High score for network at EICC gaming event

Organisers of Scotland's largest computer gaming festival have hailed the event's 'turbocharged' internet service.

Insomnia drew thousands of gamers to Edinburgh. Picture: Neil Hanna

Insomnia, held over the weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), attracted thousands of gaming enthusiasts to the city, with local networking specialist Commsworld drafted in to temporarily boost the venue’s connection speeds to as much as ten gigabits per second.

Richard Lloyd, the EICC’s client manager for information and communications technology, said: “The network was great and extremely stable.

“It is so important for this style of event, with gaming very much being an online activity. Bandwidth and stability are both essential and it was flawless.

“The Commsworld engineers were on site before the event to set up and test and we had access to those same engineers throughout the event to avoid any problems.”

Craig Fletcher, chief executive of Multiplay Events – the firm behind Insomnia – added: “It’s an event that brings people from all walks of life together to celebrate the one thing that binds them together, a passion for gaming.

“It can be very technical, especially when you’re running a temporary network of hundreds or even thousands of PCs. Network speeds are critical – most games you can’t play online without the internet so we need a very stable connection and brilliant performance.”

Commsworld, which has 63 staff, is the official partner to the Edinburgh Core network, developed by infrastructure specialist CityFibre and launched last May.