Wisdom Gaming

Wisdom Sports had a vision for an Esports production facility that could produce and host onsite and offsite Esports events, generate promotional and marketing content, and provide the bandwidth for innovations yet to be introduced to the rapidly growing body of Esports fans worldwide. The other thing they had: a defunct bar and restaurant space on the top floor of a shopping mall. That was good enough for us. We kicked off the project by meeting with ownership, the architect, and facilities manager to sketch out ideas for how the space might work. Collaborative, iterative idea sharing led to an initial design and enabled us to establish an equipment budget for a pioneering hybrid space capable of hosting and producing multiple events simultaneously while serving as a marketing hub and administrative center. Once system designs, architecture and infrastructure were in order, it was on Alpha to bring the concept to reality.  

“We could see the client’s vision for the space evolving before our eyes,” says Jeff Volk, Alpha’s VP of sports and entertainment. “There was no template for what we were creating, so we and the client were inventing it as we moved along. At the same time, this was not a bank-breaking project. The facility had to house robust production capabilities and be on-brand for a hip, up-and-coming company, but it also had to be practical and highly flexible because the space would have to evolve as the industry evolved.” Core elements of Wisdom’s HQ include onsite production facilities for events and promotions, as well as a cloud-enabled production facility that can simultaneously produce events from other cities. That same infrastructure also links to other facilities for multi-location collaborative events. Esports, by their nature, are social in nature, but Wisdom Gaming ups the ante with a bar area and VIP lounge, as well as flexible event space for parties, new product launches, and large tournaments. 

The completed facility has earned raves from the client – and drawn attention from outside the burgeoning Esports sector. “What we created is a prototype with broad applications for enterprise, education, and any number of other markets,” explains Volk. “A corporation, for example, could install a facility similar to Wisdom’s at its headquarters while concurrently producing events for its offices around the world. Traditionally, high-quality remote production has been astonishingly expensive, but the environment we created for Wisdom enables very high-quality events at a much lower cost.” In a similar vein, the integration enables widely dispersed production crews to work collaboratively on a single project. As the rest of the world begins to take notice of companies like Wisdom, the Esports world continues to evolve. “Within weeks of their grand opening, they came back to us with additional ideas and requests,” says Volk. “What we come up with next could be a whole new paradigm shifter.”