“Is this one yours?” I say, pulling a bag into view, to the woman in front of me standing tiptoe in an attempt to peer into the overhead compartments. “Yes! Thank you!” She responds gratefully, accepting the bag, “You here for PAX East?” Her keen eyes taking notice of my assortment of nerdy branded clothes. This is how I was introduced to Kathryn Pond from Echogear, having both just landed in Boston from Minneapolis for PAX East.
We exchanged business cards, and I learned that Echogear specialized in providing products that improve consumers screen setups, primarily with their TV and monitor mounts. The focus for PAX was to show off Echogear’s monitor mounts. The features of these mounts include free floating, extremely posable, multi-armed, and durable builds. Since these mounts clamp onto the back side of the desktop there isn’t any need to go through the trouble of finding wall studs, move furniture all around to have access to the wall, or having to worry about what to do in case of a move. These mounts are easy to set up and versatile, able to be moved in all directions and orientations.
Before
After
I hadn’t really thought about mounting my screens in this way before. It always seemed overly complicated and not really worth the effort, particularly for someone who is in a period of life that involves renting property, moving somewhat regularly, and typically living in places with cheap wall materials. Now that I’ve converted my desk to Echogear mount, it became clear just how much desktop real estate was being taken up by my screens. Having the screens floating above the desk nearly doubled how much junk can pile up before I need to clean it! Now I can game and work longer and more comfortably than ever before without having to worry about stopping to clean up! Joking aside being able to adjust and tilt the screens does help in comfort as I’m able to change my viewing angle to match my sitting comfort as it changes over the course of a session sitting at my desk.
Echogear’s top priority is making sure setup is as easy as possible, even enjoyable. Instructions include classic gaming imagery like hearts to add just a little touch of personality to them. Echogear even has a handy tool on their website that can be used before you even place your order to ensure that your current screens are compatible with their mounts. With the wide variety of sizes, manufacturers, makes, and models of monitors and more and more people implementing HDTVs into their gaming setups, it can be difficult to find a mount that meets each individuals needs. Echogear aims to cover as broad of spectrum as they can by making one product compatible with a wide range of mounting brackets. Their online tool helps eliminate disappointed customers, and can help people shop for their next screen upgrade if they have Echogear in mind for their mounting solution. I myself used the tool to upgrade one of my screens which was an older TV that needed to be upgraded anyway and to ensure I upgraded to something that allowed me to utilize the mount to its full potential!
Check out the tool for yourself by going to this website.
Easy Set Up
Fellow PAX East attendee and Marooner’s Rock writer Andrew Peggs is providing a review of the dual screen mount that can be found here.
I recently had the opportunity to meet up with Kathryn Pond again at the Echogear headquarters in Eden Prairie, MN to talk about Echogear and their mounts. We talked about the importance of investing in spaces you spend a lot of time in, approaching the gaming demographic, providing a quality product, receiving and implementing customer feedback, and taking home a Marooner’s Rock Team Choice Award!
We also touch on charity within the gaming community and how it wasn’t until their targeted market of gamers, and seeing how they gather and work towards charity, that Echogear really felt they were able to get involved in a way that really felt useful. Charity is something that Echogear has wanted to be more involved with, and it took gamers to show them a solid avenue. Even before my interview with Kathryn, Echogear had already donated a mount to our editor here at Marooners’ Rock for his Extra Life stream. After reading this article and his review and you want a chance to win one, get entered in with a $23 donation to Andrews Extra Life page!
Echogear is a company that is taking steps to genuinely understand their target demographic by researching the things that gamers need and want out of their gaming set ups, listening to feedback from their customers, and taking part in gaming events and interacting with their customer base.
Disclaimer: Echogear provided me with a Dual Screen mount for personal use following the interview, but I initially reached out to Kathryn for the interview with an interest in learning about EchoGear and their product to help promote a Minnesota based business.
You can listen to my interview with Kaythrn Pond below and take browse their lineup of products on the Echogear website.
Edit 07/27/18: Since recording this interview Echogear’s plans to attend PAX West and their small and home office line are no longer confirmed
SEE YA!
