With esports rising in popularity and expected to fetch a market size of $1.5 billion by 2023, higher education institutions are catching on and are offering the new industry as both a course of study and a school sport.
Caldwell University in New Jersey has tapped into that emerging industry by adding an esports team this past fall. Students can sign up to compete in three games: League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League.
However, the team needed a suitable state-of-the-art facility in which to practice and compete. To do that, the university looked to LG Business Solutions USA for help.
In conjunction with the university’s IT department, the company provided a dozen commercial-grade 27-inch UltraGear ultra-low latency 250Hz gaming monitors to go with the arena’s gaming PCs, which deliver the highest possible processing and graphics delivery.
“Our arena has the absolute highest spec PCs available, but the raw processing power and graphics delivery only matters if it’s connected to a top-flight gaming monitor,” said the school’s IT Operations and Digital Communications Director Anthony Yang, in a press release.
In addition to the 12 high-performance monitors in the arena, the school also installed two 43-inch 4K UHD LG commercial displays for coaches and managers to watch games real-time.
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In the hallways surrounding the arena, there are four 55-inch 4K UHD digital signage displays showcasing the action going on inside the arena, including live competitions, practices, and recordings of past tournaments.
A press release on the project didn’t’ mention an integrator, but this illustrates the potential market of the esports industry for AV integrators.
According to LG, the competitive esports team and management degree programs in the field launched in fall 2019 have already become very popular.
Now, more schools are considering esports as both an extracurricular and career path. Many college students today have been gaming since birth, said Aaron Addison, regional manager for LG IT products, in a statement.
“And innovative institutions like Caldwell University are recognizing it can be an enrollment booster and a huge student life benefit,” Addison said. “Caldwell’s unique arena shows how our gaming monitors and digital displays give players the best performance available, and they show other colleges and universities what a well-built esports facility looks like.”
