Tech checks in Ethnio: everything you need to know 🎤 🎥

Tech checks help you evaluate a participant’s camera, lighting, framing, environment and how well they can articulate their ideas and thoughts in your desired study language.

The basic idea

Participants record a short video and audio sample as part of an Ethnio screener. Ethnio evaluates the parts of their setup you choose and gives the response an Interview readiness score from 1.0 to 5.0.

This gives your team a quick way to spot potential technical issues before inviting or scheduling someone.

Tech checks are especially useful for:

• Remote moderated interviews
• Usability tests
• Remote research sessions
• Self moderated studies that use video or audio
• Studies where clear participant video and audio are important

✨ What participants see

A tech check appears like any other question in your study editor. You can customize the text prompt but basically participants are asked to record a short video from the place where they expect to join the research session. They speak briefly at their normal volume so Ethnio can evaluate the selected parts of their setup. The goal is not to find participants with professional equipment. A normal laptop, webcam, microphone, and room setup can work perfectly well.

⚙️ What can a tech check evaluate?

You can choose which signals Ethnio should check, and all of these do not use any AI and do not share participant video or audio with any LLMs or external APIs at all.

📹 Camera

Checks that the participant’s camera image is clear and usable.

💡 Lighting

Checks that the participant’s face is easy to see.

🙂 Framing

Checks that the participant’s face is visible and positioned well in the frame.

🎧 Microphone

Checks that speech is clear and background noise is low.

The one AI tech check is articulation

If you do want to have Ethnio assess how well your participant can share their thoughts, our articulation option uses AI credits to send their video to the model of your choice for evaluation. This will be deleted and never used for training purposes.

It's also 100% optional.

Turn off any checks that are not important for your study. For example, if you are conducting an audio focused interview, you may care much more about microphone quality than framing.

📊 How scoring tech checks work

Ethnio combines the checks you selected into an tech check score ranging from 1.0 to 5.0.

A higher score means the participant’s setup appears better suited to the study. As a general rule:

4.0 to 5.0: Good setup. Usually no action is needed.

Below 4.0: One or more parts of the setup may be worth reviewing.

You can also see the individual results for camera, lighting, framing, and microphone, so you do not have to rely on the overall number alone. For example, a participant might have an excellent camera and microphone but receive a lower lighting score because their room is dark.

🚦Look at the details, not just the number

Tech checks are designed to help researchers make faster decisions, not automatically decide whether someone should participate.

A lower score does not necessarily mean someone is a poor participant.

Someone may have:

• A noisy fan running during the Tech check
• Temporary background noise
• A dark room they can easily change
• Slightly unusual camera framing
• A perfectly usable setup that simply is not perfect

Think of the score as an early signal.

For many studies, 4.0 or higher is already a good setup and rarely requires action.

👀 Reviewing Tech checks in Responses

Tech check results appear alongside the participant’s other screener responses.

You can quickly see:

• Their overall Interview readiness score
• Camera results
• Lighting results
• Framing results
• Microphone results

Icons make it easy to scan a group of participants and notice where a potential issue exists.

Hover over the score to see more detail about each check.

💡 When should I use a tech check?

Tech checks are most helpful when technical quality can materially affect the research session.

Consider adding one when:

• Participants will be joining a video interview
• Participants need to share their screen
• Facial expressions are important to the research
• You need understandable audio for recordings or transcription
• Fixing technical problems during a session would consume valuable research time

You probably do not need a Tech check for every screener.

If the study only involves answering survey questions, for example, checking someone’s camera and microphone adds unnecessary friction.

🧑‍💻 Should I make the tech check required?

Make it required when a working technical setup is necessary to participate successfully.

Leave it optional when the tech check is useful information but should not prevent someone from completing the screener.

For high value remote interviews, making the check required can help your team identify technical problems before scheduling.

✅ Tips for using tech checks

Keep the number of checks appropriate for the study. If lighting does not matter, turn it off.

Place the tech check before scheduling so your team can review readiness while choosing participants.

Avoid treating a score as an automatic qualification rule. A participant with a 3.8 may be a much better fit for your research than someone with a 5.0.

Use individual results to understand what lowered a score. Many issues are easy for a participant to fix before the session.

And remember the purpose of the feature: spend less time troubleshooting technology during research and more time talking to participants.