French casino installs IP video surveillance

08 Jul 09

The Casino Théâtre Barrière de Toulouse is a 14,000sq m venue, which includes a 1,200 seat theatre, three restaurants, three bars, 14 gaming tables and 250 slot machines.

“We are pleased to have chosen IndigoVision for the first IP-based surveillance solution in a French casino in 2007,” said Steve Dupoizat, the Casino’s director of security. “The operation of the system has been very impressive.”

Dupoizat decided early on that “a distributed IP video solution was fundamental to provide the casino complex with a reliable, fault-tolerant and scalable surveillance solution”.

SPIE Sud-Ouest installed the 350 camera system, which is controlled using Control Center, IndigoVision’s security management software. The software allows operators to view live and recorded video, manage alarms and to quickly search and analyse recorded video for an incident.

Dupoizat said: “Having quick access to recorded video allows operators to deal efficiently with incidents and disputes.

“Responsiveness is fundamental to the casino as we need to respond rapidly to ensure smooth operation of the games.”

IndigoVision says its “advanced compression technology ensures video can be streamed across the network with a guarantee of no dropped frames, whatever the level of motion and activity in the camera scene”.

This was a fundamental requirement for Groupe Lucien Barrière when choosing the IP video technology. Any dropped frames within a video clip could hide fraudulent or criminal activity and make any customer disputes more difficult to resolve.

Redundancy and reliability were also vital. Should a camera or recorder fail, the associated gaming tables or slot machines may see their operation compromised.

An IndigoVision statement said: “The reliability of IndigoVision’s IP video technology has been field-proven in 27 casinos around the world and it incorporates one of the most advanced fault-tolerant recording solutions available.

“Video from all of the cameras is recorded directly from the network onto 28 primary standalone Network Video Recorders. The same video is simultaneously recorded onto 14 secondary Windows-based NVR servers as a mirror backup.

“Three additional standalone NVR units are configured for automatic fail-over, taking over recording from a primary NVR if needed. Video is recorded at full framerate continuously for 28 days on 80 key cameras and for seven days on the rest.”

The casino has deployed seven workstations in the main control room, one in the security room and one on the desk of the Director General. There is no additional cost for this as Control Center software is licensed on an unrestricted basis within the cost of IndigoVision hardware.

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