Power Supply

Even if it is a commodity, you want to spend some attention to the power supply for the devices that are required to keep the scoring system alive.
You want to make a distinction between devices which are vital and vulnerable (e.g. because they don’t have a battery), devices that are vital but have battery backup and devices that are not vital.

The first precaution that you can take to prevent power outage, is to make sure that all of your power cables and outlet are secure:

• If possible, you should branch from a different circuit than any other systems which will have a high power consumption during the event, such as sound and light.
• Protect your power cables and connections for accidental breaking. If cables are running along the floor, make sure they fixed with tape or cable trays. Fixate power plugs with tape if you think someone might accidentally pull the plug. Many power strips have a power switch nowadays. You might prefer to use power strips without a switch or make sure they are positioned such that the switch cannot be flipped accidentally.

If you want to be sure to run without interruption in case of a power outage, you might consider to use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). This is a device with a battery which can be used to ensure that some devices of your setup keep running during a power cut. A UPS will also protect your devices against peak voltages.

When using a UPS, the key is to connect all the critical devices that don’t have their own battery. This includes the network devices (routers,switches, AP’s) and any PC’s without battery. On the other hand, be careful not to connect devices with high power consumption (e.g. printers) to the UPS, because they will drain the battery very fast and prevent the UPS from working properly even when the power is on.