Compliance for Kickstarters: Selling Your Innovation Around the World

About the Compliance for Kickstarters Webinar

One Billion dollars have been raised in Kickstarter Campaigns, funding nearly two thousand development projects around the globe. The technology space is a favorite place for innovators, dreamers and makers. In one campaign alone, Maryland-based M3D raised over $3M to develop a consumer-accessible 3D printer. In another campaign, nearly $9M was raised for a novel video game.

Other projects on kickstarter.com include wireless headphones, wearable temperature monitoring devices, über-ergonomic wheelchairs and laser-cut customizable boom boxes. Many of these innovations use electronics to power their function.

One of the challenges, aside from doing the hard work of conception, design, development, proof of concept and execution is to comply with regulatory requirements. If your Kickstarter project is going to go global, your device must meet regulations for product safety and radio frequency (often referred to as Electromagnetic Compatibility or EMC).

In this one-hour webinar, we will present the essentials of product compliance for the most important markets for your products.

–         North America
–         Europe
–         China
–         Australia

Topics to be covered include Certification, Test Standards and good design elements. Something as simple as picking the right power supply can greatly simplify the entire regulatory process. The best approach is to specify International Standards for subassemblies and components. Critical to sourcing components is supporting documentation and compliance information. This alone can reduce your costs and time-to-market.

We will cover the essential elements of compliance plus many of the industry acronyms and standard terms.

	Federal Communications Commission: The FCC regulates nearly every electronic device sold or marketed in the United States. The FCC Rules are written to protect the Radio Frequency spectrum from interference, improve the access to communications for the public good and facilitate technology developments. Every device containing a microprocessor, digital circuitry and/or radio communications functions must comply with the Rules. Compliance is generally shown by proper test and, in the case of radio transmitters, Certification.
	European Union (EU): The CE Marking allows access to over 300 million consumers in the European Market. The CE Marking is mandatory for nearly every type of product placed on the market, from transmitters to medical devices. The placing of the CE Marking is an indication that the product complies with the necessary DIRECTIVES. These Directives apply for safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), spectrum compliance, toy safety and many other standards compliance issues.
	China: The CCC Mark is mandatory for many devices placed on the China market. The compliance system in China has evolved to cover many different consumer products. The process requires testing in China at an approved laboratory and issuance of the CCC Mark. If your innovation contains a radio transmitter, an approval called MIIT is necessary. This approval is issued by the Chinese radio regulators the SRRC. As with the CCC Mark, testing must be performed in an approved laboratory in China.
	Australia/New Zealand: The Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) is required for products to be introduced into the Australian and New Zealand markets. The two countries have harmonized their requirements. The RCM mark is applicable for electrical safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and radio transmitting equipment.

The Presenters

Michael Violette, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Washington Laboratories, Ltd. Mike has twenty five years of experience in FCC, CE, IC testing and certification. Mike is a professional engineer, and an iNARTE Certified EMC Engineer. He currently is on the Board of Directors of ACIL and RABQSA. He has presented numerous live and webinar events on technical, measurement and regulatory requirements for electronic devices. Mike is a Notified Body for the Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive (RTTED) and EMC Directive.

Steve Koster, President of Washington Laboratories. Steve has dealt with EMC and Radio requirements for the last twenty one years. Steve has tested or directly supervised thousands of projects over the years for FCC, MIL-STD, CE Mark, DO160 and REG Guide 1.180 and EPRI 102323. Steve has presented at the EMC symposium numerous times discussing test setups for FCC testing.

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