigger budgets it wouldn't be out of the question to order up to 100 meters worth of sensor rails to go all the way up the track. However, by simply moving the athlete's starting point, we can gather data at various points of a trial without having to invest in 100 meters.

"This kind of technology could really be beneficial for those who question any data received from treadmill tests. What are we finding so far? We can trace reduced contact times as athletes gain speed. With this info, we can tell for each athlete the point at which he or she is reaching peak velocity. We can also demonstrate our point about the best single leg bounders being the fastest sprinters. We're seeing this in contact time graphs already.

"This has been a great investment for us, and I think you're right on the money for convincing the big chief to consider this technology. Lynx has great credibility, and seeing this product in action simply confirms that we were wise to take your advice."

"In 1995, Quicksilver Track Club received a grant to start on club founder Ernest Dixon’s dream, to build a high caliber track for youth kids and an arena to display their talents in South Atlanta. With a high quality track, it only seemed right to have a high quality, and affordable, timing system. Ernest looked around and found Lynx. The Lynx technology was chosen, hands downs, because of its affordability and its compliance with IAAF F.A.T. rules.

"I have always been interested in technology. After operating the system for a year, I began to thirst for more knowledge about the operation and peripherals." And that thirst has not been quenched yet. Dwight is always interested in what is the latest Lynx has to offer to enhance the administration of a meet as well as in the presentation of data."

Dwight uses notebook computers, for portability, with multiple EtherLynx cameras, FieldLynx on wireless handheld computers as well as uGRAPH display boards that he communicates with wirelessly by way of SeriaLynx. Dwight has further advanced his FinishLynx operation with a number of software plug-ins such as the automatic capture with virtual photo eye functionality and enjoys expanded network communication capabilities with the Network Com Port software.

He looks to add more portability, versatility and communication ability with the addition of ClerkLynx, LynxPad, and ResulTV, respectively.

"That's a tough question. Every feature and product is the coolest and I feel that everyone should have it all. Lynx has always listened to their customers’ feedback to add more to the technology and to make it user friendly. If I had to choose, at the top of my list would be the addition of the RadioLynx Wireless Start and the alphanumeric uGRAPH score clock.

"RadioLynx because of the headaches of dealing with those who don't value the importance of the start cable, its portability, and the time saved moving to various start points on the field. I would also recommend the uGRAPH, for its capabilities and price. Many facilities can't afford the big scoreboards and I believe that no meet should be contested without some type of visual display. Spectators, athletes and coaches would like to have some type of idea of what is going on."

Sean Laughlin of City College of San Francisco wrote to us after integrating the Lap Time plugin into his current technology set up. We heard this from Sean less than two weeks after he ordered the plugin: "Lap Time works great!!! I pick a few "hot" runners that the announcer wants splits on, capture and send him the lap times via ResulTV...too cool."

Andy McInnis of the University of Hawaii recently received a world class Lynx system and had this to say about RadioLynx: "We used the remote start system ... flawless ... awesome ... I hate gun wire!" After working with Lynx technology for almost as many years as there has been Lynx technology, Andy is ecstatic to use the wireless start.

With the current status of the company as a producer of an entire family of sports technology products, and not just the FinishLynx camera, there has been a need to emphasize the LYNX concept. Also, with the increasing television exposure that Lynx products are getting, there was need to have a simple, striking, image that was unmistakable even with the briefest glimpse. Hence the latest incarnation of Nexus – the Lynx cat.

1995