Runshaw College Ravens
Empowering students through Immersive Esports environments“The students absolutely love it! The new Esports lab also got a serious amount of attention on open evening!“
Alex Harding - IT Manager
Background
There has been a huge rise in Esports around the globe and it is currently seen as the biggest growth section within education (Pearson). To meet the demand of this rapidly growing sector, Runshaw College are now one of many institutions to offer Esports courses as an exciting addition to their curriculum. With this in mind, an Esports hub was required in order to support the course and its students.
The college were looking to repurpose a room in their Centre of Digital Excellence into a dedicated “Esports Hub” to enhance their student experience and fully immerse them into the gaming culture. They wanted to improve their facilities and offer a space to support the course and help students progress onto Higher Education or employment in the computing industry.
Following initial conversations with Alex Harding (IT Manager) and Andy Alston (Head of School), the college approached TOP-TEC to see if we could provide some insight for the new space and work together to help meet their vision for the new Runshaw College Esports Hub.
Key Project Criteria
- Re-purpose the teaching room into an exciting and professional Esports environment to fully immerse students in the gaming culture.
- Maximise the number of workspaces within the new Esports Hub.
- Secure Dell Alienware gaming PCs whilst still showcasing LED lighting and features.
Descision Process
Having recently worked with TOP-TEC on other collaborative spaces on campus, Runshaw College were confident that we were the right partner to help them get the right outcome for this project.
The college appreciated that we had worked on several Esports labs for other institutions who were implementing similar types of gaming courses.
TOP-TEC showcased our brand new Nebula range which has been specifically designed as gaming stations, ideal for Esports spaces such as this.
Runshaw College really liked the new solution and wanted to discuss next steps to see how many workstations could fit into the room.
Let us do what we do best
TOP-TEC offered 2D room layouts to help maximise the use out of the smaller space alongside 3D product renders of the gaming stations so that Runshaw College could begin to visualise how the Esports Hub and its workstations would look.
“Maximise the number of workspaces within the new Runshaw College Esports Hub.”
As an in house designer and manufacturer, we were able to take our standard Nebula workstations and tailor the width and depth of the unit to make sure that 12 workstations could be installed into the room with comfortable space for each user.
“Secure Dell Alienware gaming PCs whilst still showcasing LED lighting to help with gaming atmosphere.”
TOP-TEC were able to take a sample of the Dell Alienware PC and create a completely bespoke PC enclosure to help protect their investment whilst still showcasing the LED lighting from within the unit.
“Repurpose the teaching room into an exciting and professional Esports environment to fully immerse students in the gaming culture.”
Each workspace features incredible LED lighting that can be controlled for each user to create an atmosphere with the Esports look and feel that the College were after.
The units were designed with dark metalwork and worktop finish to help emphasize the LED lighting, screen and Alienware PC alongside red edge banding to give the solution a nice sleek finish.
The Nebula Booth version also helps provide a space where students can focus on the screen and minimise distractions from the user next to them for a better gaming experience.
Bespoke enclosure for Dell Alienware PC
RGB LED lights in the worktop
Illuminated branding with Runshaw College logo
The Result
Since the installation, the room has received some excellent feedback from students who have been utilising the new space and loving the new experience! On the final day of installation, Runshaw College open day was taking place and the new space was getting a serious amount of attention.
Not only is the Runshaw College Esports Hub being used as a base for the course, but it is also now a home for the Runshaw Ravens who use it as a base for competitions and practice sessions.
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