July 14, 2017
SAMSUN, Turkey — The Reaction Light System produced at Trine University will be used to start swimming events at the 23rd Summer Deaflympics in Samsun, Turkey.
The swimming events for the Deaflympics will take place July 20-26, with some events being livestreamed. Hearing-impaired swimmers from 37 nations, including the United States, will take part in the competition.
More information about the Deaflympics is available by downloading the 2017 Deaflympics app or visiting deaflympics2017.org.
Nick Santino, a 1965 Trine alumnus and Newark, New York, resident who owns Reaction Lights of New York LLC, said he met Doug Matchett, who coordinates international hearing-impaired swim meets, at a meet in San Antonio, Texas, about four years ago where Reaction Lights Systems made their debut. The two have remained in contact, especially since Matchett lives only about 40 minutes away from Santino.
When Matchett saw the latest version of the system, he wanted to take it to the meet in Turkey. When officials there saw video of the system in action, they decided to purchase it.
“We added new features to the Reaction Light Systems because the Deaflympics is such a large meet,” Santino said.
Santino originally developed the Reaction Light Systems and contacted the Innovation One business incubator at Trine University to refine and commercialize them.
Innovation One now manufactures and ships the systems.
Reaction Light Systems are installed on all starting platforms and use colored light tubes to signal the start of each event. The lights turn flashing red followed by a steady red to signal swimmers to get ready, blue to take their mark, green to go, and white showing all touch pad activations.
To learn more about Reaction Light Systems, visit innovation1.org or reactionlights.com.
Photo: A Reaction Light System is used to start an event in the 2016-17 North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships earlier this year at Cazenovia College in New York.
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