Am I being a right wonk here, or am I missing the point (about download and RIP, anyway)?

What's the big deal about a judge carrying a checked portable around with him, with emplode installed, and then just USBing the track down to the empeg? (I know there are then issues beyond this, but I'm just talking about the delivery of an approved copy at the moment).

Surely if they can make an approved master CD, they can also make a master CD-ROM of MP3 tracks, which they can shove into the laptop, verify a checksum on, download to the empeg, then after the verification, see the loaded checksum on the target machine?

The download delay could easily be handled by having a "download station" at events where you hand over the player at the start of the day; the player is then taken into care of the judges. You don't see your unit again until the judge brings it over prior to judging. You carry out your last minute adjustments and then the work starts.

I suspect I am somewhat naive about the reality of a contest, but I can't see a lot of difficulty about this that can't be handled by a bit of simple organisation.

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015