The decision has enabled the venue to become what’s believed to be the first of its kind to benefit from a complete HD surveillance solution for the gaming floor.
Established in 1906, the casino is not located on the famed Las Vegas ‘strip’, but rather where Las Vegas originally began on Fremont Street (well known for the ‘Fremont Street Experience’, which is right outside the 100-plus year-old casino’s door).
“The clarity and detail that the HD cameras will deliver will transform our surveillance operation,” explained Greg Stevens, the Golden Gate’s co-owner.
“However, one of the main reasons we chose IndigoVision’s solution is its ability to deliver 30 fps, 720p high-quality HD video with a guarantee of no lost frames under any circumstances, including low-light conditions which, of course, are ttypical on casino floors.”
Stevens added: “The use of HD cameras in covert locations for crisp face shots will also enhance the use of facial recognition software and make it much more viable to thwart known cheats.”
99-camera system takeover
The 99-camera system will completely replace the existing analogue/DVR equipment and be installed in full compliance with the local Gaming Board by IndigoVision’s Authorised Partner and gaming specialist, Southwest Surveillance.
As the Gaming Board mandates no-loss recording at 30 fps, IndigoVision’s video guarantee means that the casino will not need to rely on secondary analogue or standard definition cameras in parallel with the HD cameras for compliance.
The use of full frame rate HD surveillance cameras in a gaming environment is compelling. Operators will be able to clearly recognise individual faces and distinguish between card suits and chip values. This will make it easier to identify potential cheats and to resolve disputes quickly: a benefit for both the customer and the casino.
“Another advantage of the new system will be the ability to view live or recorded video remotely, not just on a workstation in another part of the casino, but anywhere in the world,” explained Stevens.
“This is a major benefit for me to be able to personally keep an eye on my casino operations 24/7. The overall equipment footprint will also be much less. Typically, a single HD camera will replace two analogue cameras and there’ll be fewer racks required for the video recorders.”
Recording on standalone NVR-AS 3000 NVRs
Recording will be achieved using IndigoVision’s latest standalone NVR-AS 3000 NVRs. Each NVR will be configured with RAID 5 disks and redundant power supplies, creating a resilient and fault-tolerant video storage solution.
The NVRs will record all 99 camera streams directly from the network at full framerate, and provide a minimum seven-day archive for the gaming floor.
The casino will use real-time motion analytics to reduce the bandwidth and storage requirement from back-office cameras, and to provide continuous remote monitoring of alleys, rooftops and other remote areas.
Any motion detected will automatically alert the operators and display the video from the appropriate camera.
Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF) streams lower framerate video when the camera scene is inactive. When any motion is detected, the video is then automatically transmitted at the maximum configured framerate.
In practice, this can considerably reduce the amount of video that’s transmitted across the network and stored on the NVRs.
