Industry Opinions

The gaming projector revolution

Damian Trendall, Line Of Business Manager B2C Projectors, BenQ UK Ltd explores how the gaming projector has come of age and is rapidly becoming the next ‘big thing’ in gaming peripherals.

Throughout lockdown there was a significant increase in people getting creative with their home set-ups as we all sought to find imaginative ways to manage this new way of life sprung upon us. From 4K webcams and new monitors for working from home to the latest projectors for thrilling movie nights in, we invested more in our home experiences.

One specific trend that we’ve seen emerging from this is the gaming projector revolution. As people seek the ultimate ways to equip their homes for all entertainment scenarios, they want to be able to seamlessly switch between the different entertainment formats.

This new generation of multi-purpose, short-throw 4K projectors allows households to immerse themselves entirely in their story-driven and sim racing games by employing the big screen experience for some real escapism.

Of course, the more serious PC and console gamers, who need the lighting fast response times to excel in competitive play, will still want to stick with their gaming monitor set-ups.

The advancements in projector technology have come a long way. BenQ’s TK700STi gaming projector is the world’s first 4K UHD gaming model with 4K quality at 60Hz, 3000 lumens brightness and a 16ms response time. Imagine joining your team on the pitch and feeling the genuine atmosphere of a roaring stadium or stepping into the driver’s seat and feeling the adrenaline of the race on an immersive 100” image. That’s some serious gaming!

But the fun doesn’t stop there because the gaming projector isn’t just a gaming projector. Although they are specifically designed to meet the needs of gamers with improved response times, they are still, fundamentally, projectors. BenQ has an exceptional reputation for producing colour accurate projectors, and the TK700STi is no exception.

Providing 96% coverage of the Rec.709 colour gamut, the big screen entertainment possibilities are limitless. That means movie marathons with friends and family are still on the cards. Switch from mowing down zombies to an epic movie night before heading over to YouTube to watch some funny videos without any fuss. “The advancements in Whilst hardcore gamers typically keep their entertainment and gaming display projector technology have as two separate entities (usually with a dedicated gaming setup), the more come a long way. BenQ’s TK700STi casual gamer is happy to combine gaming projector is the world’s first 4K the two. The previously overlooked projector has similar usability as UHD gaming model with 4K quality at 60Hz, a TV, and might actually be the perfect solution to take home 3000 lumens brightness and a 16ms response entertainment to the next level. time. Imagine joining your team on the pitch The future of projectors is exciting but our enthusiasm and feeling the genuine atmosphere of a roaring about the gaming projector stadium or stepping into the driver’s seat and revolution isn’t about trying to replace the monitor. For some, feeling the adrenaline of the race on an the obvious choice will be the monitor and for others the projector immersive 100” image. That’s some will be the next phase in their set-up serious gaming!” evolution. We just want the two to live in harmony, platforming the projector is about making sure the contemporary gaming projector is given the same respect as the classic gaming monitor, allowing customers to consider every option and make the right choice as they design their perfect set-up. Having said all this, I’m not suggesting that gaming culture is about to go through a dramatic shift as the world all abruptly throw their monitors away and run to buy a shiny projector. Rather, this is about what the gaming community has to gain in the future with continuous improvements and a growing market of choice. Whilst the gaming monitor might always be the community standard for gaming, the gaming projector has earned its stripes and deserves the opportunity to prove itself as a larger-than-life portal to immersive entertainment.

Ready Player One

EZVIZ UK’s Simon Buckingham, Brand & Marketing Manager gives his personal view on where the world of gaming is headed and why blockchain is at the centre of this.

If you have not seen the film Ready Player One, I highly recommend it! This is the dream world of many gamers out there and the concept is actually closer to turning into reality sooner than you think.

Being an avid gamer myself, I always look for new and exciting developments in this sector, we have seen the gigantic uprise of eSports, which by the way is not new, even when I was a kid these elements of LAN tournaments etc. were in existence, but the power of WiFi, easier Internet access and continuous development of both PC Gaming and Console has allowed a worldwide expansion and opportunity. So much so, many players can now play to earn, build communities, play for prize money and generate income at home from playing games.

So what takes us to the status of Ready Player One? The ability to put on a VR headset and transform yourself into a virtual World? What will allow even bigger growth in play to earn aspects as well as have the ability to truly own your items and take them into the different worlds and games as you see fit, that are portrayed so amazingly in a film, like we just mentioned in a Decentralised manner? The answer is a combination of new technology and application methods utilising such things as Blockchain, NFT’s, coding platforms, Smart Contracts, Tokenomics and more. The creation of the Metaverse is here and it will replace the existing gaming world you know today, mark my words!

Some of you may know this kind of tech, some may just be reading this and wondering what on earth I am going on about. I will not go into major detail of Blockchain (you can check out my channel for that on YouTube: “Whales Of Wall Street” for more details), the tech behind this has allowed new levels of coding and development, more and more gaming producers are moving to blockchains to encourage a decentralised method, they in turn benefit more in terms of recognition, payment and control of their gaming creations. It is cheaper, faster and greener to use Blockchain.

Another layer to this is things like the clothes, skins, in-game items etc. traditionally locked within a specific game. Using NFT’s methods (Non-fungible tokens) blockchains allows not

only the creation of items like this, but the ability to take them with you wherever you go in the metaverse (the gaming world of tomorrow). Within blockchain is transactional data, essentially digital fingerprints, of anything and everything you do when it comes to purchasing NFT’s, creating or building, as well as typical uses such as Cryptocurrency etc. NFT’s can be “minted” meaning they cannot only be created (the object/item) they can also be melted down if sold in a game, and created as something new, but historic data will remain within the chain. Furthermore, the allowance to take YOUR items, with full ownership, to not be dictated to by Trust me, you think centralised existing gaming platforms, you the gamer are in control of your own assets and you know gaming…. avatar (within reason of course ensuring you behave yourself in these worlds!) NFT’s do Wait until you see not stop there, this principle of maybe going to a gaming event or any event for that matter, what is coming! would allow you to use a scan of a QR code to collect an NFT. It could be a game character, an item, a limited edition object. Think of the advertising/brand power this can bring to the world. The NFT, could be sold on, but with blockchain you can identify its validation, removing any fraud, fake copies etc. along with historic data as we already mentioned. Blockchain also allows the format of “Tokenomics” meaning you can swap cryptocurrency for in-game currency and visa-versa, with various stores of value but unique differences of what you can buy/ sell in each land or game. Buying/Selling land, taking your assets to other games to sell/swap on different tokens, it is a whole new level. Play games to earn tokens, that can be swapped for Crypto – MIND BLOWING! My suggestion is you take some time to research games like Decentraland, NetVrk (which has more than just gaming aspects) and the likes of SandBox and Terra Virtua, all built on Blockchain, unshackled from traditional constraints and development barriers, and Interoperability is occurring where YOU the player, have control. To throw another spanner in the works, imagine being able to sell off some processing power of your GPU when not using it? This is now a thing, thanks to blockchain. Trust me, you think you know gaming…. Wait until you see what is coming!

Why a ‘frictionless’ experience is the new priority for partners

Simon Thompson, SVP Global Customers, Westcon EMEA looks at the increasing focus on the partner experience (PX), and how it’s never been more important to deliver an exceptional digital experience.

We’ve all seen the increasing importance placed on the customer experience (CX) over the past few years. Consumers today expect exceptional customer service, tailored to specific needs and preferences, and if a company fails to impress, we don’t hesitate to take our business elsewhere.

As such, suppliers are investing in providing the best possible experience for users of their site or services to guarantee a smooth transaction and encourage customer loyalty. The same applies to the channel. The result is that channel partners today are overwhelmed by a choice of distribution options, and are therefore expecting on-demand, ‘frictionless’ experiences. This includes the ability to buy, track, negotiate, and see availability and delivery times of products at the press of a button.

Of course, this expectation of digital delivery has been amplified by Covid-19. One McKinsey survey reports that companies have accelerated the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios by seven years. Providing an exceptional level of digital engagement – whether in a B2B or B2C environment – has never been more important for organisations.

A focus on Partner Experience

At the heart of this is the partner experience (PX) – a concept that elevates the needs of the channel partner over the vendor (or distributor). According to analyst Forrester, “Brands that provide an enhanced partner experience grow faster than their peers, are more profitable and drive higher customer satisfaction and retention downstream.” The reality is that any engagement or

procurement process must be easy-to-use and frictionless. Going above and beyond to provide an exceptional experience to partners is helping to elevate the outdated perception of distributor from ‘shed’ or ‘box-shifter’ to technology service provider.

Fast and frictionless

When it comes to improving the partner experience, the rate of innovation has been rapid. Having the right automation and platforms in place is the bedrock for being able to deliver a better PX. A typical example of a frictionless experience in the channel is being able to place an order and for it to “Our partners are able to view upcoming events that trigger purchasing decisions for be processed via the distributor and vendor’s systems without any touch. But we need to take this further and focus efforts on making the quoting the customer, such as when it is time for process for the partner fast and licence renewals. By having all their customer frictionless. This is particularly data in a unified system, the partner can not only important now for small and proactively manage renewals, but identify upsell and midmarket businesses that have cross sell opportunities. Moreover, when a partner lands been under significant pressure a new piece of business, they can look at the customer’s use of the software, for example, and expand the various elements of the deployment – such as additional licensing or different types of renewal. This ensures that partners during the pandemic. Even for lower value transactions, the technology stack can seem overwhelmingly complicated – without factoring in new enjoy predictable recurring revenue streams, increased procurement models and supply profitability and enhanced customer loyalty chain complexity. and retention. From pre-sales all the way to We’re deploying automation and implementation, design, planning strategy, and APIs to enable the partner to quote post-sale support, providing a and engage with the end-customer, frictionless experience is paramount today.” quickly and simply – despite the complexity of the order. They can see quotes, renewals, order tracking and history, all in one place, 24/7. For partners looking to add cloud-based services to their portfolio, we can simplify procurement and provisioning,

billing and analytics, compliance and service delivery – giving partners visibility and control over the entire cloud supply chain.

Solution lifecycle management

The frictionless experience is also especially relevant to the solution lifecycle management: the land, adopt, expand, renew model. By harnessing the power of data to enable partners to drive more value in their services at every stage of the lifecycle – we can bring together learning, purchasing and billing, adoption and consumption, expansion, tech refresh and renewals. Automation of processes to make data available quickly and seamlessly is

particularly relevant to partners’ ability to be proactive when it comes to driving sales.

We leverage an API integration-based approach to draw critical transaction data from our vendors and integrate it with our own systems, as well as offering our channel partners opportunities to integrate their own e-commerce and marketing systems with our data. APIs drive business outcomes: organisations using APIs benefit from operational improvements such as increased productivity, increased innovation and greater agility. They also drive innovation through ecosystems with partners and external developers by exposing them to third parties.

Our partners are able to view upcoming events that trigger purchasing decisions for the customer, such as when it is time for licence renewals. By having all their customer data in a unified system, the partner can not only proactively manage renewals, but identify upsell and cross sell opportunities. Moreover, when a partner lands a new piece of business, they can look at the customer’s use of the software, for example, and expand the various elements of the deployment – such as additional licensing or different types of renewal. This ensures that partners enjoy predictable recurring revenue streams, increased profitability and enhanced customer loyalty and retention. From pre-sales all the way to implementation, design, planning strategy, and post-sale support, providing a frictionless experience is paramount today.

In today’s digitally transformed environment, businesses need to

be able to pivot quickly to respond to customer needs and changes in the competitive landscape. APIs allow them to access data from our platforms and display it in their choice of application. There’s no need to learn new paradigms or switch between systems, thereby reducing investment, time to market, training and ongoing costs.

This unlocks a vast amount of real-time transactional data. Data used across the business by different teams across different time zones, saving the customer considerable time and delivering a better customer experience. In fact, we believe that making services simple and easy to use is the cornerstone to distribution. Investing in innovation that puts valuable customer information at the fingertips of our partners, is indeed, the future.

Why now is the time to get into PC gaming

Rich O’Neill, Product Development Manager at Stormforce Gaming explores the burgeoning prospects currently presented by the gaming industry.

Demand for gaming systems is stronger than ever. The last 18 months have seen ground-breaking product launches in both the PC and Console sector with free to play games and subscription services coming to the forefront as a viable entry point for new gamers.

Whilst traditional content delivery services on PC have seen uplift in player counts, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the games as a service model presented by Microsoft with their excellent XBOX Gamepass for PC product is increasing in popularity. The prospect of a monthly fee to access hundreds of well optimised PC titles drastically reduces the upfront cost of owning a gaming system and provides a strong entry point into the world of PC gaming with a library of quality titles.

The market has been focused on high-end video cards since the launch of the NVIDIA RTX 30 series and AMD Radeon 6000 series with supply issues being a very real problem for DIY enthusiasts. Many gamers who have been planning an upgrade for years have been left disappointed with the inability to source a new video card easily. In many cases, pre-built solutions have become a much more viable alternative to self built systems.

Stormforce Gaming has been supported extremely well and leaned on the strength of relationships with key vendors like ASUS, AMD and Intel to ensure we are able to deliver a strong offering consistently.

Fortunately, the launch of new APU products from AMD are helping to ease the demand on entry level video cards somewhat. At first glance, an APU desktop may not seem like a viable solution for gaming but with the low cost of 1080p panels and the wealth of less demanding and older titles in the PC Gaming catalogue, these products provide a fantastic starting point for gamers who want an entry point into the hobby with a view to upgrade with a discreet GPU in the future.

The announcement of the Valve SteamDeck shows promise for the future of entry level PC gaming with a potential for more PC titles to be optimised to run well on lower end hardware. Whilst

the mass long-term adoption of mobile PC gaming devices like the SteamDeck are yet to be seen, it is important to consider that this sort of product could shift the focus of games development into the future if successful. The industry has seen a shift in focus on high end too, with the ever expanding adoption of NVIDIA DLSS and AMD Fidelity FX upscaling technologies, 4K and VR applications have never been so accessible. Games that were previously difficult to run at high resolutions and refresh rates are now able to mitigate the performance deficit and still look sharp. Accessibility in PC gaming has improved enormously over the past decade. Back in the days of the 8800GTX The industry has seen and Q6600, PC hardware started to become far more standardised, easy to assemble and a shift in focus on high end easier to troubleshoot technical issues. This too, with the ever expanding has introduced a healthy market with lots adoption of NVIDIA DLSS and AMD Fidelity FX upscaling technologies, 4K of competition to stand out. Individual components are adorned with RGB lighting and gaming design language and VR applications have never been so to entice customers towards most bigaccessible. Games that were previously ticket products. Whilst fancy lighting difficult to run at high resolutions and refresh rates are now able to mitigate and screens on the side of GPUs doesn’t improve performance in games, it certainly helps to sell hardware. the performance deficit and still For system integrators, the simplification look sharp. of hardware standards has some downsides. Anybody with access to Youtube can assemble an advanced gaming system by following along with a video and this means that adding value into prebuilt systems is more important than ever. Cable management, optimised component installation and cooling configurations are all considerations, which most newcomers will not understand or be hesitant to learn. Investment into the ongoing chip shortages and goals to meet supply demands will eventually see a return to normality in the market but this could take some time. For now, the current crop of hardware remains highly sought after and for good reason. Healthy competition in the CPU and GPU market has provided gamers with choice and pushed manufacturers to produce compelling hardware offerings that provide immersive experiences at any budget. There has never been a better time to get into PC Gaming.

NOVEMBER ISSUE HOW TO GET INVOLVED!!

In the November issue of PCR we will be focusing on Biometrics & Identification, Online Payment and Personal Security.

We are interested in hearing about topics including: password security, email security, personal data security, personal device security and biometrics.

INDUSTRY OPINIONS

If you are involved in any of these areas then we would like to hear from you.

Industry opinion piece word count is 700 words with an image of the commentator and the deadline is Friday 8th October.

SECTOR GUIDE: PERSONAL SECURITY

From password management software to biometric reading hardware, security cameras and locks, we’ll be featuring the latest in personal security tech. If you’re a vendor or distributor in this arena, get in touch! We will need 100 word product description, quick specs list, high res image of the product, contact details. Deadline for sector guides is 8th October.

COMPANY FEATURES AND COMMENTARY

Each month we run Q&As with companies in the sector we’re focusing on for that issue. We also always welcome commentary on the industry from experts.

If you would like to be considered for any of these features and guides, email Michelle Winny at michelle.winny@biz-media.co.uk by Friday 8th October.

ADVERTISING IN THIS ISSUE

If you would like to get involved commercially in this issue there will be a variety of packages available. Please contact Sarah Goldhawk at sarah.goldhawk@biz-media.co.uk by Wednesday 18th October.