Leyard Europe LED screens form core of University of Staffordshire’s new state-of-the-art eSports arena

LED screens from Leyard Europe sit at the heart of a £2.7 million eSports arena at the University of Staffordshire, designed and built by Digital Garage, a systems integrator specialising in broadcast solutions for complex and integrated media environments.

Digital Garage transformed a 4.5 by 2.5 metre classroom into a hands-on teaching and event space, and a commercial venue for the University. It is packed with industry-standard equipment to ensure the employability of its eSports degree students and help answer the skills shortage in eSports, a fast-growing, global, multi-million-dollar competitive video games industry with millions of fans watching competitions in person and online.

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Completed in early 2024, the eSport arena in the University’s main Stoke-on-Trent campus includes three LED screens from Leyard Europe; a large, 20 by 5 metre MGP 1.5mm pixel pitch LED wall integrated into the arena stage set, and two 8 by 2 metre MGP 1.5mm LEDs in the two galleries serving as control rooms.

Competing gamers sit in two rows of bespoke desks with integrated LED panels, with the action displayed in real-time on the LED wall for the 60-seat, in-person audience and simultaneously live-streamed to the online audience by 4K Panasonic broadcast cameras, controlled from the galleries.

“We see the LED wall as pixels we can apply colour to,” explains Matt Seymour, Operations Director of Digital Garage, and “create visual excitement with lots of graphics, dynamic lighting and replays to deliver a great audience experience.”

Content is delivered to the LED wall, and all other aspects, such as the EVS replay system and Allen and Heath audio mixers, from the galleries where LED screens, while appearing to be a seamless LED wall, are driven individually by Panasonic Kaios. This was a cost-effective alternative to an LED wall driven by a processor and a fine example of how Digital Garage made technology choices that answered the needs of the students and arena set-up, but also optimised the available budget.

Digital Garage opted for a both future-forward and industry-standard IP network infrastructure, using SMPTE ST 2110 as well as SDI and some NDI, plus a Dante audio network.

“The virtually zero latency of SMPTE ST 2110 is ideal for eSports because eSports gaming needs to happen and be seen in real-time, and we wanted students to work with current industry standards to prepare them for future employment,” Seymour adds.

Leyard was one of six LED brands approached for the project. “We had not worked with Leyard before but liked what we had seen at IBC, and were impressed from the start,” he continues. “Not only was it the right technology at the right price, when we contacted the company, Co-Territory Head UK Luke Marler-Hausen was straight on the phone, asking the right questions and engaging with us, where others merely emailed or did not respond!”

Leyard’s European manufacturing also appealed.

“Having a European operation not only ensured timely delivery and reduces the environmental impact, it makes it so much easier to get spares and access pre-sale, and ongoing support. This was essential to the University, which wanted a locked-in five-year support contract.”

Matt SEYMOUR
Operations Director, Digital Garage

Digital Garage was also able to thoroughly test the LEDs at Leyard’s London showroom to mitigate any upstream issues. “We wanted to check how graphics would appear on-screen and took Panasonic engineers to test how the screen would appear on camera, making sure there was no motion tearing, blurring or any weird on-screen artifacts from the camera.”

Unusually, Digital Garage served as the main contractor for the entire project. Initially, the team were invited to help with “some wiring”, but it became clear the University would get a significantly better result with Digital Garage at the helm.

“It meant the technology was planned from the outset and was integrated into the design of the space. We managed the budget and ensured it was allocated correctly. We were also able to do more than think in terms of just the AV system,” Seymour notes “We could see there was the opportunity to do so much more: we analysed the University and the industry’s requirements and engaged with different stakeholders, including Technical Services, IT procurement and Estates. We asked what the industry needs, where the technology is heading from an industry perspective, and how that could feed back into the strategic development of the University’s courses.

“The end result is completely different to what it would have been without us. It is an impressive environment and a statement piece. Visually, it looks great. It works a treat, and they love it!”

The eSports arena enables BA (Hons) students to learn all aspects of eSports, with the emphasis on hands-on learning following the 70:20:10 model: 70% learned from practical on-the-job experiences, 20% from interaction with others, and just 10% in the classroom, all of which is designed to produce the skilled and highly employable graduates the eSports industry needs.

Students experience all aspects of eSports as well as the technology, including finding sponsors, event management, marketing and promotion, graphics creation, shout-casting and presenting by hosting their own events, including Campus Clash, an annual three-day esports tournament, hosted by Esports students.

“The University was one of the first in the UK to embrace eSports, but its facilities were being overtaken from a technology standpoint by other universities,” Seymour concludes. “Now, it sets a new benchmark not only for technology, but for preparing students for real world roles in the industry.”