STEM-focused Pennsylvania university creates stunning eSports center

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has the distinction of being one of the early adapters of eSports as a university-sanctioned sport. The resulting Harrisburg Storm is an endeavor that they’ve fully invested in. As part of that investment, the university knew that they needed a space for their players to practice that would be as conducive as possible for success. Such a center would allow players to practice games like Overwatch and League of Legends in an environment that is tailor made for the fast-paced online gaming world.

One of the most necessary elements to a successful practice facility was the inclusion of a video wall to display gaming sessions—either split into team based play or using the entire wall to display an individual’s game. Harrisburg Systems Engineer Keith Thomas knew he needed a state-of-the-art wall that lived up to the graphical standards that they are used to in terms of image quality, color and uniformity. They also needed a wall that would allow for various configurations in terms of screen display and a system in place to translate the image with little to no latency.

To achieve the best results possible, Thomas turned to New Era Technology as their partner of choice. From the start, it was clear that bringing in a trusted adviser and best-in-class manufactures was key. Through that conversation it became evident that Barco’s UniSee® wall was the only choice.

A near seamless gaming canvas

One of the more challenging aspects of the Harrisburg space was the size. The concern was how to best translate the fast-paced action of an Overwatch match to a large video wall with such a relatively close viewing distance. UniSee’s bezel-less feature stood out as it allowed for a near seamless wall—meaning no distracting breaks in the action. In addition, Barco’s SenseX calibration technology ensures that the entire 17 panel wall is consistently calibrated to a uniform quality, color and brightness.

The UniSee video wall also provides for a variety of screen layouts depending on what the players most want to focus on. With this flexibility, The Storm has the ability to choose between displaying several players during a multi-player match or to get hyper-specific on the play of one or two players. The near seamless design ensures that regardless of the configuration, the uniformity of the images remain the same.

In addition to Barco’s UniSee panels, the Harrisburg center includes Aurora’s IPX-TC2 SDVoE AV over IP transceiver boxes and IPX-TC3-WP SDVoE AV over IP transceiver wall plates. These 10-gigabit AV over IP transceivers allow for zero-frame latency resulting in a clear, high-resolution image when transferring the gaming sessions from a PC to the video wall.