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IP Video CCTV Systems for Casinos
Casino operators are among the most pro-active and demanding users of CCTV surveillance. Oliver Vellacott, IndigoVision’s CEO explains why IP Video systems are an ideal solution for this industry.
A quality casino surveillance system is an essential business tool used to resolve gaming disputes, monitor public safety and detect fraud, cheating and theft. The very nature of the gaming environment where patrons and staff intermingle and handle large sums of money demands that the video system delivers the best quality video available in terms of both image quality and frame rates.
An IP Video system that delivers these essential elements also adds other dimensions to the surveillance operation by providing analytical search tools and features such as instant recall of recorded video. In addition, the use of IP Video technology allows any component in the system to be located anywhere on the network. This gives large casinos the flexibility to easily and cost-effectively integrate CCTV surveillance into their operations and establish off-site control rooms or monitor multiple sites from one central point.
Security Threats and Challenges
Casinos face a myriad of security threats and challenges:
Area - Casinos often cover very large floor areas with a significant number of gaming tables and slots.
Environment - A casino is a 24/7 high-motion environment where large amounts of cash are handled.
Theft & Fraud - Large amounts of money changing hands leads to opportunities for cheating, theft and fraud.
Disputes - With so much at stake the fast resolution of customer disputes is of paramount importance.
Disruption - In the event of an incident or failure of CCTV equipment a gaming table or area can be shut down at high financial cost to the casino.
Gaming Regulators – The local Gaming Board, which often has a permanent presence in a casino, will require total access to the casino operation, including CCTV. Regulations are very stringent, for example, Florida Gaming rules require that no slot machine can be used if CCTV does not record each play at a digital quality high enough to see the numbers and symbols on the machine and the denominations of the bills and coins being fed into them by players.
Why IP Video?
The advantages of IP Video can best be highlighted by looking at the disadvantages of analogue CCTV.
In many ways traditional coax or fibre-based video systems are limited and becoming increasingly unreliable and difficult to maintain due to obsolescence. A switching matrix is the component that provides control room flexibility for analogue CCTV systems, but this cannot be easily expanded without adding new hardware and it is location dependent. Therefore, overall scalability, i.e. the cost of expansion, is poor. Even though the introduction of DVRs has improved the recording capabilities of analogue CCTV, these too are limited. They have to be physically installed near the analogue matrix, and frame rate and image quality is often compromised. Image quality is paramount to Casino users, but analogue systems cannot accommodate the new breed of mega-pixel cameras. The maximum resolution attainable with a composite video signal is only 4SIF.
All of these shortcomings are easily overcome by using an IP Video system, and they provide the ideal solution for replacing ageing and unreliable VCR/DVR analogue-based CCTV systems.
Casinos want a single, scaleable, integrated solution which provides reliable high-quality video surveillance across any number of their offices or sites and this is what IP Video delivers. Unlike centralised analogue systems which have a single point of failure, IP Video systems are distributed and provide a more resilient and fault-tolerant solution. Recording is achieved using Network Video Recorders (NVRs), which unlike DVRs can be located at any point on the network.
The key component in an analogue CCTV system is the matrix. In an IP system, the network and the software controlling it becomes the so called ‘virtual matrix’. In a true IP Video solution the analogue matrix is completely removed and replaced with a ‘virtual matrix’. However, the cameras and control room equipment can be re-used.
IP Video systems operate over standard corporate networks. As these typically span entire organisations, so can IP Video systems connected to them. As traditional control room equipment can be replaced by PCs it is possible and very cost-effective to set-up remote or shared control rooms in addition to the main security monitoring facility.
High-Quality, Full Frame Rate Video
Casinos demand the highest standard video quality. In order to detect sleight of hand or subtle scams, full frame rate live viewing and review of recorded footage is essential. Any lowered frame rates, dropped frames or jerky stop-start video make the system unusable when trying to track hand movements and cash or chips changing hands.
Leading end-to-end IP Video surveillance systems can guarantee streaming and recording of high resolution video continuously at 25/30fps, without dropping frames, even in fast moving scenes. The gaming environment is a high motion, 24/7 operation; the surveillance system needs to be performing to these high standards at all times.
Fault Tolerance Video Recording
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 have to employ banks of VCR or DVR “standbys” in case of failure, which is a costly solution. In stark contrast a well-designed IP video system can eliminate table downtime due to a Networked Video Recorder (NVR) failure by multi-streaming the camera video to both a primary and a secondary NVR simultaneously. Alternatively the video recording can be automatically assigned to other NVRs in the system when a primary NVR fails. NVRs can be located at any point on the system and have redundant power supplies and network connectivity that eliminates any single point of system failure.
In the event of any failure and a failover to a redundant part, the IP video system will also have an alert and reporting system that will clearly identify the problem and prompt remedial action.
Dispute Resolution
Typical ‘Thumbnail’ display
IP Video technology has enhanced the way users can search and use recorded video footage. The casino surveillance team can review a dispute at a table with an instant recall of the camera in question and the last few minutes of footage. Key features including easy camera selection based on real world names or overlay map reference and “instant replay” facilities enabling an operator to get to the footage quickly and resolve the dispute.
In cases of fraud, theft, possible terrorist activities and public liability claims sophisticated analytics can be employed to quickly search and find the incident. Scene changes, activity in a particular area or directional movement can be targeted as search criteria.
“Thumbnail” search enables operators to display snapshot frames of varying intervals to quickly sift through large amounts of footage and target the relevant video clip.
The nature of many incidents in gaming can hinge on a few frames of information. IP Video systems provide the facility to review full frame rate footage in forward and reverse, in real time, at slow speeds and frame-by-frame. These tools are absolutely necessary to home in on the evidence needed. Additionally, digital zoom facilities are also an important feature to enhance the subject in question.
When the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington USA, upgraded its ageing VCR based analogue system to a fully digital IP Video CCTV solution the reliability and speed of the video analysis compared to VCR tapes was probably the biggest impact the new surveillance system had on their operation. Due to the time taken and the quality of the VCR tapes, about 50% of disputes could not be resolved with their old system. It is now greater than 95% with the IP Video system. Providing fast and reliable evidence to confirm or contradict customer disputes creates a better customer service environment and avoids unnecessary compensation, thereby saving the casino money.
Supervisor Investigation
Many security breaches regrettably involve collusion from security staff – the ‘inside job’. This provokes the age old question of: “who watches the watchers?” The issue with this is that CCTV operators, having more visibility of security operations than anyone else, can detect when they are being investigated and halt any illegal activity for the duration.
IP Video systems can provide what is often called the ‘Supervisor Mode’. This allows an outside investigator to record and control cameras without the CCTV operator being aware that they are doing so.
Hybrid Systems and Migration
Over 85% of casinos still use analogue and VCR/DVR systems with significant investment having been made in equipment and coax wiring. IP Video systems provide the necessary components to allow a step-by-step upgrade to digital as budgets allow, thereby creating a hybrid system during the migration to digital. This is achieved using transmitter/receiver modules that are connected to the existing cameras and convert their analogue video to MPEG-4 or H.264 compressed digital for transmission over the network. The modules can also be used to convert the digital video back to analogue for display on existing TV monitors.
Importantly, this approach can also allow a ‘hot transition’, whereby the digital system is installed in parallel to the existing system with no camera feeds being lost while the system is commissioned and tested.
Overall an IP Video system will have a much smaller footprint, typically taking up about 25% of the floor space of an analogue-based system. Environmentally IP Video is also a better solution, consuming less power and generating less heat, so requiring less cooling.
Integrated Security and Alarm Management
The leading IP Video solutions can be fully integrated with other systems such as access control, intruder security and POS, and can consolidate all alarms from these systems within the IP Video management software. This tight integration between systems can bring significant benefits to the user. For example, when an attempted intrusion is detected at an emergency exit door, an alarm is triggered which displays a map on a video viewing workstation which shows the location of the intrusion and displays video from the nearest CCTV camera that has been automatically panned to view the incident.
IP Video CCTV systems also incorporate powerful alarm handling features built into the software. These features allow operator workstations to operate in what is known as a ‘black’ or ‘dark’ screen monitoring mode, where video is only displayed on alarm. This method of operation is recognised as providing a more efficient operator environment that leads to quicker incident response and allows operators to focus on directly monitoring the gaming environment.
