PLC – Phased Light Compensation

When capturing races under certain types of artificial lighting, a series of vertical bars may appear consistently throughout the image capture. Artificial light runs on an AC circuit that cycles on and off at around 50 – 60 times per second. Because FinishLynx cameras record 1,000+ frames per second, this means that some frames will capture while the lighting is cycled off. While these light flickers are nearly invisible to the human eye, the speed of FinishLynx captures makes them much more apparent. These artificial light strobes appear as dark vertical bars during any frame that is captured while the light is cycled off. While most modern facilities will not have issues with phased light distortion, many older athletics, skating, horse racing, cycling, and motorsport venues may benefit from adding PLC to their EtherLynx cameras.

The image below shows how the PLC add-on nearly eliminates the black bar distortion from phased lighting and makes it extremely easy to evaluate a race under artificial light.