New Horizon Experience. This article describes the New Horizon Experience. In the Horizon WebRef mobile apps for Android and iOS, New Horizon is already what you see. On a computer or laptop, choose Try the New Horizon Experience from the banner or your account menu. You can switch back from that menu any time.
This article covers the iCal Sync URL for your assignments calendar in HorizonWebRef. Officials copy a private address and paste it into a calendar that supports the iCal format (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, and others).
It is for signed-in officials who want a live subscribed calendar. Use it when game times on that calendar look early, late, or shifted, or when you need posted times to stay as typed. Organization administrators set the organization time zone in System Settings.
Both layouts are in use right now. In the Horizon WebRef mobile apps you see the New Horizon Experience. On a computer or laptop, the older legacy layout stays until you choose Try the New Horizon Experience from the banner or your account menu. Match the steps to the screen in front of you. When a control or rule exists on only one layout, this article says so. The steps below start with the New Horizon Experience in the apps, then cover that older desktop or laptop layout.
Watch the walkthrough, then use the steps below. The video shows the New Horizon Experience. On a computer or laptop you may still see the older layout described at the end of this article.
How times work
Horizon stores each game as the posted date and clock time. The organization time zone says what those posted digits mean for a normal schedule: a 7:00 game is 7:00 in that zone. Officials who live in the same zone see 7:00. Officials who travel see the real local kickoff (7:00 Eastern becomes 4:00 Pacific on a west-coast phone).
Convert to your calendar timezone uses the same moment in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), also called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or Zulu Time (Z). Your calendar then shows that moment in the timezone you set in that calendar. Horizon does not control how Google, Apple, or Outlook convert timezones. If times still look wrong after you pick an option here, check the timezone settings in that calendar. Google Calendar explains its settings in this Google support article.
You may also subscribe the Horizon feed to a separate calendar when your organization time zone differs from the timezone on your everyday personal calendar.
One time-display choice applies to every game on that subscribe address.
Open your iCal Sync URL
Sign in as an Official. On My Schedule (Personal Schedule), open Utilities. On a phone that control is the gear icon and does not show the word Utilities. Then open iCal, then iCal Sync URL.
The window explains that this is a private address for your assignments calendar. Do not share it unless you want others to see your assignments across your organizations.
On an older desktop or laptop layout, open iCal Sync URL or iCal Synchronize URL from the schedule menu. That older window lists optional timezone URL parameters under Optional: timezone URL parameters instead of the radio choices below.
How should times appear?
In the New Horizon Experience, the heading is How should times appear? Pick an option. The synchronize URL updates by itself. Then tap Copy and paste the address into your calendar as an internet calendar subscription. On iPhone or iPad, add it as a subscribed calendar. See How to subscribe to iCalendar on iPhone / iPad.
On a computer, the same screen uses the wider layout.
Recommended (no extra parameters on the URL) treats posted times as the organization time zone. Officials in that zone see 7:00. Travelers see the real local kickoff. This is the default for new subscribe addresses and for addresses that do not add a time-display parameter.
Posted clock time always shows the posted time (7:00 stays 7:00). Use this when games are entered as the local time at the venue (not converted to the organization home-office zone), or when you travel between coasts and need the phone to say 7:00 either way. Google Calendar may still shift these times. Apple Calendar usually keeps 7:00. There is no setting that makes Google show 7:00 on an Eastern phone and 7:00 on a Pacific phone for the same subscription.
Convert to your calendar timezone converts from the organization time zone so your calendar shows the same moment in your timezone. It is the same instant as Recommended, in a format some calendars prefer.
Specific timezone treats every posted 7:00 as the timezone you pick for the whole feed (for example America/Los_Angeles). Choose a timezone from the list. The field label is Timezone, and the empty choice reads Select a timezone. If you leave the list empty or pick nothing valid, you see Choose a timezone from the list.
A help-circle control opens this Knowledge Base article (Open the timezone Knowledge Base article).
Copy, paste, and replace the address
The field label is Your synchronize URL. Tap Copy. A short confirmation reads Copied to clipboard. If copy fails, you see Could not copy to clipboard.
On a computer the hint is to copy the URL and paste it into your calendar program as an internet calendar subscription. On iPhone or iPad the hint is to copy the URL and add it as a subscribed calendar, with a View instructions link.
Regenerate URL erases the previous address and replaces it. The confirm title is Generate a new URL? The body explains that calendars using the previous URL stop working until they are updated. Confirm with Overwrite URL, or Cancel. After a successful replace you see Your new synchronize URL is ready. Update any calendars that used the old link.
Set the organization time zone
The organization time zone is the home zone for schedules, emails, and cutoff calculations. Organization administrators set it.
Open System Settings, then Preferences. Under Date, time, and logout redirect (or Date, time & region on some layouts), set Time zone. After you choose a zone, Horizon may ask Is this your current time? with Yes or No. If the clock is wrong, choose a different identifier that represents your time zone.
Recommended and Convert both use this organization time zone unless you pick Specific timezone. Posted clock time does not use it for the feed times.
URL parameters on older links
If you already copied a subscribe address, you can still add parameters by hand. Start each parameter with an ampersand (&) and do not add spaces. One time-display mode applies to the whole feed.
With no extra parameters, the feed now uses the organization time zone (Recommended). That is a change from older addresses that used posted clock time or UTC by default. Existing calendars refresh to the new default on the next update.
&tzMode=float is Posted clock time (7:00 stays 7:00; Google Calendar may still shift it).
&tzMode=convert converts from the organization time zone to UTC so your calendar shows the same moment in your timezone.
&tzMode=org is the same encoding as Recommended (kept for existing URLs).
&tz=America/Chicago overrides the organization time zone for convert or org. Use an IANA time zone name. A URL that only adds this parameter still converts, as before. Posted clock time ignores this parameter.
Example:
https://www.horizonwebref.com/syncICS?o=FEED_ID&enc=YOUR_KEY&tzMode=org&tz=America/Chicago
Older parameters that still work
These older parameters still work on copied URLs. Do not add them to new addresses.
&zoneID=1 uses the organization time zone encoding (same idea as Recommended).
&noZone=1 strips timezone labels from the feed times. Some calendars that cannot read timezones need this.
&offset=1 adds timezone offset information. Offset form is uncommon in iCal. A few calendars can still read it.
If more than one of those older parameters is present, the feed uses zoneID first, then offset, then noZone.
If times still look wrong
Confirm the organization Time zone in System Settings matches how times are entered. Then pick Recommended unless games are typed as venue-local times (use Posted clock time) or your calendar needs UTC (use Convert).
Check the timezone inside Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook. You may need a separate subscribed calendar when the organization zone differs from your personal calendar.
If you still see the older legacy desktop or laptop layout
On a computer or laptop, the calendar link opens in a centered panel titled iCalendar Live Synchronize URL. Copy the full URL from the gray text box. On a computer, right-click the field or use Ctrl+C (Command+C on Mac). On iPhone or iPad, follow the linked instructions to add a subscribed calendar.
To change how times display, expand Optional: timezone URL parameters and append the listed suffixes to your URL. Older parameters zoneID, noZone, and offset still work on old links. Choose Regenerate URL only when you need a new private link. That stops old subscriptions from syncing.
The private sync URL, regenerate behavior, and timezone modes are the same work on both layouts. How should times appear? with Recommended, Posted clock time, Convert to your calendar timezone, Organization timezone, and Specific timezone, plus a Copy button, belong to the New Horizon Experience in the apps.