The Judge

The Judge is an iconic electronic lockout system that is manufactured and sold by Electramatic, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN. The Judge may date back to the 1960s, and may be the oldest type of system that is still in regular use.

The Judge is a self-contained system, with all of the parts fitting into a briefcase, with the lights on the outside of the case and the bare electronics in the inside. Players used pedal-like devices for signaling. It requires virtually no setup time, and break down was a matter of fitting all of the pedals back into the briefcase.

The Judge has a spurious reputation of never breaking. It is impossible to have a conversation about or around a Judge without someone making a joke about difficulty transporting it through airports, but no reports of serious problems doing so have been seriously communicated in the greater quizbowl community.