MIES (Switzerland) - The FIBA Equipment & Venue Centre successfully staged its first Test Institute Workshop in April.

The virtual workshop had a total of eight sessions that focused on basketballs, seating, backstop units, flooring, scoreboards and electronic systems. The final session was dedicated to discussing the introduction of a round-robin test event to periodically assess laboratory performance.

Sixty-two participants from 20 test institutes took part, and also one manufacturing representative from each category joined the meeting.

The FIBA Equipment & Venue Centre sets standards for basketball equipment and facilities, ensuring that they fulfill the strict requirements of high-level basketball competitions. Their objective is to attain a high standard of quality, safety and technology, for players, for the public and also for the media. 

FIBA Accredited Test Institutes were introduced in 2019 to harmonize and standardize FIBA Approval testing around the world. Since their introduction, more than 450 FIBA Approval tests have been completed across nine different product categories.

The aim of last month's workshop, which will now be held annually, was to facilitate exchange on the testing experiences, methods and procedures, always with the goal of improving.

The FIBA Accredited Test Institutes are the only organizations qualified to test equipment for the FIBA Approval Program. The Accredited Test Institutes test in accordance with FIBA's own Handbook of Test Methods and provide the corresponding reports.

For more information about the FIBA Equipment & Venue Centre, click here. 

FIBA