What works for you?
The HETMA Approved Program was started to help answer a question we all were asking each other: “What works for you?” Every school and institution has its own unique way of providing learning and collaboration spaces and all of us work at making these spaces better every year. So, in a world with so many ways of doing things and so many products available, how do you know what’s good, what’s not, and what fits into the higher education workflow? The HETMA Approved Program takes products submitted by manufacturers and places them in real-world environments across our membership demographic. Large schools, small schools, community colleges, and technical schools all use equipment in different ways and we leverage that to find the best products for our AV/IT teams. If you see the HETMA Approved Logo on a product or website you will know that we have certified that the product meets the quality and service standards set by our membership and that it fits in the higher education environment.
Driven by Experience
The HETMA Approved Program was one of the first things we talked about as a group when first coming together. We knew there needed to be a way for us to better position our members to make good decisions about products and services that were driven by experience, not just one sheet or vendor demos. This program exists so others can see the results of products that have been used in a working environment, including testing all capabilities and features. One of the more powerful things I have found about the Approved Program is that it has given access to smaller and sometimes overlooked schools to products and services they would not have had access to before. We have always promoted the idea that everyone gets to sit at the table. In fact, some of our smaller schools have been the biggest users of this program. Early on, we found out the impact this program could have not only on our members but also on our manufacturing partners looking for a way to “peek behind the curtain” as to what we need as a vertical.
A Simple Process
Already we have helped fine-tune products and offered valuable feedback to manufacturers to help make their products better. The process is simple. A manufacturer or service provider can fill out the request form to have one or more current products or services to be evaluated. Products or services need to be in current production and shipping or ready to be shipped. We have other services like our focus groups for product development or pre-production gear. Once a product has been submitted, we find a cross-section of our evaluators from different sizes and types of schools and pick five of them to receive the evaluation. Once the process is complete, the manufacturer receives a report explaining the decision of the committee. Approved or not, this report has our thoughts on quality, warranty and service, network information, and if it fits into the higher education workflow.. There may be a product that would be great for home or corporate use but may not fit in higher education space. If the product is not approved, we suggest and comment on how we would like to see the product change in order to be useful.
Join Us!
If you are a HETMA member and would like to sign up to be an evaluator please click the link here. If you are a manufacturer looking to be involved click here. For more information please email approvedprogram@gmail.com. HETMA Approved Program Co-Chairs Donovan Monday(West Virginia University) and Dustin Myers(John A Logan College).
Featured Approved Products and what our evaluators had to say:
Huddly L1
Quality video and moderately responsive framing that doesn’t feel awkward or robotic. Perfect where a soundbar/camera doesn’t have a deep enough field of view and a PTZ camera is over budget.
Bose: Bose Videobar VB1
Perfect where a soundbar/camera doesn’t have a deep enough field of view and a PTZ camera is over budget. This is absolutely an all-in-one solution. The clarity of audio from 20′ away is insane. I think you could standardize this for any conference/huddle space and be extremely happy with the ease of use for the customer and the setup takes minutes honestly.
Epiphan: Pearl Mini
It’s simple to set up, integrates well with our LMS system, and advertises that it connects to others. It’s portable and has an easy-to-understand UI. We like it and didn’t want to send it back. The Mini is a great fit for mobile production with its large touchscreen and multiple inputs
Elgato: StreamDeck XL
This device performs exactly as described and is a “Swiss army knife” when it comes to making complicated or keystroke-intensive tasks much easier to execute. Looking forward to finding more uses for this device. There is a great deal of unexplored potential as a user interface device in our classrooms and conference spaces that easily allows individual user customization.
For a full list of Approved Products visit HETMA.org