Unified Surveillance at Red Hawk Casino
Summary
Red Hawk Casino is an Indian-gaming casino in California, United States. The casino recently upgraded to Genetec Security Center for video surveillance and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), increasing their team’s efficiency at keeping the casino safe and compliant.
Red Hawk Casino is a gambler’s oasis near Sacramento, California, United States. Founded by the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the casino now welcomes 10,000 visitors daily in the 278,000 sq.ft. facility. Both the surveillance and security teams work together to ensure guests are safe and operations comply with gaming laws. It’s an around-the-clock job that involves using video technology.
The company
When their older proprietary video system began failing, the Red Hawk Casino wasted little time. They were tired of being locked into a proprietary system that kept crashing, without options or fixes for a smoother experience. The team began looking for an open architecture security solution that was scalable, had robust mapping capabilities, and could handle the evolving needs of a bustling casino.
The challenge
“It was easy to choose Genetec Security Center. There is a depth of quality and experience that is built into the Genetec platform that I hadn’t seen with other vendors.”
Sean McHenry, Director of Surveillance, Red Hawk Casino
Results
Today, the Red Hawk Casino team uses the Security Center Omnicast video system to manage over 2,000 surveillance cameras installed inside and outside their facility. They have also implemented the Security Center AutoVu ALPR system to track vehicles and persons of interest and know when VIP guests near the casino. Over 50 doors in the casino have also been equipped with alarm inputs so operators can oversee access to specific areas.
From a central control room, the surveillance team monitors the unified platform 24/7. “One of the first things that impressed me with the Genetec system was that PTZ cameras respond right away, exactly when we need them to move and stop. There are many video systems out there where that doesn’t happen. And with built-in maps and other intuitive features, our team now works faster during response and investigations.” said McHenry.
The solution
Unified and efficient monitoring
“What’s nice about Security Center is that every security device and system is unified into one solution. What once took us hours or days, now takes a quarter of the time,” said McHenry.
Early detection of banned individuals
The AutoVu system alerts the team to license plates of banned individuals or those that have opted into their self-exclusion list as they near the property, allowing the team to intervene.
Simplified Title 31 audits
Before Security Center, the team took about a week to gather the information for Title 31 compliance. Now, they can quickly collate data and send it to auditors within an hour or two.
An open and flexible platform
The open platform allows the casino to keep existing cameras and lower costs. Since then, they have slowly added new devices such as installing a dozen 360-degree cameras in key areas.