Page 12 - Security Today, March 2020

8,500 electronic games. The casino also features 100 table games, a 55-table poker room, Racers Off-Track betting parlor, Bingo and high-stakes rooms.
Guests also find a large and diverse mix of retail and restau- rants and event centers throughout the resort. Other premier facilities at WinStar include a 3-tower hotel with nearly 1,400 rooms, the 65,000-square-foot convention center, and a golf academy with two championship 18-hole courses.
“When we started our nationwide standardization project, WinStar itself had three different VMS systems in use, and it was difficult to coordinate actions or follow events around the prop- erty, and we needed to make a change,” Mayfield said. “As with the rest of our properties, we felt we needed to standardize the VMS and camera solutions for the entire casino and resort.”
In expanding and standardizing the WinStar video system — as with all other properties — flexibility is a crucial factor, and the open platform VMS allows the IT team to select an appropriate server and storage system for the facility.
“Our IT department is like our internal integrator, and they have vetted the servers they like to use,” Mayfield said. “We de- termine the camera layout and models we need, and we decide on the required retention times, and our IT team takes that infor- mation and designs a storage solution. The open platform VMS allows them to select from a wide range of providers for a perfect fit, regardless of the brand.”
Mayfield explained that currently, he considers their system as being semi-centralized, with the capability to view about 90 of most of their sites remotely via the Milestone web client. The team does have several casinos that are linked together and can
monitor one another, and some of the dedicated casino staff monitor multiple casino properties.
License Plate Recognition
Recently Mayfield and his team have been working to deploy Milestone License Plate Recognition. They have the system in use at a handful of sites, and it is working well. The team is still defin- ing applications for the LPR system but can see that it will help improve efficiencies.
“Our primary use case so far has been in assisting with Amber Alerts, searching properties for license plate matches,” Mayfield said. “The use of cameras and the LPR system saves a lot of valu- able time, and the end result is that perhaps we can help locate a child or save someone from harm. It’s a powerful tool.”
The team also uses the LPR system to search for reported sto- len cars and to help identify abandoned vehicles.
“The integrated LPR is nice for us because it just adds an ex- tra tab to the VMS and it is super easy for our staff to click over, type in a full tag or a partial tag, and take a quick look at every- thing we have in the parking lot,” Burger said. “Anything like that where we can stay in the same system, that’s really what we strive for, to keep it as simple as possible for the frontline users so that they don’t have to navigate multiple systems.”
What’s Next
Burger explained that with the open platform VMS now de- ployed, their options for add-ons and third-party integrations are almost limitless.
“We’re watching the progress of facial recognition technology
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