Hate one sided scoring lights

[Puppet Master]

Talk about making our sport more spectator friendly... make bubble scoring lights viewable from 360 degrees. Many a time I've watched two of my teammates fence at the same time, only to not know the results of one. One of my pet peeves, just had to get it out.

[Methix]

I actually saw something like this recently. I was so excited for exactly the same reason. I could watch the fencers, see what the box registered, and see the call the referee made from the back side of the strip!! It was so great!!

[damianip]

Some of the more sophisticated scoring machines and extension lights work as you describe:

Uhlmann:



Allstar:


Nice, but expensive. You won't see these at every comp.

Paolo

[neevel]

Old idea. Lots of scoring machines have bubble lights-- Prieur, Leon Paul, Challenger, Uhlmann, Allstar FIE models. The old Kessinger boxes from the '60s came with a pair of mini-towers as the standard lights, which stowed away inside the box. You don't see so many of those boxes currently because they're just not price competitive with the SG-12 (and, more recently, the Eigertek and Favero boxes)-- a Leon Paul 3-W box costs nearly $2000 in the U.S., versus $600-$700 for an SG-12.

The early prototypes for the SG boxes had bubble lights on a panel which would flip up at an angle for better visibility. It was presumably abandoned in favor of the current design for cost/ease of manufacturing reasons.


-Dave

[Puppet Master]

Actually, at last year's sectionals some tower extension lights were used that were apparently home made, nice!