Eyes On The Prize: A well intgrated security system is essential to keeping your clients and their customers safe.
Jan 1, 1998 12:00 PM, Howard Friedman
Securing a casino requires a degree of organization, commitment and creativity, which is not always found in traditional security installations. If you were security director of a large Las Vegas or Atlantic City casino, a list of some of your responsibilities would include the following:
Providing fire safety and evacuation.
Controlling crowds.
Locating and apprehending pick pockets.
Excluding persona non grata.
Eliminating prostitution.
Curbing drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
Promoting safety and preventing accidents.
Maintaining employee identification and staff surveillance.
Controlling access to non-public areas.
If you add to this the need for parking lot and elevator security and consider the fact that most casinos are in operation all day for every day of the year, then it is easy to see that the necessary level of vigilance must continue uninterrupted. Casino security departments are often large organizations staffed with three shifts of highly skilled individuals who must have not only a detailed understanding of the casino's operation, but also a strong familiarity with surveillance, access control, security equipment and emergency measures as well as human nature, diplomacy and law enforcement. With several hundred patrons and the large amount of cash on hand at any given time, the risk potential is extremely high in the casino environment. Because we hear so little about problems with security, obviously those attending to it deserve significant praise.
Unlike traditional enterprises whose operation functions during structured business hours, a casino's doors may never close. Security systems as we know them - with keypads, door contacts and motion detectors - play only a peripheral role in casino protection. In fact, entrance to a casino's off-limits areas are governed by access control systems in which only those known to the systems are authorized to carry cards, badges or be otherwise identifiable. (See the December 1997 issue of S&VC, "Security Systems of the Future," page 54.)
Closed circuit television Nonetheless, the essence of casino security is the extensive use of closed circuit television (CCTV). Depending upon the facility, dozens of cameras are usually housed in ceiling-mounted, dome-shaped enclosures with each camera able to be panned up to 360 degrees in addition to being tilted up and down. The domes, normally no larger than is necessary to house one or more cameras, fully conceal each camera's movement while affording sufficient light for ideal image acquisition. Where needed, highly unidirectional microphones can be positioned to pick up specific conversations that can be used to supplement selected video images.
Casino video systems are elaborate, and they often use hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of switching equipment whose programmable camera sequences are applied to multiple monitors in the security control center. At the discretion of the operator, a camera's automated sequence can be manually overridden and zoomed in or out. Whereas in the past, CCTV systems required a coaxial wire run between each camera and the switching center, today's technology incorporates multiplexing, where a single coaxial cable can carry multiple camera images to their intended destinations. Modern CCTV systems may employ fiber-optic technology, whose capabilities, in terms of transmission distance and immunity to electrical interference, far exceed that of even the best coaxially cabled installations. Under certain conditions, especially when remote or outdoor cameras are employed, wireless microwave links may be used to transmit video images several hundred feet to their appropriate destinations.
Integrated security Stationed within the security center, a remote area manned by up to dozens of people, lies the control apparatus for the cameras, audio pickup, public address capabilities and the communication facilities needed to speak with any security personnel roaming the casino floor. Systems monitoring smoke detectors, fire exits, access control and motion through restricted areas are also incorporated, along with the holdup/panic buttons located in designated areas on the floor and elsewhere. State-of-the-art-security technology now consolidates all of these diverse components and their subsystems into what is known as an integrated security system so that all factors that jeopardize safety and security - accidents, fire or criminal behavior - can be processed centrally rather than separately.
Systems integration The term systems integration is fairly new to the security industry. Those security dealers who had earlier combined totally separate security systems into a single installation were the forerunners of the modern system integrators. They often used the output relay contacts of one system to trigger the input components of another. For example, when opened, a door, protected by a conventional security system, could cause a relay in the alarm control panel to trip, which, in turn, could trigger a time-lapse video recorder to capture the images produced by a CCTV camera facing the door. In a similar manner, a violation of an access control system could activate the alarm output of a standard security system. To do so often required an understanding of each system's capabilities, the use of external relay modules and unconventional wire runs, possibly done after the fact. This type of arrangement might be acceptable for smaller systems, but for installations involving casino security, only a truly integrated modern system would be effective.
Systems integration has been referred to as the seamless convergence of multiple technologies packaged as a single solution to address the security needs of a specific customer. A modern integrated system means that a facility's video, alarm and access control systems are joined by centralized methods of display and control, manned every day during which the facility is operational. When an incident occurs, each of the subsystems must act in unison in a predefined manner to contain, control and address the event. For example, when a card reader is accessed or a sensor is violated, the system can be made to display the correct cameras automatically and, if desirable, turn on the intercom in the affected area, allowing the console operator to communicate with a person on the other end. Alarms can be silenced and access can be remotely controlled by either opening a gate in the parking lot or closing fire doors to contain a fire. More simply put, systems integration can provide the convenience of running one's card through a card reader and, if properly authorized to do so, automatically disarming the system in specific areas.
Modern integrated systems are highly customized in terms of their hardware and the software governing their operation. The hardware is made up of many input devices (such as card readers, alarm sensors, video cameras and input/output) and the controller circuit boards linked to each other and to the software through the auspices of a personal computer or mini-computer. Because all subsystems are under software control, they can also rely upon database information (IDs of employees, other individuals having access badges, alarm history and facility layout and management) and programmable operating parameters. Most such systems are operated from a console whose display provides a graphical interface customized to reflect the facility's floorplans. (See Figure 1.) Often, all hardware for the system is stored in a common telephone communications room, beneficial from the standpoint of installation and servicing, in which wiring for all alarm points, camera outputs, pan/tilt controllers and access control devices can be conveniently homerun.
To be effective, all controllers must talk to each other through the same communications protocol. Most use RS-232, but there are often other protocols in use by disparate systems, such as RS-422 and RS-485. The latter can be used for wire runs of 4,000 feet (122 m), and if extended by phone lines (via modem) or fiber optics, then there should not be a practical limit to the distance over which data can be carried.
The market for integrated systems is often ruled by the cost of doing business and the need to get more for less by reducing operating costs, which often means limiting the number of security personnel required. Many security dealers feel that the rising interest in system integration is being driven by downsizing and by the need for businesses to show a larger profit in periods where sales remain essentially flat.
Time-lapse video recording Most casinos will record selected video images for closer inspection and for use as evidence after an apprehension. Because standard video recorders process images in real time, they are not practical for surveillance simply because too much tape would be required, not to mention the need for periodic tape changes. As such, real-time recording using T-120 tapes at the standard VCR speed (SP) would complete a tape every two hours. Thus, a casino's 24-hour operation would necessitate, for each VCR, 12 tapes each day, leading to 84 tapes a week and about 360 tapes each month - a real cost and storage difficulty. More significant would be the challenge of locating and reviewing specific incidents that have been recorded. Even through the use of extended play (EP or SLP), which would reduce these figures by a factor of three, a considerable amount of tape would still be in use.
Enter the time-lapse concept, an ideal solution to the tape consumption problem. The time-lapse VCR is a special machine that, in effect, can be programmed to take periodic frames or snapshots of a scene at selectable rates with the result that far less tape is needed. If set to record one frame every eight seconds, a very economical mode, a time-lapse recorder can store 960 hours of video on a single T-120 tape. Depending upon the chosen rate, replaying the tape may produce a rapid sequence of pictures rather than fluid motion video. To decrease the amount of time needed to review any tape, the playback speed can be similarly adjusted. The rate at which a time-lapse recorder is set to operate should depend upon the number of cameras whose images are sequenced through it, the size of the area covered, and the level of risk involved by not recording continuous images.
Maintaining casino security is an ongoing process, which must consider not only the safety, orderliness and the legalities of its operation, but must also continually investigate new technologies and address the perpetual desires held by some individuals to defraud others.
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