The Louisiana Technology Park, located in Baton Rouge, La. will soon house a new radio frequency laboratory on its property.
Executive committee members of Research Park Corp. voted this month to devote $160,000 to the initiative that would allow local and regional companies to research and test product prototypes in a closer and more convenient location. Currently, though nearby colleges house facilities for student training purposes, they do not offer local businesses the capability to rent test equipment, forcing many of these companies to send their products several states away for testing.
“You have to do a lot of planning before testing equipment. Then you have to send over your engineers for testing, wherever the testing facility may be. If you have any changes to make, you can do it more conveniently with a nearby testing facility,” Andy McCandless, president of wireless communications company Bascom Hunter, told New Orleans’ daily newspaper, The Times-Picayune. His company currently employs a testing laboratory in Pennsylvania.
Renovations of the selected 800 sq. ft. space inside the technology park are expected to begin once further information is gathered from equipment manufacturers. The $160,000 will be used to purchase machines to perform diagnostic tests on both software and hardware, as well as other necessary equipment.
