The Roanoke Higher Education Center in Roanoke, Virginia offers more than 200 programs of study through dozens of member institutions, such as Radford University, Old Dominion University, and Virginia Tech to name a few.  Its mission is to stimulate economic growth in the greater Roanoke region by providing greater access to education.



The prevalence of COVID-19 caused Director of Facility Services, Jeremiah McMillan, and the other members of the leadership team to search for a strategy that would keep students, staff, and visitors as safe as possible. The building is a public facility so anyone from the outside may visit, making it even more imperative to proactively prevent and monitor for coronavirus symptoms.

McMillan initially went to a competitor, before State Electric Supply Co. outside salesman Mike Norton and DataComm specialist Wes Napier entered the picture. McMillan was able to cancel the original order, as Mike and Wes collaborated to get better units at a cheaper cost. The package they put together, and the center eventually purchased, are temperature monitoring tablets from InVid placed at each entrance.  These sophisticated tablets even have facial recognition capabilities, although the center doesn’t utilize that feature due to HIPPA restrictions.

“It was an investment, but what would it cost to hire someone to man each entrance and scan people using a handheld forehead thermometer?” McMillan said. “We installed the tablets in June or April and we haven’t had any issues. They practically run themselves,” he continued.

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The partnership between State Electric’s salespeople and specialists, InVid, and the Education Center was crucial to the success of the project, and word is already spreading throughout Roanoke and beyond. The Roanoke Fire and Police departments were so impressed that they purchased InVid temperature monitoring products after seeing how well the Center’s performed.

Temperature monitoring will continue to be of the utmost importance as we navigate these uncertain times and State Electric will continue to be expertly positioned to assist in keeping people as safe as possible, at a reasonable and fair price. 

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