Integrated IP-security system installed at the Mohican North Star Casino in Wisconsin

01 February 2010

As part of a major security upgrade, IndigoVision’s partner Reliable Security Services has designed and installed for the Mohican North Star Casino in Wisconsin, USA, a casino-wide solution that integrates CCTV, access control, intrusion detection and panic alarms over an IP network. The casino is also planning to integrate its point-of-sale equipment into the security system.

At the heart of the system is IndigoVision’s ‘Control Center’ IP Video and Alarm Management software, where alarms are consolidated to provide the operators with a universal interface for all CCTV and security systems. Four ‘Control Center’ workstations, each with three monitors, are located in the central surveillance room.

From these the operators can view live and recorded video from any camera and manage alarms generated from any of the systems. The advanced video review features in ‘Control Center’ ensure that the right video clip can easily be found following an incident and that dispute resolution is fast and accurate, to the benefit of the casino and its customers.

The installation of a distributed network-based surveillance and security system provided the casino with two major benefits. Firstly it replaced an ageing VCR analogue-based CCTV system that was expensive and slow to operate and secondly it gave the casino a platform for easy expansion in the future.

The tight and seamless integration between ‘Control Center’ and the other security systems allow powerful cause-and-effects to be programmed. For example, an intrusion alarm can automatically display the nearest camera, pan a camera to a pre-programmed position, display the location of the alarm on a map of the casino and bookmark the video. This allows the security team to quickly manage events and improves overall operator efficiency and incident response.

50 card readers, numerous door contacts, panic alarms and intrusion detection alarms are all connected through the MAXxess access control system. Using an IndigoVision integration module, alarms are then passed to ‘Control Center’ from the MAXxess system. The panic alarms and door contacts are connected to the access control system via an Inovonics encrypted wireless network.

“The quality of IndigoVision’s product and technology was demonstrated in an unusual way during the project,” said Bill Miller, President of Reliable Security Services. “Due to an aggressive construction schedule, we only had 48 hours to fully test and commission the 450 camera system before handover. Amazingly, we succeeded!”

A combination of 450 fixed and PTZ cameras are connected to IndigoVision transmitters, which convert 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 local 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 flexibility of IndigoVision’s IP Video solution enabled the casino to remain fully operational during the upgrade,” added Miller. “The casino cannot afford surveillance downtime at any time, including the loss of video recording.”

A fully redundant recording solution has been deployed using IndigoVision’s Windows-based Network Video Recorder (NVR) software. Video is recorded directly from the network onto 9 primary NVR servers with a total of 260TB of DAS storage, giving the casino 7 days of continuous recording at full frame rate from all cameras. An additional NVR server with 10TB of storage is used as a failover. If a primary NVR server fails or is removed for maintenance, the failover NVR automatically starts recording the appropriate camera streams.