There is a boom in construction of new casinos worldwide, but especially in the Pacific Rim (Macau) and in Europe. Gaming facilities usually have both a director of security and a director of surveillance. Both executives are looking at upgrading their systems to take advantage of new and emerging technologies.

An upgrade success story involves The Gala Hotel and Casino complex in Douglas on the Isle of Man. It has installed an integrated IP video solution to provide surveillance for its gaming operation.

The system, installed by Zoom CCTV Limited, uses IndigoVision’s Control Center enterprise video and alarm management software for control, administration and viewing of the live camera feeds and recorded video over the IP network. Video recording is with three 1TB stand-alone networked video recorders (NVRs). The Casino’s security executives required a flexible system that could be easily and cost-effectively expanded to meet future needs.

Twenty-six cameras from the casino’s original installation were re-used by connecting them to transmitter/receiver racks. The racks convert the analog camera feeds into 25 fps, MPEG-4 high-quality digital video for transmission over the network. Three channels of audio from different areas of the casino are also transmitted over the network and recorded on the NVRs alongside the video.