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INDIGOVISION
Specifying IP Video CCTV
Systems for Casinos
Casino operators are among the most pro-active and demanding users
of CCTV surveillance. IP Video systems are an ideal solution for this
industry, but it’s important to specify a well-designed system warns
Oliver Vellacott, IndigoVision’s CEO.
A
quality casino surveillance system is an High-Quality, Full Frame Rate Video
essential business tool used to resolve
gaming disputes, monitor public safety It is a given that casinos demand the highest
and detect fraud, cheating and theft. The standard video quality. In order to detect sleight of
very nature of the gaming environment hand or subtle scams, full frame rate live viewing and
where patrons and staff intermingle and handle large review of recorded footage is essential. Any lowered
sums of money demands that the video system frame rates, dropped frames or jerky stop-start video
delivers the best quality video available in terms of make the system unusable when trying to track hand
both image quality and frame rates. movements and cash or chips changing hands.
An IP Video system that delivers these essential Leading end-to-end IP Video surveillance systems
elements also adds other dimensions to the can stream and record high resolution video
surveillance operation by providing analytical search continuously at 30fps, whereas some less capable,
tools and features such as instant recall of recorded poorly specified systems can only achieve this
video. In addition, the use of IP Video technology performance under ideal conditions, for example
allows any component in the system to be located when there is limited video motion. The gaming
anywhere on the network. This gives large casinos the environment is a high motion, 24/7 operation; the
flexibility to easily and cost-effectively integrate CCTV surveillance system needs to be performing to these
surveillance into their operations and establish off- high standards at all times.
site control rooms or monitor multiple sites from one
central point. Fault Tolerance, Redundancy,
Diagnostics and Hardware
Monitoring
Casinos and Gaming Commission regulators
require a high level of fault tolerance and redundancy
for different but related reasons. Gaming
Commissions insist that all active gaming tables are
recorded and in compliance a casino operator is
obliged to close a table that is not being recorded.
The inconvenience, revenue loss and possible
penalties mean that casinos need a high level of fault
tolerance and redundancy to minimize downtime.
In the event of a failure an immediate failover
component must be available thus eliminating
downtime. Analogue CCTV systems often employed
banks of VCR or DVR “standbys” in case of failure.
However, this approach required an analogue
switcher to reroute the video signals to the standby
units. It was not feasible to wire all cameras into a
standby system so some intelligence within an
analogue system was required to detect a VCR/DVR
failure and reroute the video signal. Unfortunately
not many systems like this were available so it was
usually done manually.
28 APRIL 2009
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