Elsa in PC Games Centre Deal

ELSA Scoops Lanarena PC Games Centre Deal with
GLADIAC

Graphics boards



THEALE, 13 June 2001- Graphics board and data communications

vendor ELSA has secured a deal with the UK's largest online computer games

centre operator, Lanarena, that will see the ELSA GLADIAC Ultra graphics

boards in around 200 PCs at six gaming venues within Megabowl entertainment

complexes across the UK.



The ELSA GLADIAC Ultra board was chosen for its powerful 3D

gaming performance, based on the NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra chip with 64MB of DDR

RAM. Dominic Mulroy, managing director of Lanarena and Chairman of the

Virtual Gamers Association (VGA), commented, "We needed high performance

graphics so that our customers could experience real-time performance at

full resolutions. After a couple of months of testing various cards in the

industry we have finally chosen a card from ELSA, who we believe make the

best graphics cards on the market today."



Lanarena gaming centres are equipped with state-of-the art

AMD Thunderbird based hardware. All PCs run on 100mbs Ethernet LANs and all

sites are inter-connected over leased lines with high performance permanent

links into the Internet. People can choose to play multi user games like

Quake or Counterstrike either in a single venue, against a team from another

Lanarena centre or with opponents around the world, over the Internet.



ELSA marketing manager Peter Griffin commented, "This is a

landmark deal for ELSA which brings massive branding and endorsement to our

technology and the company. Visitors to Lanarena will experience the buzz of

a fully loaded gaming machine and will want the same build in their home

PCs. We hope to work closely with Lanarena to introduce their customers to

even higher levels of gaming performance as we bring on new chip

technologies."



The aim of Lanarena's founders is to attract the mass

audience for gaming by setting up large open and welcoming venues with a

pub-like atmosphere. "We attract a cross section of the public and
encourage

clubs and associations to come and form teams. We are taking gaming out of

the cellar and into the mainstream." Added Mulroy.



The group has been involved in a number of prestige gaming

events and is hosting the UK side of this years World Cyber Games. Lanarena

plans to develop the concept to open 20 centres up and down the country,

each equipped to the same standard and each targeting the same mass market.



Background to Lanarena

Lanarena runs the UK's largest LAN gaming and Internet

centres. Founded in December 1999, Lanarena has six centres located in

Megabowl entertainment complexes across the country. Lanarena aims to
offer

an unrivalled gaming experience, not just through the location and

facilities on offer, but through the quality of their service. Lanarena has

forged a reputation in the gaming industry for the reliability and high

speed of their gaming platform based on support from leading hardware

vendors such as ELSA.



ELSA Background

ELSA is one of the leading providers of Internet access and

computer graphics solutions for the PC. Its product range includes modems,

ISDN adapters, ISDN and DSL routers, videoconferencing systems, graphics

boards and monitors. ELSA was founded in 1980 and today has around 700

employees. In addition to its headquarters in Aachen, Germany, it also

maintains subsidiaries in San José (USA), Taipei (Taiwan) and Tokyo (Japan)

as well as in London (UK), Paris (France), Milan (Italy) and Eke (Belgium).

Since June 1998, ELSA AG shares are traded on the "Neuer Markt"
trading

segment (WKN 507 360) of the Frankfurt stock exchange in Germany.



ELSA G.B. Ltd., 1210 Parkview, Arlington Business Park,

Theale, Berkshire RG7 4TY

Tel: 0118 965 7755 Fax: 0118 965 7756

Freephone sales no.: 08000 56 34 45

Web site: www.elsa.co.uk