Interview with Dominic Mulroy
You may remember us featuring this ambitious new project that is currently underway. Omega Sektor will consist of two huge LAN centres, one in London and one in Birmingham and will bring UK gaming truly into the 21st century in a high-tech, comfortable environment.
Part of the overall Omega Sektor project was the re-furbishment of the Harrrow LAN centre which opened last week. Judging by the reaction by gamers at the launch party, the design, the equipment on offer and the atmosphere created by the ambience of the venue is exactly what the UK has been missing. This new centre is just the beginning of an exciting period of change in the world of esports as more and more companies are recognising just how important competitive and casual gaming is to those who spend countless hours playing the latest strategy game or first person shooter. Finally they're ploughing some much deserved cash into the UK market and creating exciting venues that we can be proud of.
The brains behind the project are IGUK founder, Dominic Mulroy and professional gamer Sujoy Roy. It was Sujoy's frustrations with current gaming centres in the UK, that has fuelled his passion for getting involved in such a big venture as the Omega Sektor: "They tend to be small, with a poor level or service, not built to a high standard, located in the wrong places, with prices too high and computers too slow. I'm being a little critical, but I do include my own gaming centres in this summary. The problem is that it is a catch 22 situation. To build a really good gaming centre, you need the money to start with. If you don't have the money, you end up cutting corners, not putting in enough staff and never making enough money to ever expand into the all-singing, all-dancing centre that will keep customers happy and make a big profit," he said
Upon hearing about the re-opening of the refurbished Harrow LAN centre (now named Omega Sektor) last week, we hooked up with Dominic to see how the plans were progressing and whether their latest sparkling new gaming venue is a taste of things to come.
HEXUS:What's the idea behind the re-design of the Harrow LAN centre?
Dominic:We wanted to provide a hi-tech environment for gamers, somewhere where they will feel comfortable. Every inch of the centre has been designed with comfort in mind, from the custom built desks to the ambient lighting. The hardware available is all brand new and bought specifically to provide gamers with an excellent and stable gaming experience.
HEXUS: How did you go about implementing the design?
Dominic: We appointed a group of designers from Fury-X, who are actually the official exhibition designers for Microsoft Xbox and other game's publishers, and initially presented a concept to them, they produced what you can see today.
HEXUS:: So what can we expect when we visit the Harrow centre?
Dominic: There are two floors: the ground floor is where you'll find the internet cafe and 28 brand new PCs where you can take advantage of the web with full use of the webcams and microphones provided. The first floor has 42 PCs and is the main gaming arena. All of the PCs that we use are are Scan 3Xs systems, so whether you're on the ground or first floor, you're still going to be using a superb gaming machine. For actual internet connection we have two 8mb line and we're possilbly going to add another line, so ping times are not going to be a problem.
Omega Sektor (formely known as the Harrow LAN centre)HEXUS:: What are the PC specs?
Dominic: All 70 machines are fitted with Intel Core 2 Duo 6400, 1GB Corsair RAM, XFX 7950GX2 SLI enabled graphics, NEC Display Solution19" TFTs,350GB Western Digital HDD and Sennheiser 150 headsets
HEXUS:: Why did you choose SCAN to provide the hardware?
Dominic: They were the only company we could trust with performance and reliability especially when uptime requirements need to be 100%. Their relationships with the likes of NVIDIA and Intel has helped us ensure that the systems are finely tuned. In fact we worked with engineers from Intel and NVIDIA to ensure the systems were up to scratch.
Omega Sektor in HarrowHEXUS:: So you've actually moved from CRT monitors to TFT?
Dominic: Yes,by reverting to TFT we've been able to provide 15cm more width on each desktop for gamers. We've been avid supporters of CRT monitors but when we stumbled across the NEC Display Solutions 90GX2 19" screen we asked Sujoy to test it. Sujoy met up with NEC on numeorus occasions to rigourously test the monitor on games, and with his experience felt it was the only one for the job. Due in part to Sujoy's recommendations the TFT monitor is now being sold by NEC as a gaming monitor and we're the first high-profile LAN centre to use them.
HEXUS:: What's the feedback been like from other gamers on using the new monitors?
Dominic: We're confident that visitors to the LAN centre will be extremely happy with the change.At the launch event last week we invited amongst others, the counter strike team from the SGL (http://www.thesgl.com) who were initally sceptical. After plenty of hands-on time they were extremely happy with the quality of these new monitors. We will also be using the same monitors for both the London and Birmingham centres.
Omega Sektor in HarrowHEXUS:: And how are plans progressing with the two larger centres?
Dominic: We've currently got 30 builders to start the job at the Birmingam site at the end of the month (which is the ex-Virgin Megastore). The site already has the infastructure in place so we're confident of an opening at the end of November. The London venue will be opening at the end of January 2007.
HEXUS:: Thanks Dominic, we'll look to forward to catching up with you at the grand opening of the Birmingham venue in November!
Dominic: Thanks for your time.
These two venues, one in central London and one in Birmingham, could act as a central hub for all UK major gaming competitions both on Xbox 360 and on PC and will be the biggest venues in the UK for gamers. The re-furbished Harrow centre is equipped with everything a gamer would need and is just a small taste of things to come
Check out more hi-res photos of Omega Sektor in Harrow on the next page and glance over the concept design for the ambitious plan for Omege Sektor in Birmingham and London.
