The value of FLAAR being at a university is that the students and faculty doing the reviews and evaluations are independent and neutral.
Students and professors have no interest in the politics and marketing machinations of the manufacturers. Indeed the advertising hype of the ad campaigns is blissfully ignored because the goal is to establish which hardware and software actually functions.
FLAAR + BGSU are already offering courses on Digital Photography as Input for Wide Format Inkjet Printing. Future courses will cover scanning and inkjet printing as well.
FLAAR is situated on the first floor of the College of Technology on the campus of Bowling Green State University (south of Toledo, Ohio). After our first year here, so much new equipment arrived that we had to move into a new building. BGSU is easily accessible from Toledo or Detroit. If you wish to visit, sign up for a consulting session so you can use whatever equipment you would like to while you are visiting. |
Halley Puffer edited and updated the operator's manual for the Cruse reprographic scanner while she worked with FLAAR at BGSU. In other words, when you work for FLAAR, even students get to use the $97,000 digital photography system. |
Since no textbook exists on large format digital photography, Professor Hellmuth has been working the last 14 months to prepare one. Since this is a daunting task, a team of BGSU students assist. Matt is one of the crew doing research for this FLAAR + BGSU course on digital photography. |
Michelle -Price is a trained technical writer. Her attention is devoted into organizing Dr Hellmuth's textbook material and coordinating it with the material produced by the rest of the team. She then posts this on BlackBoard, the web-based training software used by Bowling Green State University. She held a two year full-scholarship while working for FLAAR on campus. She also spent summers at the FLAAR facility at the university in Guatemala. |
The main advantage of having students and faculty do the evaluations and testing is that they have no vested interest whatsoever in any company. In the academic environement at a university people just want to know which printer, which RIP, which inkjet media does the best job. No one cares about whether it is one brand or another. Wendy Like, for example, is not paid by any printer manufacturer; not even by FLAAR. She is one of the several key staff members provided by the university. |
Brent Cavanaugh, BGSU, technical manager, large format digital imaging laboratory. Brent has decades of experience with professional photography. He now runs the Iris 3047 giclee printer, several HP DesignJets, two Mimaki textile printers, two giant 72" ColorSpan printers, the large Cruse scanner-camera system, and all the other digital imaging hardware and software that has landed at BGSU since FLAAR set up headquarters here recently. Universities are a neutral independent environment, ideal for doing reviews of digital imaging equipment. |
The BGSU + FLAAR program is also supported by a crew of 12 staff of FLAAR at Francisco Marroquin University. Since FLAAR has been doing photography in Guatemala for over 30 years our facility at UFM has been established longer than at BGSU (which just started in 2001). Photo shows Marlon Castillo with three of the wide format inkjet printers, lab technical manager for FLAAR Latin America at UFM. |
|
Most recently updated May 26, 2003.
Previous updates: April 11 2002.