Does anyone have information regarding tournament organizers or affiliates that have purchased the handhelds and tournament organizer hub?
My local affiliate is considering purchasing 10 or so and the tournament organizer hub to use for our tournaments. However, $4000 is a lot of money and we’d like to know if it’s worth it.
Has anyone else made similar purchases?
How do you use the system? Has the system been working for you?
Do you just use them for top boards?
Do you rent the handhelds out at tournaments?
How much do you rent them for?
Have there been any issues regarding using them at your tournaments?
Do any of you own a MonRoi handheld personally?
Any information would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Monroi has brought devices and the hub for all 36 players here at the Frank K. Berry U.S. Championship, even though only 25-30 players are using them. It does make things easier. Obviously there is no renting them out. I understand that Frank Berry has purchased ten of these and the hub and is planning to use them at the Okie Chess Festival this weekend. If you ask him your questions after that, he may be able to give you more infomation.
Part of our discussion is if we’ll be able to recover any of our costs for the system. If it doesn’t seem likely that renting them out is an option, we’ll probably wait to see if there’s a price drop in the future.
I’m just wondering any anyone out there has found the benefits to be worth the cost.
My understanding is the annual fee is for posting Live Tournaments to the MonRoi website, NOT to use the tournament organizer for monitoring your tournaments.
I doubt the prices will come down soon anytime in the near future. Too much money was spent on research by a Canadian entity. Had research and production been done in China for example, the cost of each unit would only be a fraction of the current cost.
I organize and direct tournaments for the Brownsville Independent School District in Texas. I too, am proposing for the school district to invest in a package deal like the one you seek, or 20 units with a hub for close to $7500.
Here is a copy and paste portion of what I wrote to the UIL and Chess Coordinator of our district in hopes of persuading the district to make a purchase:
"Pros:
From a parents point of view:
At the conclusion of a child’s game, a parent can immediately review the game with his/her child. The days where a child does not fully notate or has several mistakes on their notation are over.
If there is live transmission of the game, a parent, relative, or friend of the family can view the game from anywhere in the world. Family members who are at the tournament site will know exactly when the child has completed the game. Thus, the parent knows exactly when to report to the doors where the child exits.
The monroi by itself can save about 80 games in PGN format, but with a SD memory card 1000’s of games can be stored. The games can later be used to analyze mistakes with a teacher or with Fritz.
From a tournament director’s point of view:
Easily resolve conflicts
Print out games for BISD webpublishing
Broadcast matches in real time
Cons:
Expensive- The monroi unit is an expensive unit. Each unit costs $359.00 plus shipping. This makes it a very costly investment.
However, we could have the option of making it affordable to students and parents by coming up with a lease plan, say $25 per tournament with a $100 deposit. With 10 tournaments we could recuperate $2500 for the 10 unit package or $5000 for the 20 unit package. In two years we could recoup the money back.
My seven year old son has this unit and used it at nationals. It was an awesome experience. I was able to see his games after his matches. I was able to send his games after each round via email to his teacher in Paraguay, and the teacher would email comments about the games before the start of his next round.
I would love for BISD to lead the way in using cutting edge technology. We can make it an awesome experience to our children and parents with the purchase of this units.
Please discuss this matter at your next executive meeting."
Please note there was an attempt to broadcast the games live at the elementary national tournament in Nashville, but Chris Bird told me the hotel wanted to charge a $1000.00 connection fee. It would have been nice to see the games live there. OH well, with or without live transmission, the monroi is still an awesome product.
I have been told a special software from Monroi exists to edit a user’s name. Without the software a user sets his/her profile and the name will be set for security reasons. Of course to obtain the software, you will have to contact the Monroi organization. They will not release the software to just anyone.
I don’t want to turn this into a “technical” discussion, but to answer the question…
If a club purchases a number of the units for club/tournament use then you can receive “special” units that allow you to continuously change the profile on the device.
If an individual purchases a unit then it is automatically the version that hard codes the players name into the profile. This is for security reasons.
Regarding Nashville, the fee for internet access in the convention area was approximately $1,000 a day! Also, I guess parents would have had the same problem if they’d have brought their laptops down to the convention area?! (You’re right though, it was a shame.)
The solution for the internet access problem is for a subcontractor with a broadband access PC Card (via cellular service connection) to operate the Professional Tournament Manager hub for the MonRoi’s. They would not be subjected to the confiscatory internet access rates of the host and they may not be subject to the terms of the facility agreement. The latter is the real question. Does anyone know the details regarding internet access at Nashville?
They had free internet (Not wireless) in the hotel rooms. I had a room that was a three minute walk from the K-1 playing site and a two minute walk to the main convention center. It would have been nice, but no complaints here.
Exactly, I suspect the Verizon would, too. The only issue is if the agreement with USCF and the host facility would prevent a sub-contractor from circumventing the internet policy.