Why Surveillance Deserves its Spotlight at G2E
Source: Synectics
Date: 2015/09/22
Security remains a core education stream at G2E 2015, but Global Gaming Expo’s new Integrated Resort Experience Event this year reflects the growing emphasis on ‘non-gaming’ activities in modern casino-resorts. With more data, risk, and revenue coming from food and beverage, hospitality, and guest entertainment, fully leveraging surveillance technology has never been more important.
Achieving heightened levels of situational awareness across all casino operations - from restaurants and bars, music venues and business services, to cash cage security and slot fraud departments - is necessary to reduce risk and manage data, and now attainable and affordable with the right integrated surveillance solution.
Visitors to booth 3235 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre are invited to witness such technology in action through live demonstrations of Synergy 3, the latest evolution of Synectics’ command and control security management platform.
The flexible, open software architecture allows video, alarms, and other third party sub-system transactional data to be monitored, managed, and acted upon from a single, unified interface. Integrated command and control no longer applies to security alone.
John Katnic, Vice President of Global Gaming at Synectics, explained: “G2E introducing a sub-event focused on non-gaming activities demonstrates just how important these once ancillary cost centers are, and how they are now counted upon to carry their weight by generating profit in modern gaming operations. Improving the customer’s experience increases the likelihood they’ll return and spend more per visit, around the resort and in the casino. These non-gaming services not only drive revenue, they can also become pivotal differentiators in ‘me too’ casino markets.
“But these additional services come with more data, risk, overhead and management challenges. Having the ability to efficiently manage and assimilate interrelated behavioral data, along with security and emergency systems, is no longer optional; it’s essential. Meeting this fast changing need for timely, integrated, and correlated data is the driving force behind Synergy 3.”
Easy to deploy and learn, and with unlimited scalability, Synergy 3 features a fully customizable operator interface with incident collaboration tools, enhanced workflows, and an interactive mapping engine with Geospatial Information System (GIS) technology. Reporting capabilities have been evolved to deliver ‘deep dive’ access to historical data for improved management, training and auditing.
The solution enables operators to detect, investigate and respond to long customer queues, too few/many people in the cash cage, point of sale or timeclock anomalies, suspicious gaming trends or employee activities, access breaches, and more.
John continued: “Using surveillance as a property-wide situational awareness tool utilizes surveillance technology for customer service, not just security and liability management. For example, using readily available video analytics to monitor wait times in restaurant lines could help managers adjust staff to keep customers happy. Or, faster access to cash cage transactions with video confirmation, might enable operators to more quickly resolve customer disputes.”
Synectics’ advanced security, surveillance and process management technology monitors and records more than 80,000 channels in over 100 gaming establishments worldwide, including the U.S, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Manila, Korea, Saipan and Macau, where Synectics has just opened a dedicated support office.
Synectics has recently been awarded the contract to supply Synergy 3 for the Norwegian Gem, a world class gaming and entertainment vessel in the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) fleet. This is just the latest of 10+ NCL and Star Cruise ships to install Synergy’s comprehensive security and situational management solution to protect onboard casinos, restaurants and extensive leisure facilities; each with its own extensive security, commercial and passenger safety requirements.
In addition to Synergy 3, Synectics will be demonstrating its range of high quality, low cost HD IP cameras, network based encoders and alarm management devices at G2E this year.
They will also show how the Synergy 3 platform can seamlessly and cost effectively work with existing encoders, cameras, matrices and storage systems from competing suppliers like Honeywell, Pelco and Bosch. This important benefit means that Synectics is able to offer clients an accessible and practical way to utilize existing third party hardware and combine it with Synergy 3’s alarm integration, GUI customization, situational management, display wall control and more.
John said: “As the sector continues to migrate towards IP-based solutions, system resiliency and scalability becomes more and more important. With our customers’ growing needs in mind, we’ve developed leading edge data replication, server virtualization and intelligent hardware failover solutions that satisfy the most rigorous of requirements. Even in the event of network outage, our edge-based recording backfilling technology ensures operators always have the video and data they need, when they need it.
“The global gaming sector faces more challenges than ever before; attracting customers, incorporating disparate technologies, managing interdepartmental data, expanding guest services, and maintaining revenue in an increasingly crowded market. These are challenges that Synectics’ technology can help overcome, which is why we’re delighted that G2E is turning the spotlight on this important topic.”