Intro

GameLab excels at managing turn-key automated esports and social gaming facilities and has the experience and past performance necessary to properly maintain facilities of this scope and caliber. We offer a 5-Year Maintenance & Support Agreement with our equipment, which includes turn-key facility operation by GameLab so that campus personnel can focus elsewhere–confident that the facility is always operating effectively and continuing to draw in significant numbers of students thanks to our diligence and technical expertise.

Services include onsite repairs in the event of hardware failure, daily remote maintenance and software updates, weekly onsite physical maintenance checks, campus organization event and troubleshooting support, new game procurement / installation, and 24/7 technical chat support for students and event organizers. No university personnel or services are required for operation besides daily janitorial service.

10s of thousands of logged maintenance hours allows us to accurately estimate the labor and effort required as it relates to each service item and provide the best rates possible. We firmly believe that the maintenance programs detailed below are precisely what is needed to successfully operate our world-class gaming facilities and ensure that every time a student sits down to play they have a great experience.

On-site Emergency Repair

On-site emergency repair service includes a 48-hour response time for an on-site technician. Backstock of all core components will be kept on-site as space allows or in nearby centralized storage to further reduce equipment downtime as we anticipate an average 3-5% annualized component turnover due to normal wear and tear. Technicians will be dispatched either directly at the request of the building operations team or through a repair ticket generated by a remote support technician based on student feedback of an equipment outage that requires on-site intervention.

Component replacement costs in the event of hardware failure under normal operating conditions are covered by the agreement for the entire 5-year period to include stocking core components for immediate replacement. User-facing devices such as controllers and mice are expected to wear out and need replacing at regular intervals. Additional contract option years for core component coverage are available at additional cost. Any client-provided components or renovation efforts in the space are not covered by the maintenance agreement and any necessary repairs by GameLab thereof would incur additional cost.

Daily Remote Maintenance

Daily remote maintenance service taps into our dedicated remote technician team to assess the health of all primary and secondary equipment for which remote feedback is available to include networking routers and managed switches, gameplay and camera streaming devices, kiosk user interface devices, audio dome amplifiers, LED lighting controllers, KVM switches, power and watchdog devices, game consoles and controllers, and gaming PCs. This represents hundreds of remote device touch points across the on-site GamePod® kiosks and streaming devices. Gaming devices will also be monitored for firmware and game updates that require manual intervention and hard drive space will be managed to ensure game titles are properly deleted as they are cycled out of the current library selection. Remote maintenance will be performed during off-peak hours to limit the impact on players in the facility. The remote maintenance checklist and cascading task process which we’ve developed and perfected over many years of facility maintenance ensures the most speedy and efficient completion times possible by means of mitigating and eliminating the slack time and inefficiency of action often found in such linear processes. Daily maintenance prevents the majority of reactive maintenance tasks which are generated by users having issues with equipment.

Weekly On-site Maintenance

Weekly on-site maintenance service includes a dedicated on-site technician visit to assess the health of all primary and secondary equipment for which remote feedback is not readily available to include televisions and monitors, touchscreens, audio domes, headphone jacks, physical kiosk buttons, gaming controllers, keyboards, mice, and visual inspections of LED lighting and chairs and desks to ensure everything is in order and functioning properly. This represents hundreds of on-site device touch points across the GamePods and streaming devices to ensure complete facility functionality. On-site maintenance will be performed during off-peak hours to limit the impact on players in the facility. Based on the size and scope of the average facility, we estimate a completion time of two to three hours weekly. Maintenance will be scheduled and students and building staff alerted both through notifications on the GamePod® kiosks themselves and also by means of updated digital maintenance calendars. The physical maintenance checklist and cascading task process which we’ve developed and perfected over many years of facility maintenance ensures the most speedy and efficient completion times possible by means of mitigating and eliminating the slack time and inefficiency of action and motion often found in such linear processes. Gaming peripherals are subjected to particularly rigorous tests and are immediately replaced as they wear out. In our experience, user-facing devices such as controllers, keyboards, and mice need to be replaced 1-2 times annually.

Technical Chat Support

Our dedicated technical chat support team will be available to provide student technical support services during facility operating hours, with after-hours support available 24/7 as required for special events and other extended programming through prior arrangements with GameLab. Students can access technical support on any GamePod® kiosk or from their mobile device while in the facility. Average response time from our team for current operations is less than 60 seconds. In the event that an issue raised by a user cannot be resolved remotely, the technician will issue a repair ticket in our system for emergency or scheduled dispatch on an as needed basis.

Game Installation

Game libraries for the various gaming platforms will be maintained and updated by GameLab on a consistent basis to ensure that the latest and most popular titles are always available for users. All game subscriptions and stand-alone game titles are priced at passthrough cost. The support agreement cost covers monthly subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for Xbox Series S and PC and an equivalent service on other consoles. GameLab will directly manage and purchase these subscriptions to ensure ease of use for the students. As new and popular titles are released on these services or as stand-alone titles, we will schedule block maintenance during off-peak hours for the appropriate devices to download, install, and test them. We anticipate installing 36-48 titles per year from the rotating subscription libraries. Service also included up to 6 annual stand-alone titles for each game console. GameLab will provide a release schedule as game releases are announced with our purchase recommendations for each platform based upon student survey feedback. The building operations team may at their discretion request alternate titles. Though unlikely, in the event of a significant service cost increase for one of the gaming subscriptions or an increase in the average cost of stand-alone titles in a calendar year, GameLab will assess those additional costs and, if material, pass those additional costs onto the client in the form of a change order and additional line item under the maintenance program.

Event Facilitation

GameLab includes remote tournament and event facilitation support for student organizations as part of its service offering. This includes assistance in creating tournament rulesets, setting up brackets, preparing the GamePod® kiosks for tournament play, and instructing building staff or student organizers on seating players, monitoring gameplay and scoring, and resetting the facility post-event. Event facilitation services require events be scheduled with us no less than two weeks prior to the event. Building personnel will have access to admin credentials on the GamePod software to assist in local setup and facilitation of events.

Performance Reporting

GameLab will generate and provide monthly usage reports along with invoices to include hours played per kiosk and for the facility in aggregate to assist the operations team in gauging the facility’s efficacy in advancing their mission. Usage data will also be used to suggest course corrections on anticipated game library updates as we learn more about how different student groups use the facility. We will maintain remote and on-site maintenance logs. Logs include preventative maintenance performed, hardware replacement details, and game library updates. For stand-alone titles, an ongoing annual inventory will be maintained including the remaining purchase slots for the calendar year and the current plan for what to fill those slots with and the anticipated release dates of those new titles to assist in marketing efforts for the facility. As with event facilitation, campus admins will have access to admin credentials on the GamePod software to go in and pull usage reports for the facility at any time through our web portal.

Internet & Network Management

GameLab will install, configure, and monitor local network equipment and maintain equipment updates and configuration to ensure both the security of the network as well as optimal gameplay experiences for students. In the event of a network outage, GameLab will coordinate with the contracted ISP or campus IT resources to restore service as quickly as possible.