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For school districts weighing whether to invest in esports, the conversation often stalls at cost. But according to Jason Bond, who has spent more than 20 years focused on K-12 AV at Extron, the real question administrators should be asking is simpler: what else can that space do?
“It’s dual purpose, and that’s the key to the return on that investment,” Bond explained to me—in person!—at an Extron open house. “You’re going to use that esports space for something like graphics design or cybersecurity training during the day, and then in the evening or after school hours, it becomes the esports playing facility.”
Bond, who has tracked K-12 AV trends since the early days of classroom projectors, sees esports as the latest inflection point in how schools think about technology spaces. Where AV was once primarily about equipping individual classrooms, districts are now investing in large gathering spaces, media centers, and purpose-built esports facilities — all of which require more sophisticated infrastructure including AV over IP, multi-graphic processing, and specialized audio routing.
The engagement returns, Bond argues, are measurable. Esports programs have been linked to improved attendance, better grades, and stronger community involvement. “It keeps kids in school. It keeps kids getting better grades,” he says. “And it’s not just a bunch of kids sitting around playing video games — there’s a lot of team coordination that promotes communication and engagement.”
For districts just starting, Bond’s advice is to resist the urge to go big immediately. A computer lab retrofit using existing data and power infrastructure can serve as a functional first step. From there, districts can grow incrementally, layering on technology as budgets allow. AV over IP, he notes, is the foundation worth investing in early — it provides the flexibility to scale in directions a district may not yet have anticipated.