Gaming

Table Mountain Rancheria Takes Video Security System to New Horizons
By Bill Savage, Pelco Technical Support Manager, bsavage@pelco.com

With recent major expansions, including the addition of 1,000 coin slot machines (2,000 total) and the construction of a seven-story parking facility, Table Mountain Tribal Council Members needed to greatly expand and enhance their video security and surveillance system. The resulting system includes the implementation of a networked Pelco System 9760 video matrix switcher and controller (with over 1,700 inputs), and a large Pelco DX9000 Series digital video recorder (with over 1,000 channels).With these technology additions and superb design and planning, Table Mountain Rancheria has truly elevated their security system into a league of its own.

Designing this massive surveillance system for the casino was a big project for newly appointed Table Mountain Director of Surveillance, Rick Richardson. With 10 years of experience in surveillance design, and prior professional experiences working for the Howard Hughes Corporation in Las Vegas, and as Director of Surveillance at the Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, Richardson was excited about this opportunity. "Our goal is to make Table Mountain Casino’s security system the model for future casino installations in the area of digital recording," stated Richardson.

Assisting Richardson with the Table Mountain upgrade was Richard Johnson, a Native American from the Oneida Nation in Canada, and a former police officer with a background in criminal investigations, criminal intelligence, and illegal gaming.

Assembling The Team

On February 26, 2001, Table Mountain approved the scope of work based on the surveillance design submitted by Richardson and Johnson. With less than three months to go until the California State Indian Gaming Compact deadline of May 15, the new surveillance team went right to work.

Southwest Systems of Las Vegas was selected as the surveillance vendor and installer for a majority of the equipment in the monitoring room and the switch room. Scott Bartlet, CEO and President of Southwest Systems, put together a top - notch crew consisting of Rick Schoenfeld, Project Manager, and Paul Miller, On-Site Supervisor, and other crew members from Southwest Systems.

The dedicated team worked tirelessly coordinating, planning, ordering, and scheduling shipment dates of all the components of the new Pelco system including: System 9760 matrix, cameras, back boxes, monitor console, and DX9000 DVR units.

Assisting Southwest Systems was Bill Savage, Technical Support Manager from Pelco. Savage and his team of skilled Engineering and Digital Network specialists (consisting of Dave Wilson, Scott Castillo, John Mitchell and Vince Cruz), were called upon to complete this huge task in a very short period of time. The Pelco team was challenged to pre-configure the System 9760 matrix and the 1,000 channels of digital video within the required deadline.

Table Mountain Casino’s own in-house technician team helped with the upgrade installation as well. The Surveillance Department, led by Joe Pendley, Technical Supervisor, volunteered by assisting in the installation of the 500 additional Pelco cameras and relocating the existing 500 VCRs, as well as relocating the monitoring room as a temporary measure until the new monitoring room was complete.

"One important factor was that video recording had to continue without any loss," stated Scott Bonilla, Surveillance Operation Manager for Table Mountain Casino. "While all the construction was taking place daily, we had to continue with the day-to-day activities in order to keep the business running."

Assembling The Equipment

Specifications in the project included moving the existing System 9760 matrix to the new switch room and networking it with a new System 9760. The second matrix to be used as a security node providing override capabilities as required by the NIGC. However, this task could not be accomplished until the new system was up and running.

A major concern from the onset was with the existing surveillance location. Space in the current surveillance area was too small to upgrade the existing matrix and to add an additional 500 VCRs. In order to expand its surveillance operation, remodeling and construction to enlarge the monitor room was required.

The plan called for an additional 1,100 square-foot switch room to be located on the mezzanine level of the new parking facility – 650 feet away from the monitoring room. The existing monitoring room was temporarily relocated so the new monitoring room could be increased in size, making room for vertical monitor racks containing 108 monitors, including 48 monitors for video sequencing, as well as a 45-foot Surveillance Agent console and Supervisor console. Assisting in the expansion was Table Mountain Casino’s in-house architect, Ron Pryce. His primary goal was to get the expansion accomplished in a timely manner.

To eliminate the need for additional space to house another 1,000 VCRs and storage area for the VHS tapes, Table Mountain Tribal Council made the decision to go with the DX9000 DVRs and other Pelco surveillance equipment.

"The decision to go to digital recording will save the labor of changing VHS tapes every 8 hours, tape replacement, tape storage, and VCR purchases and repair. But most of all, digital recording will save surveillance agents many man hours of incident retrieval, therefore, leaving the agents free to observe the gaming operation. And as a result of using digital recording systems, they will protect the assets of Table Mountain Casino," said Richardson.

Perfection in the Details

A great deal of importance was given to the project’s cable management. This system design called for the color coordination of all wire and fiber optic cables, as well as Kroy labeling of all BNC connectors from the cameras to the patch panels and throughout the system. An array o f colors consisting of green (digital), red (sequences), blue (monitor), black (patch panel) and white (casino floor), wires are neatly tied together with Velcro (for fire retardant), and have been bundled and run logically throughout the system.

"Southwest Systems made it easy to troubleshoot by color coordinating and labeling the wires. We take pride in the neatness of the system," expressed Richardson.

Another part of the overall design was the proper amount of air conditioning to keep the switch room operating within a temperature range of 63 to 65 degrees. Located in the switch room are three air conditioning units, one serving as a backup.

Other components implemented within the surveillance system design were antistatic rubber tile, sequencing monitors for video verification, fiber optics for Pelco’s keyboards, special lighting for the monitor room, installation of NVT UTP modules to handle 600 twisted pair as a temporary measure to connect the old part of the casino surveillance system, and of course, making sure that the monitor room is ADA Compliant.

This enormous undertaking with in such a short time frame proved to be exceptionally challenging. But the professional team members from Southwest Systems, Westec Systems, Pelco, and Table Mountain Rancheria, headed by Rick Richardson, accepted this challenge of installing one of the largest digital recording systems of its kind, and exceeded expectations.

On May 10, 2001, the new section of Table Mountain Casino opened for business with the Pelco 9760 matrix systems and DX9000 DVRs up and running – just five days before the deadline mandated by the California State Indian Gaming Compact and National Indian Gaming Commission regulations.

"Protecting casino and tribal assets is our main goal. We are trained to spot cheaters in slot machines and card games as well as employee theft. With 1,768 camera inputs system, we can expand as we grow," stated Richardson. "When the steel-pan decking, concrete floors, and walls are complete, we will be on our way with installing one of the largest, if not the largest, Digital Recording Systems in the world."