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| Artist's impression of the new M Resort Hotel, Spa and Casino |
In excess of 900 cameras will be installed or upgraded in both casinos by IndigoVision's approved partner, Southwest Surveillance Systems, in complete compliance with the local Gaming Board. The flexibility of IndigoVision's IP Video solution will specifically enable the Colorado Belle to remain fully operational while the upgrade from the analogue/DVR system to the digital CCTV system takes place.
The new system will allow the existing CCTV cameras at the property to be re-used. Each camera will be connected to an IndigoVision transmitter/receiver module, which converts the analogue feed to DVD-quality, 4SIF, 30fps digital video for transmission over the IP network. This is achieved without any frames being dropped, whatever the level of motion and activity in the camera scene. This is a fundamental requirement of the Gaming Board and casino operator. Any dropped frames within a video clip could hide fraudulent or criminal activity and make any customer disputes more difficult to resolve. The M Resort will use IndigoVision's latest 9000 product, which will be the first ever implementation of H.264 video compression in any casino worldwide.
"We were particularly impressed with the video quality provided by the IndigoVision system and the efficient use of network bandwidth and storage," said M Resort Vice President of Security and Surveillance Bill Houtchens. "Choosing IndigoVision was not just about first-rate technology, it was also a low-risk decision as the company already has a large installed base of working and proven digital CCTV systems in casinos." The combination of ‘Control Center' and the IP network creates a ‘virtual matrix' which, unlike its analogue matrix equivalent, provides a totally flexible and scalable solution
Operators in both casinos will use a total of nine CCTV workstations running ‘Control Center', IndigoVision's enterprise IP Video and alarm management software, to view and analyze live and recorded video from all of the cameras. ‘Control Center' is license-free software allowing the casino to deploy as many workstations as required for no more than the cost of the PCs. Recording will be achieved by using IndigoVision's Windows Network Video Recorder (NVR) software running on PC servers. Eight NVRs will be used in both casinos with a total of 112 Terabytes of RAID redundant storage providing continuous recording at 4SIF, 30fps for 7 days. A hot spare NVR with 7TB of storage will be installed in each casino to provide a fully redundant recording solution.
"The ‘Control Center' software will provide our operators with some great features, including the ability to overlay the camera positions on an interactive map of the casino floorplan," added Houtchens. "Excellent analysis tools will allow fast access to recorded footage, which will help to quickly resolve gaming disputes."
The combination of ‘Control Center' and the IP network creates a ‘virtual matrix' which, unlike its analogue matrix equivalent, provides a totally flexible and scalable solution. Any camera can be viewed on any ‘Control Center' workstation and additional cameras can easily be added to any point on the network when the system is expanded.
This project further demonstrates that IP Video is an established and field-proven solution for the demanding CCTV requirements of casino operations, which need high-quality video images and fast retrieval of recorded footage. IP Video provides significant benefits compared with traditional analogue CCTV systems, such as scalability, real-time camera-based analytics and fault tolerant configurations.
