Show day
On the day, DogShow stops being a database and becomes several screens in a field, each showing a different thing to a different person. This chapter is about setting those screens up and knowing what each one is for.
Do it the week before, not the morning of. Every device needs an account, and accounts created in a hurry at eight in the morning are how a ring ends up showing another ring's dogs.
The devices you need
Per ring, three screens and one tablet; for the whole show, one desk and one supervisor:
| Device | How many | Who looks at it |
|---|---|---|
| Office computer | one per show | whoever runs the show |
| Screen by the ring | one per ring | the judge and the ring |
| Second screen by the ring | one per ring | the exhibitors waiting |
| Tablet in the ring | one per ring | the steward, who records the judgments |
| Tablet or phone | one per show | the supervisor, walking around |
That is four devices per ring. Six rings means twenty-four devices plus the desk, which is worth knowing while there is still time to borrow them.
One account per role
Each device signs in with its own account, and the account is what decides what the device shows. There is no setting on the device itself.
The names are up to you; a convention that reads well is manager1 for the desk,
manager2 for the supervisor, and ringuser1, ringstatus1, ringresults1 for the
three roles of ring 1.
The desk and the supervisor
These two are ordinary accounts with the admin box ticked, created the way any account is: the person registers with their own email address, and you grant the right.
chat enabled allows the account to use the internal messaging. Turn it on for both: during a show, being able to write to a ring instead of walking to it is worth a great deal.
There is no need to sign out at the end of the day. The application keeps the account signed in across devices, so a phone that was the supervisor's yesterday is still the supervisor's this morning.
The three ring roles
The ring accounts are not made this way. They have no email address and no password anyone knows, and they sign in with a temporary code — which is what makes it safe to hand a tablet to a steward you met that morning.
They are created in System → Users, on the Ring tab, and the whole procedure is in Ring device access: one account per role per ring, the switch that enables them, and the two ways of pairing a device.
Accessing a show in progress
When an event is under way, a button appears in the top bar of every signed-in account that is entitled to it: events in progress today.
That is the only way in, and it is deliberately narrow: the operational screens exist only while there is something running.
What the control desk sees
The desk sees the show as a whole, live.
One line per ring, with the breed being judged, the count of judged dogs out of the total, and — the number everyone actually watches — the delay in minutes.
The delay is computed against the plan built from the judgment duration and the number of dogs. A ring an hour and a half behind at midday is not going to catch up on its own: that is the moment to move a breed, add a judge, or push back the start of best in show.
The same page works on a phone, which is what makes it useful to somebody standing in the middle of the field rather than sitting at the desk.
What the ring screens show
Two screens stand by each ring, and they answer two different questions.
One shows what is being judged and what comes next: the dogs in the ring now, with their catalog numbers, class and breed, and the ones on deck. It is what an exhibitor waiting outside looks at to know whether to start warming up.
The other shows the results: the same dogs, larger, with the placement slots filling in as the judge assigns them.
Both carry the ring number in large type, the count of judged dogs and the ring's state — WAITING, IN PROGRESS, and the red SUSPENDED FOR REASSIGNMENTS if the office is changing the assignments.
The tablet in the ring
The tablet is the only screen anyone types into. Everything else is a display.
It shows the current match — the judge, the breed, the class, the time and the delay — and the dogs, each with its catalog number, pedigree and microchip. The arrows move between matches; the buttons on the right record the judgment. What goes on them, and in what order, is the subject of the next chapter.