posted Jun 1st, 2006 - The on-line coverage of the major international Formation Skydiving competitions this year will have a different character compared to the past years. The great Omniskore on-line services, which have been provided by Ted and Tim Wagner and their staff, will not be available any longer.

The Omniskore owners and inventors have gradually reduced their extraordinary efforts and recently sold their shares of the Omniskore business operation to their former Omniskore partner, Larry Hill, who is the owner of Skydive Arizona. Larry Hill will now decide single handedly how to use the Omniskore hardware and software in the future.

The whole Omniskore inventory actually consists of several different components. Ted Wagner originally created the computer software programs that revolutionized competition judging by making it easier, more efficient and faster. Omniskore invested in the necessary hardware, as well, and provided software and equipment at the major events.

Finally, world meets, world cups and other major skydiving competitions were unthinkable without the Omniskore judging services. Ted and Tim Wagner then added DZ-TV to the basic judging services. The famous Omniskore screen was now not only available for the judges but also for the teams, competitors and general audience live on competition site.

TVs and larger screens could be connected to the judging stations, and the judging at competitions with Omniskore participation became a live event. There was a time period in the mid 90's when IPC and Omniskore even experimented quite successfully with live judging and direct transmission from freefall to judging station and DZ-TV.

In the meantime, the Omniskore website had become the third component in the Omniskore event coverage. The scores were posted as soon as the judges were finished pushing their buttons. Later on, the official score sheets were made accessible, as well, and they offered visitors the opportunity to search for the excat locations of infringements and penalties.

Team pictures showed the line-ups of the participating teams, and the Tidbits offered commentary, mostly provided by Ted (T1) and Tim Wagner (T2), and additional snapshots taken at the competition site. The Omniskore website also added video files of randomly selected competition jumps.

Last not least, Omniskore also offered free skydiving software for the skydiving community, including the popular PrintPool program, which is still being used to create the jump sequences for a competition draw.

Even though the whole skydiving world was on-line to follow the up-to-date Omniskore coverage at the major events, Ted and Tim Wagner made sure the audience knew that the on-line service was not the officially sanctioned outlet of IPC or USPA, as the Omniskore disclaimer explains:

"Every year we make an honest effort to get as many results posted as quickly as possible. While doing so we invariably make a lot of mistakes. As hard as we try, we can never claim to be the official voice of USPA or the competition host. That would be like calling Bob Uecker the official voice of MLB. We are also accused, every year, of being biased in favor of the FS events. This is to a certain extent rather true: OmniSkore was created for FS, we are former FS competitors, and FS has long held the most competitors of any discipline. In addition to covering FS with passion and zeal, we also do our best to provide coverage of ALL the disciplines. We also welcome tidbits contributions from other writers, send us an email if you're interested in writing for your favorite event. The views and opinions expressed on this web site are those of Tim and/or Ted Wagner and are not necessarily those of our sponsors, the competition host, or USPA. All images on this site - unless otherwise indicated - are free for distribution under the condition of proper photo credits. All text and commentary may be reprinted only with the expressed written consent of Ted or Tim Wagner."

Ted and Tim Wagner have obviously been very strong supporters of Formation Skydiving competition and invested a lot of time, money and efforts into the sport. Unfortunately for the sport, both twin brothers felt like it was time for them to change direction and reduce their efforts. The Wagner families grew in the past years and gave even more reasons to focus on different things in life.

Finally, Ted and Tim Wagner decided to sell the whole Omniskore package to Larry Hill. Ted "T1" Wagner will not be available any longer at all, while Tim "T2" Wagner mentioned that he is still interested in attending events once in a while and provide his experiences for the event coverage.

Omniskore will still be used at the major skydiving competitions, as the transition has been prepared long ago. The judging and DZ-TV components have become an independant mobile service that can be shipped to any place that holds a skydiving competition. IPC judges and staff people have been trained to set up and handle Omniskore on site when neither T1 nor T2 are present.

The mobile Omniskore services have been working very well, as events like the Malevsky Cup have shown in the past years. The only missing component of the whole Omniskore package of the past was the on-line coverage at the Omniskore website.

It happened by coincidence that this missing piece was at least partially replaced when the NSL News began with its event coverage directly from the competition sites of the major events. In fact, Omniskore and NSL News worked together very well at several events before the Omniskore website did not continue its on-line coverage at certain events.

Feedback from the on-line audience on both ends confirmed that a large number of the on-line visitors hopped back and forth between Omniskore and NSL News to find the most comprehensive coverage of the whole event. Omniskore provided information that NSL News did not have, and the NSL website offered different stories, pictures, meet videos and interviews.

NSL News and the Wagner family enjoyed the productive and friendly cooperation, which materialized in great services for the skydiving community and the on-line audience. However, Ted and Tim had already decided to reduce their efforts, and it was only a matter of time until the NSL News would eventually become the only on-line coverage at the major events.

Omniskore and NSL News both covered the World Meet in France 2003 and in Croatia 2004 and worked even closer together at the USPA Nationals 2005 and the World Cup 2005. The Malevsky Cup 2004 and 2005 was already covered only by the NSL News, while Omniskore provided its mobile judging and DZ-TV services in Russia.

The 2006 season continues as the transition phase of the past years indicated. The NSL News will be the only on-line service at the World Meet 2006 in Germany, while Larry Hill's Omniskore will once again provide the infrastructure for judging and DZ-TV at the competition site. The situation at the Malevsky Cup 2006 will be identical.

The NSL News will provide the usual features, including scores, pictures, event stories, interviews and meet videos for a comprehensive event coverage. The NSL News will also make efforts to provide similar commentary as Omniskore's Tidbits did in the past. The preparations for both events are already in full swing and include efforts to improve the technology for NSL-TV. The NSL News will follow up on this topic as soon as these efforts have been finalized.