DM Track

Support for the DM Track apps: DM Track Timer (iPad), DM Track Remote (iPhone), and DM Track Booth (Mac). If you don’t find your answer here, email josh@dependentmedia.com and a human will reply.

Quick start on iPhone — time your first race

1. Open the app and tap Solo Timer.
2. Allow camera and microphone access. The camera records the finish; the microphone listens for the gun.
3. Point the phone at the finish line.
4. Tap Arm gun, then fire the starter (a loud clap works for testing). The clock starts on its own. Or tap Start to begin manually.
5. Tap the lane numbers as athletes cross.
6. Tap Stop, name the race, and save.

You need nothing else — no other devices, no network, no account.

Quick start on iPad — run a meet

1. Open DM Track Timer and dismiss the welcome sheet.
2. Open the sidebar with the button in the top-left corner.
3. Tap New Meet and pick a template — for example High School (JV / Varsity). This builds the whole event list, split by division and gender.
4. Tap Roster to add athletes. To add a lot at once, use the sidebar gear → Import Roster and paste one athlete per line as First Last (Team).
5. Open a division to reach its heat, and put athletes in lanes. Heats can also be seeded from past marks.
6. Tap Time This Heat, start the race, and tap lane buttons as athletes cross.

Everything above works on one iPad with no network connection and no account. Cameras, iPhones, an Apple TV scoreboard, and a Mac are all optional additions.

Which app do I want?

• DM Track Timer (iPad) — run and score a whole meet: schedule, roster, heats, timing, results, scoreboard.
• DM Track Remote (iPhone) — time a single race by yourself with Solo Timer, or act as a camera angle at a bigger meet.
• DM Track Booth (Mac) — the control room: multi-camera switching, graphics, replay, and broadcast.

Fixing times after the race

Open a saved race from Races or the Recent list. The video plays back with an audio waveform underneath — the starting gun is usually the tallest spike in that waveform.

• Adjust a time: tap the finish in the list. The video jumps to that moment and the controls open. Use Set here to snap it to the current frame, or the −0.10 / −0.01 / +0.01 / +0.10 buttons to nudge.
• Add a finish you missed: scrub to the crossing and tap Add finish at playhead, then pick the lane. It sorts into its correct place automatically.
• Fix the start: find the gun in the waveform, scrub to it, and tap Gun was here. Every finish time shifts together.
• Change a lane: tap the finish, then pick the lane number in the controls.
• Delete a mis-tap: swipe left on the finish.

Frequently asked

The gun isn’t starting the clock

Make sure you tapped Arm gun first — the meter moves whenever the app is open, but a detected sound only starts a race when armed. Watch the level meter while someone claps: if the bar barely moves, lower the sensitivity threshold; if it triggers on crowd noise, raise it. On a windy day, manual Start is more reliable than any microphone.

How accurate is it?

As accurate as your frame rate. One frame at 30 fps is about 33 milliseconds; at 240 fps it is about 4. Set the frame rate on the Solo Timer screen — the app shows what one frame is worth as you change it. Higher frame rates use more storage and may reduce the capture resolution on some devices.

Where are my recordings?

Inside the app, under Races. They are stored privately in the app, not in your Photos library. When the app’s storage allowance fills, it removes the oldest video clips first — recorded times are always kept, even after a clip is cleared.

Do I need an internet connection?

No. The Solo Timer works completely offline. Network features (running a meet across several devices, or Cloud Sync) are optional.

The camera preview is black

Check that camera access is allowed in Settings → DM Track Remote. If you were recording when the phone locked or you switched apps, reopen the Solo Timer screen to restart the camera.

Can I use several phones and a Mac together?

Yes. DM Track Remote is also one device in a larger system — several camera phones, an iPad running DM Track Timer or a Mac coordinating the meet, an Apple TV scoreboard, and video review across angles. The devices find each other over your local Wi‑Fi, so allow Local Network access when asked.

Privacy

Solo Timer recordings and race times stay on your device. There are no ads and no trackers, and Cloud Sync is off until a coach turns it on. Full details are in the DM Track Privacy Policy.

Contact

Bug reports, feature requests, and questions: josh@dependentmedia.com. Telling us your device model, iOS version, and what you were doing helps enormously.

A track meet is a scheduling problem wearing a stopwatch. Eleven events, four divisions each, eight lanes at a time, and a clipboard that has to survive the whole afternoon. DM Track Timer puts the entire scoring table on one iPad — the schedule, the roster, the heats, the timing, and the results — and it works start to finish with no network connection and no account.

Start with a real schedule, not a blank page

Create a meet from a built-in template — High School (JV / Varsity), Middle School with divisions, or sprints and relays for a practice meet. Each one builds the full event list, split by division and gender, with a heat under every division. You are editing a meet within seconds instead of typing one out.

Build the roster once, use it all season

Athletes live in teams and groups that carry across the season. Paste a whole roster in at once, assign event entries, mark who is out and why, and reuse the same list meet after meet. Heats can seed themselves from past marks, so lanes are filled sensibly instead of by hand at the scoring table.

Time every race

Arm the race, start on the gun, and tap lanes as athletes cross. Point the iPad’s camera at the finish line and it can detect the crossings for you. Camera and detection are set at the meet level, so you calibrate once at the start of the afternoon and every heat after that inherits it — there is nothing to redo between races.

Results and team scoring keep themselves current

Places, times, and team points update as heats finish, with configurable scoring depth. Field events are supported with proper tie handling. Standings are always up to date, so nobody is waiting on a spreadsheet to find out where the meet stands.

Put it on the big screen

Send live results and heat information to an Apple TV so athletes, coaches, and parents can follow along between races — the meet stops being a rumour in the bleachers.

Add cameras when you want them

Bring in iPhones running DM Track Remote as extra camera angles for finish-line video and review. Add a Mac to run a full broadcast with graphics and replays. Start with just the iPad and add pieces only when a bigger meet asks for them.

Private by default

Meet and roster data stays on your iPad. There are no ads and no trackers, and cloud sync — for sharing a team’s data across your own devices — is opt-in and off until you turn it on. The full DM Track Privacy Policy has the details, including how athlete records are handled for schools.

Coming to the App Store

DM Track Timer for iPad is heading to TestFlight and the App Store, alongside DM Track Remote for iPhone and the Mac control-room app, DM Track Booth. If you coach or officiate and want early access, get in touch at josh@dependentmedia.com. Setup questions are answered on the support page.

Last updated: August 18, 2026

DM Track is made by Dependent Media. It is software for timing and recording track & field meets. This policy explains what the apps store, what leaves your device, and what we can see. It covers DM Track on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

We do not sell your data. We do not use advertising or analytics SDKs, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.

The short version

DM Track handles data in three separate tiers. Which ones apply depends entirely on how you use it.

Tier	What happens	Can Dependent Media see it?
On your device	Solo Timer recordings, race times, app settings	No
On your local network	Devices at a meet share video and results directly with each other	No
Cloud Sync (opt-in, off by default)	Team and meet data syncs to our server	Yes

If you only use the app to time races on one device, nothing leaves that device and we never receive any of it.

1. Data stored only on your device

The Solo Timer records video and race times to the app’s private storage — video and audio from your camera and microphone, the race clock, and the finish times you record. This data stays on your device. It is not uploaded to us. Deleting a race in the app, or deleting the app, removes it.

2. Data shared on your local network

When you run a meet with more than one device (phones, an iPad, a Mac, an Apple TV), those devices talk directly to each other over your local Wi-Fi. They exchange camera video, race timing, results, and roster information for the meet in progress. This traffic goes between your own devices. It does not pass through our servers and we cannot see it.

3. Data stored on our servers (Cloud Sync)

Cloud Sync is off by default. If a coach or administrator turns it on, the following is stored on our server (sync.dependentmedia.com) so it can be shared between that team’s own devices and people:

• Team/organization name and settings
• Meets and events — schedules, heats, results, and recorded marks
• Athlete records — first and last name, display name, bib number, team, group, event entries, availability, and performance marks
• Athlete photos, where a coach has added them
• Coach notes and feedback about an athlete
• Account information for coaches and staff — email address, and the sign-in tokens used to log in
• Basic operational logs needed to run the service

Who can see it

• Coaches and staff you invite to your organization can see your organization’s data.
• Athletes given a read-only login can see only their own record — their events, marks, availability, and any feedback a coach has explicitly chosen to share. Coach-private notes are never shown to athletes.
• Dependent Media can access data on the server only as needed to operate, back up, secure, and support the service.

4. Athletes and minors

DM Track is used by schools, and the athletes in it are often minors. Athlete records are created and controlled by the coach, school, or organization using the app — not by the athletes themselves. That organization decides what is entered, who is invited, and what is shared. We act on their behalf as a service provider and do not use athlete information for any purpose other than providing the service.

We do not knowingly allow athlete records to be used for advertising, profiling, or any commercial purpose. If you are a parent or guardian and want an athlete’s information corrected or removed, contact the coach or school that runs the account, or contact us and we will assist them.

5. Device permissions

Permission	Why
Camera	Recording races and finishes; live camera feeds during a meet
Microphone	Detecting the starting gun, and audio on recordings
Local Network	Finding your other DM Track devices at a meet
Location (optional)	Recording where a camera is placed at a venue
Photos (optional)	Adding an athlete photo you choose

Declining any of these limits the related feature but does not prevent the app from running. Solo Timer needs only camera and microphone.

6. Retention and deletion

• On-device data stays until you delete it. The app automatically removes its oldest video recordings when its storage allowance fills; race times are kept.
• Cloud Sync data is kept while the organization’s account is active. A coach or administrator can delete athletes, meets, or the entire organization. You can also email us to request deletion of an account and its data.

7. Security

Connections to our server use HTTPS. Passwords and sign-in tokens are stored hashed, never in plain text. Access to an organization’s data requires a valid session for that organization. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect this information and we act promptly on any issue we discover.

8. Children’s privacy and schools

We do not offer DM Track directly to children. Accounts are created by coaches, schools, or organizations, who are responsible for obtaining any consent required by their institution or by law before entering an athlete’s information.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, for significant changes, notify account holders by email.

10. Contact

Questions, corrections, or deletion requests: Dependent Media — josh@dependentmedia.com