NETGEAR AV: HETMA on E-Sports, Scale, and Why Higher Ed AV is Now IT’s Problem

Joe Way from HETMA (Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance, 10,000+ members, $25B+ annual spend) delivers a reality check: E-sports is bigger than the NBA, NFL, MLB, and soccer combined. And if your university doesn’t have an E-sports program, you’re behind. In this interview, we talk about the unique challenges of higher ed at scale; buying in hundreds, across 5,400+ US colleges with budget cuts forcing “do more with less.”

Joe explains why AV departments no longer exist (it’s all IT now), how NETGEAR switches earned street cred with campus network teams, and why E-sports networks can’t go down when sponsors and revenue are on the line.