Brick, tile, wooden or concrete, small or large, whatever the shape, size and construction materials of your house there’s always an annoying WiFi blackspot.

Google’s Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System is here to sort that out.

Either in a single or multi-pack (depends on how big your place is as to how many of these you will need), the aesthetically pleasing Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh has been future proofed for instant connectivity to Matter gear as well as having WiFi 6E, which is twice as quick as WiFi 6.

One unit is expected to cover 150m2. That’s a fairly decent footprint. And in my place, a two storey concrete and wood townhouse it was more than enough from every corner of the house.

There’s two ports at the back, one to plug in to your existing ISP modem and the other spare if you want to hardwire anything in to it.

This said for most you’ll find the wireless broadcast more than sufficient for multiple devices in the home and all smarthome tech.

If you already have other Google devices in your setup these will integrate with the Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System real easy via the Google Home app. And it is also within the app you can see current speeds, what’s currently connected and using bandwidth, restrict, block and more.

You’ll also get security as well as notifications and alerts on your smartphone, iOS if you have the Google Home app installed.

The Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System is a definite for a one bedroom place and a more modest sized two bedroom, like mine. But if you have two or more bedrooms you may want to invest in more than just one Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System unit.

For me it worked perfectly with zero blackspots in any room of the house and what’s more when compared with other similar Mesh systems available, the Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System is more than affordable.

Get everything connected, have everything staying connected with the Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System.

The post Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh System Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NETGEAR, provider of mesh WiFi systems that power today’s smart homes and small businesses, announced the introduction of the Nighthawk Mesh WiFi System.

With the broadest range of WiFi 6 offerings in the industry, NETGEAR, the leading provider of mesh WiFi solutions, continues the commitment to advance WiFi performance with the launch of a new product line, the Nighthawk Mesh WiFi system. With the launch of Nighthawk Mesh WiFi, the performance line will now join the fastest growing segment of WiFi advanced solutions – WiFi 6 mesh systems.

The award-winning NETGEAR Orbi WiFi Mesh System has provided the consumer with an advanced WiFi solution, which has become synonymous with ease-of-use and performance, whereas the Nighthawk line of performance routers has been reserved for those customers who prefer to have greater capability to customise the settings for personalisation and optimisation of their network.

Designed for the tech enthusiast, the new Nighthawk WiFi 6 Mesh System brings the experience of reliable and flexible WiFi coverage with specialised features such as Dynamic QoS, which automatically prioritises both video streaming and gaming traffic. NETGEAR will continue to add features establishing Nighthawk Mesh WiFi system as the most robust and adaptable system available.

Every member of a household now has a well-defined need for super-fast, reliable WiFi from gamers, to telecommuters and those who stream HD video to numerous screens within the home.

NETGEAR has answered this call with the Nighthawk Mesh WiFi System delivering the future of WiFi with next-generation WiFi 6. The Nighthawk Mesh System comes with one or two high-powered satellites to provide whole home broadband WiFi coverage. Dead zones are eliminated by easily adding satellites wherever needed or to scale up when moving to a larger home. Setup is completed in minutes with the free Nighthawk App on Apple iOS or Android OS and is also used to easily manage the network from your mobile device.  “In a period of just three years, mesh WiFi has taken a large share of the WiFi market. NETGEAR has led this charge with our popular award-winning Orbi Tri-band Mesh WiFi system,” said David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR. “We are excited to bring the power and flexibility of Nighthawk to this market, and lead the transition to WiFi 6.”

A Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 router or a satellite supports dual-band WiFi with up to 1.8Gbps using the latest WiFi 6 and is the ideal companion for the latest iPhone or Samsung smart phones and the new WiFi 6 capable gadgets introduced over the last several months. Legacy devices also will experience enhanced connectivity, as the WiFi 6 backhaul for mesh systems improves utilisation of WiFi channels with its use of faster speeds and better efficiencies over WIFi 6.

The router also comes equipped with 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports (one for the internet and the other for the LAN) while the satellite comes with 1 Gigabit Ethernet port. This exciting new addition to the NETGEAR family of mesh WiFi products will set a new bar for performance and capacity to meet the increasing bandwidth demands of our customers.

NETGEAR already has the industry’s most complete WiFi 6 router portfolio and are now happy to offer the same for WiFi 6 mesh solutions.

The post NETGEAR PUSHES THE TRANSITION TO WIFI 6 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Optimise your gaming with Nighthawk.

Sounding like a dark superhero, Netgear’s Nighthawk XR500 is a premium router to filter your traffic and hone in on gaming ports for your favourite online battles.

Featuring four high range antennas the slick yet foreboding Nighthawk XR500 is pure weaponry in your home’s cyber network.

Via the easy to use User Interface (GUI) you will find that applying rules and filters for your online gaming is super easy.

While there is already some pre-config there by default, for the more wider known games, adding additional ports and setting priorities is a cinch.

You can prioritise any given ports that you need and deprioritise others. With the desktop app you are also able to do this on the fly and see your current latency and LAN (home network) traffic.

The Nighthawk XR500 also has it’s very own VPN built in.

Personally I found this super handy. I generally use a mix of cloud storage and external hard drives for production files and folders.

More often than not I have found that when I was away from home that one folder or file was not on cloud storage and resided on a hard drive on my desk.

By setting up permissions and the VPN I have been able to access my external drive, essentially turning the drive in to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) using my laptop as the drives controller.

On board there are five GB ports, one reserved for WAN, the four antennas work to ensure wide Wi-Fi coverage hurling out speeds up to 2.6GBs. Perfect for wireless streaming and of course competitive eSports.

You can also connect to more than one Wi-Fi band simultaneously (if one lags for any reason, the secondary will pick up the slack) and fifteen more additional channels ranging in the 5 GHz range. Forget network noise and interference, Netgear have covered all connectivity bases.

Onboard the Nighthawk XR500 has it’s very own high powered (for a router) CPU crunching the bandwidth data at 1.7 GHz.

The Netgear Nighthawk is a superhero for your LAN and online gaming. It gives you more than a competitive edge in gaming, either PC or console and ensures that the only thing you need to worry about when looting, plundering or in a fierce fire fight is your survival.

Netgear’s Nighthawk XR500 is the Ferrari in home network expansion and a super weapon in gaming.

The post Netgear Nighthawk XR500 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Arlo Technologies the #1 network connected camera brand, has unveiled its new flagship wire-free security camera system, Arlo Ultra.

Designed to provide the ultimate level of protection for the people and places that matter most, Arlo Ultra features 4K Ultra HD resolution with high dynamic range (HDR), colour night vision and advanced image processing, all in a sleek, compact design built for outdoor and indoor use. Arlo Ultra also includes a one-year subscription to Arlo Smart Premier, giving users a more personalised, intelligent smart home security experience, powered by Arlo’s sophisticated AI and computer vision technologies. The new Arlo Ultra 4K HDR wire-free security camera system is slated to be available in Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of 2019.

Featuring a new 4K image sensor with HDR image processing, Arlo Ultra is capable of capturing and outputting 4K video quality from the lens to the user.

This feature not only provides additional detail and clarity to videos but allows users to zoom in on their video clips to uncover critical information, such as license plates, clothing, or other telling details in suspicious activity. With an expansive panoramic 180-degree diagonal field of view, Arlo Ultra delivers one of the widest viewing angles in the wire-free security camera industry, providing users more flexibility when placing their camera for property, home or business monitoring. In addition, Arlo Ultra includes an integrated spotlight that can illuminate the night with a powerful LED light, giving users the ability to see colour in the dark rather than traditional black and white night vision.

Arlo Ultra also takes audio quality to the next level for clearer and more natural conversations. Designed with dual-microphones, Arlo Ultra delivers two-way audio with advanced noise cancellation that can notably minimise background noise and accentuate foreground audio, such as voices.

“Arlo Ultra pushes the boundaries of image and audio quality with an incredibly compact form factor that’s true to Arlo’s heritage of simple setup and ease-of-use, marking a massive leap forward in surveillance for the do-it-yourself smart home security market,” said Brad Little, Vice President and Managing Director, Arlo Technologies, APAC.

“Our new flagship wire-free camera represents major advancements in video, audio, software, AI, and computer vision capabilities. Arlo Ultra is a complete solution for users who desire the best possible protection for their home or business, as well as the most ideal experience for connecting remotely with loved ones for maximum peace of mind.”

With a fast and easy wire-free setup and weather-resistant design, Arlo Ultra cameras can be installed nearly anywhere outdoors or indoors. The newly designed magnetic mount allows users to conveniently mount their camera from ceilings, walls, eaves, or place their cameras on tables or counter surfaces. Arlo Ultra includes a newly designed rechargeable battery and comes with a weather-resistant, magnetic charging cable for indoor and outdoor use. Arlo Ultra also features a built-in siren that can be automatically triggered by motion, audio detection, or manually activated remotely from the Arlo App for added protection.

In addition, Arlo Ultra comes with the new, advanced Arlo SmartHub which connects to the user’s router to provide extended Wi-Fi range to Arlo cameras, manages data traffic to and from the camera out to the user’s cloud account and offers a more secure dedicated IOT network for the devices connected to the Arlo SmartHub. The Arlo SmartHub features a microSD Card for local storage of recorded clips from Arlo cameras.

To complete the solution, each Arlo Ultra system includes a one-year Arlo Smart Premier subscription, to provide added peace of mind and convenience for Arlo Ultra owners. The subscription service utilises powerful AI and computer vision technology to deliver customised notifications regarding people, animal, vehicle and package detection. Arlo Smart Premier also includes cloud recordings of video clips at 1080p or lower resolution for up to 30 days. Premium video recording for cloud storage of 4K clips is available as an add-on subscription, or users can store 4K clips locally at no added cost using the SmartHub’s microSD card slot.

The post Arlo Go 4K Wireless Night-Colour Security Cams appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Netgear, one of the leading providers of networking devices that power today’s smart home, is introducing the Nighthawk X6 Tri-Band WiFi Mesh Extender (EX7700) as the latest member to the Nighthawk family of WiFi Mesh Extenders.

This new Nighthawk mesh extender provides powerful whole home WiFi by extending the range of your existing router using patented Fastlane3 technology. With a dedicated 866Mbps 5GHz band for extending Internet speeds to all of your connected devices, the EX7700 is one of the most advanced Tri-Band WiFi mesh extenders available.  

Nighthawk X6 joins the existing family of Nighthawk Mesh extenders that employ a dedicated WiFi link to provide an uninterrupted flow of data between the primary router and the extender. Nighthawk Mesh allows the same WiFi network name to be used as your primary router to provide seamless connectivity with Smart Roaming. Smart Roaming enables your mobile devices to connect intelligently for optimal WiFi connection from router to the extender or vice versa delivering exceptional streaming when you move throughout your home. Powerful features such as MU-MIMO and Smart Connect ensure every device is assigned a fast WiFi connection. 

Working with any home WiFi router, this latest Nighthawk Mesh extender expands your WiFi coverage up to an additional 2000 square feet (18.5 metres), with AC2200 WiFi speeds that combine to provide up to 2.2Gbps (866+866+400Mbps). With the push of a button, easily add the extender on to your existing network and get the benefits of mesh WiFi, with one network name, seamless roaming and a dedicated backhaul, all without reducing your WiFi bandwidth.
 
NETGEAR FastLane3 Technology with Tri-band WiFi enables the Nighthawk X6 to provide a dedicated connection to any existing WiFi router or modem router. Unlike single or dual-band WiFi range extenders, this dedicated link is not shared with devices for internet connectivity and thus maximises the available speeds to improve the overall network throughput.
 
The Nighthawk X6 also sets a new industry standard for a secure networking product. This is the first extender with Secure Boot, which ensures only NETGEAR signed software can run on the device for the prevention of tampering. 

The four high-performance internal antennas make this new mesh extender ideal for extending WiFi to devices like your smartphone, tablets and smart home devices, while its powerful quad-core processor boosts performance for better 4K streaming and lag-free gaming. Its desktop form factor with two Gigabit Ethernet ports allow you to connect wired devices like game consoles, smart TVs and streaming players to your existing WiFi. 

“NETGEAR first introduced powerful Tri-band WiFi mesh systems to our product range in 2016 with Orbi Whole Home WiFi systems. We followed it up with Nighthawk Mesh WiFi extenders that provided the mesh WiFi capability without replacing your current WiFi router,” said Sandeep Harpalani, vice president of product management of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR. 

“As customers have responded with enthusiasm to Mesh solutions to improve their WiFi, we are pleased to introduce our latest offering with Nighthawk X6, which provides a flexible, high performance, secure solution for customers to extend their home network”.

• Mesh WiFi Network with Existing WiFi Router — Add-on to your existing WiFi router and get the benefits of mesh networking; one network name and seamless roaming.
• One WiFi Name — Add devices to your network easily, no new WiFi names and passwords needed.
• Seamless WiFi — Stay connected as you go from room to room without manually switching networks.
• FastLane3Technology—
  • Tri-band WiFi – Two 5 Gh and a third 2.4 Ghz bands provides reliable WiFi coverage and fast internet speeds with three wireless bands.
  • Dedicated WiFi Link – One dedicated 5Ghz band is for router to extender connection only and is not shared with connected devices to ensure that bandwidth is stable and not diminished.
  • High-Performance Antennas – Four high-performance internal antennas for extended WiFi coverage up to 18.5 metres Amplifies the WiFi range of your router and extender.
• Other Technical Features of Nighthawk X6
  • Smart Connect—Intelligently selects the optimal WiFi band for every device
  • Push Button Setup — Makes installation really easy
  • Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO)—Simultaneous streaming of data to multiple devices
  • Tri-Band Access Point—Pair with your existing ISP gateway or router to enhance WiFi for your home or office
  • Quad-core Processor—Boosts performance for better 4K streaming and lag-free gaming
  • Secure Boot— Ensures that only NETGEAR signed firmware can run on the device to prevent tampering with the device.
  • Gigabit Ethernet Ports—Two Gigabit Ethernet ports to connect all your wired devices
  • WiFi Analytics App—Optimise your WiFi network with the WiFi Analytics app for Android devices
  • Multi-Coloured Indicator Light—Indicator light helps to find the optimal location to place the mesh extended

NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 Tri-Band WiFi Mesh Extender (EX7700) will be available for purchase in November 2018, at an RRP of NZ$339.00. With the capability of working with your existing WiFi router, the EX7700 is the easiest and least expensive way to build a WiFi mesh system for any home.

The post NETGEAR Nighthawk Mesh Family – Expanded appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Ping Zero Events are proud to announce our 2018 PING ZERO event. 51 in the long running series of LAN’s, PZ offers everything attendees enjoyed from previous events and more.

With tournaments for titles like CS:GO, Halo and Overwatch once again returning. New this year is the OMEN by HP Challenger Series. The “OMEN by HP Challenger Series” is an open amateur nation wars style PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) tournament with an ultimate prize pool of USD $50,000. Nations all across the Asia Pacific region will all be represented. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) v1.0 was released in December 2017 and has emerged from its early access stage. With more than 30 million users across multiple platforms, and has record breaking 3 million concurrent players on Steam.

Additionally PUBG has a rapidly growing competitive gaming community. The top two squads from the New Zealand qualifier will receive flights and accommodation to the Grand Finals in Bangkok, Thailand on November 2018 to fight for right to plant their
nations flag at the heart of the final circle.

Ping Zero Events is hosting Ping Zero 51 at Eden Park on the 15th – 16th of September 2018.

“We are excited to be running our first overseas qualifier tournament, thanks to OMEN by HP’s support. Ping Zero has been supporting the NZ gaming community for over 16 years and now we are excited to give players a chance to represent NZ in a overseas esports event.” says Conrad Ware, Managing Director of Ping Zero.

Tickets can be purchased HERE and more info on the OMEN HP Challenger Series can be found HERE.

The post PING ZERO, NEW ZEALAND’S LARGEST LAN, RETURNS appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

From Monday to Friday, mid morning till mid afternoon Athena rocks the New Zealand airwaves on Hip Hop radio station ‘Flava’.

Asides from being a radio personality, Athena is also a hardcore gamer.

Half Filipino and half Kiwi Athena has both feet firmly set in both nations and cultures. We sit down with Athena to talk about her DJ’ing career and of course, video gaming.

Athena – Gamer / Radio DJ, Flava New Zealand

Shane: Hi Athena, thanks for chatting with us here at STG. Can you give us a little bit of your background and how you got in to radio?

As a youngin’, I preferred playing on gaming consoles than playing “kitchen” and “dress ups”, I came from a middle-class family, but as an only child with full-time working parents, I could only hang with my boy cousins at their house after school, they’d be playing LAN games such as CS & Battlefield, so it was either learn to play or be bored.

Athena: At that age, you could say I was an anti-social extrovert always playing games and being on the computer, however later in life through street dancing, I became a bit of a social butterfly among my peers which lead to where I am today. I was never easily socially influenced, so I always did my own thing and along the way met a good bunch of friends who were well connected in the music / entertainment industry, it was these people who noticed my natural raw talent for music and dance and were prepared to help me develop it into a career. And here we are today, working for Flava Radio 🙂

Shane: Many listeners that tune in to you on ‘Flava’ may not know that you are also a gamer. How long have you been gaming and what is your fave genre to play?

Athena: I’ve been gaming since 5 years old, when my parents got me my first SEGA Mega Drive. I don’t have a specific ‘favourite’ genre, but I do enjoy action games, more specifically I found a huge love for Call of Duty and first-person shooter games.

Shane: How easy is it to juggle gaming and radio DJ’ing?

Athena: There is ALWAYS a cheeky 10 minutes to play “one last game”.

Shane: Soon we will be seeing you on Twitch w. STG and you are currently a presenter for LPL (Let’s Play Live) – has video gaming always been a passion?

Athena: Absolutely, I’ve always been ‘that girl’ who would have selective hearing as soon as I’m absorbed by a game I thoroughly enjoy or grabs my attention – it helps my son also has a passion for gaming and technology, so it’s something we’ve bonded over too.

Shane: Already on the forefront of New Zealand digital entertainment (Radio / Video Gaming), where do you see your path headed?

Athena: That’s a really good question – I never saw my path headed to becoming a radio host, so I guess that’s the beauty of going with life’s ‘natural flow’ –  you stay true to what you’re passionate about, you keep firm belief in who you are and you find jobs that you enjoy based on genuine interest – for me right now, it’s radio / entertainment / media and gaming. Who knows, I could be the future of female gaming in NZ.

Shane: Absolutely you could. Thanks so much for talking with us today.

Catch Athena on ‘Flava’ from 10am to 3pm weekdays and real soon you’ll see Athena Twitch’ing right here on STG.

The post Interview w. Athena – DJ from ‘Flava’ appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Stunlock Studios, social video service Twitch, and Nexon today announced the debut of the Battlerite Pro League, the game’s official competitive circuit. 

Battlerite Pro League, Season 1 will feature a showdown of the best-of-the-best in Europe, North America, South America and Korea with sign-ups beginning today and the competition starting on April 12th, 2018. Each team will battle its way to the top in order to prove who is the best as they compete for a slice of an $80,000 prize pool, including more than $25,000 in the LAN finale prize pool. Twitch is the exclusive live streaming partner for the league with the first three seasons being broadcast HERE, while Nexon is handling production and distribution for the league in Korea.

“Our community has grown and matured immensely since Battlerite was released so it was time for us to provide a platform for the best players to show what they’re made of,“ said Alexander Hermansson at Stunlock Studios. “By partnering with Twitch and Nexon for the Battlerite Pro League, we’re not only offering an entertaining broadcast, we’re introducing the game’s intricacies to fresh audiences, newer players, and esports fans in many different corners of the world.”

Battlerite​ ​is​ ​a​ free-to-play ​PvP​ ​arena​ ​brawler​ ​and​ ​the​ ​spiritual​ ​successor​ ​to​ ​the critically​ ​acclaimed​ ​Bloodline Champions. Players engage in quick and intense action through highly competitive, rip-roaring 2v2 and 3v3 battles in vibrant, colosseum-style surroundings controlling one of 27 champions that specialise in either melee, support, or ranged combat. It’s all about skill-shots, timing, and reactions as players dodge projectiles and pull off massive ultimate attacks using intuitive WASD movement and cursor-based aiming.

Battlerite Pro League open qualifiers for each region begin next week. The regions will consist of 8 teams each duking it out over the course of 5 weeks to see which teams get to stay for the next season, which teams will be relegated and which 2 teams will make it to the LAN finale to represent their region.

Teams of three Battlerite players can sign up for the qualifiers before the 11th of April 2018 HERE.  There will be 4 qualifiers for each region with 2 teams qualifying each day to make up the 8 representatives of each region.

The post Battlerite Pro League Partners w. Twitch appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NETGEAR is proud to announce the launch of Nighthawk Pro Gaming (NPG) XR 500 WiFi router in Australia, designed to cut lag and enhance gameplay to provide a whole new level of speed, performance, personalisation and control.

Nighthawk by NETGEAR has long been recognised by gamers for high-performance networking hardware. The introduction of Nighthawk Pro Gaming is the latest evolution of this highly acclaimed WiFi product line. Purpose built and fine-tuned to address the unique networking challenges of gamers, Nighthawk Pro Gaming combines best-in-class high-performance hardware with advanced software to enhance online gameplay providing players with an optimised network environment to perform at their very best.

The ground-breaking NPG XR500 WiFi router leverages cutting-edge software to optimise network connections by stabilising ping, reducing lag, and keeping you always-on with reliable connectivity for advanced online gameplay.

This latest offering from NETGEAR was showcased for the first time in Australia at the Nighthawk Pro Gaming launch event within fitting surrounds, professional gamers and industry partners gathered to experience Nighthawk Pro Gaming in action.

Key features of Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR 500 WiFi router include a unique Gaming Dashboard where on a single screen, you can view in real-time bandwidth utilisation by device, ping delays, and many other parameters. This is crusical and works with the onboard Geo Filter which aims to fix your gaming lag by limiting distance to servers or other players, get a guaranteed local connection, and create black / white lists of your preferred servers.

With the Quality of Service (QoS) the NPG XR 500 will prioritise gaming devices and allocate bandwidth by device to eliminate lag due to queuing at the ISP network. There’s also a builtin Gaming VPN to protect your network identity, prevent DDoS attack, and use the VPN client to connect to the VPN server.

Alongside the bandwidth monitoring feature, the Network Monitor will check on bandwidth-hogging devices and identify the applications which could be causing lag.

The NPG XR 500 offers up maximised speed with four GbE LAN ports for wired connections, ideal for fast-paced gaming and high-quality streaming and 802.11ac WiFi  to enjoy Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) for simultaneous streaming, Quad-Stream, and 160MHz for faster speeds.

Inside the NPG XR 500 is a Dual-Core 1.7GHz Processor supporting more devices for better 4K streaming, VR gaming, surfing, and more with this powerful, faster processor and onboard with a 256MB flash chipset and 512 RAM.

The AC2600 WiFi will take advantage of up to 800+1733 Mbps wireless speed, and double the available bandwidth with simultaneous dual-band WiFi. If you opt for Wireless gaming the High-Performance Antennas are built to get better WiFi coverage and faster speeds with four external antennas. Couple all of the above with the propriertory Beamforming+ to ensure a more reliable connections for fewer drops, providing jitter-free network performance.

Brad Little, vice president and managing director for ANZ at ‎NETGEAR said the company is excited to launch the company’s first product developed exclusively for professional gaming. “All online gamers, whether they are casual, avid or professional, have one thing in common — the need for responsive, reliable, low-lag game play. Nighthawk Pro Gaming is designed to meet the specialised needs of the gamer through groundbreaking software and dedicated features that help create the ultimate gaming experience.

“At NETGEAR, we’re committed to supporting gamers and the wider community both globally and locally. The eSports industry is growing at a phenomenal rate and it’s incredibly exciting to showcase our support with a product dedicated to the unique challenges gamers face.”

NETGEAR has recently signed on as a Gold Awards sponsor for the eSports Pro Oceania awards and continues to support the industry through long-term partnerships with local gaming teams Avant Garde and CyberGamer Globally, NETGEAR also works with Ninjas in Pyjamas and Seoul Dynasty.

The NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming (XR500) is available for pre-order now at a RRP of $449.00 AUD.

The post NetGear Releases New Nighthawk appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The New Zealand Esports Federation and Australian Esports Association have announced the establishment of the Oceania Esports Council.

The two organisations have moved from competing on the electronic playing field to cooperating on the international stage.

The OEC’s purpose is to represent Oceania at international meetings focusing on esports’ inclusion in the Olympics and co-operation on industry issues.

The Australian Esports Association (AESA) was established in 2013 and The New Zealand Esports Federation (NZESF) in 2016. During this time both groups have sent national representative teams to international competitions and have had regular dialogue. Both share common goals on esports integrity, governance, and the development of all esports, including amateur and professional.

New Zealand E Black player Thomas Choi and Australian player Gabe Najarro at the 2017 International Esports Federation World Champs, Busan, South Korea.

Esports in Australasia have enjoyed strong growth recently. The AESA and NZESF have recognised a greater need to collaborate in the development of regulation, policy, anti-bullying initiatives, international cooperation and player opportunities for the Oceania region.

Ben Lenihan, President, New Zealand Esports Federation says this is a big moment in trans-Tasman esports relations. “We are delighted to have reached an agreement after 12 months of dialogue to formalise our relationship. The need for a common representative is of more importance now as the goal of Olympic recognition gets closer.”

Darren Kwan, President, Australian Esports Association echoes Lenihan’s thoughts. “A core value of mine is to ensure the players are given greater recognition and credibility for their skill and achievements,” Kwan says. “This is achieved by building access to platforms and programmes that share this value. Both the New Zealand Esports Federation and Australian Esports Association have been advocating for esports to be recognised as a sport since they were established, and these efforts are beginning to bear fruit.”

The council will include two voluntary representatives from each party and an independent nominated chair. The council will seek an Australian or New Zealand candidate for the role who has experience in sports governance.

The post Oceania Esports Council formed by AUS & NZ appeared first on Shane the Gamer.