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| The IP7361 is a network bullet camera tailor-made for outdoor environments with an auto-iris lens and IR cut filter |
A challenging environment
It goes without saying that an effective surveillance infrastructure is essential for gambling establishments, where the risk of disputes and even criminal activity is high. MB-PC Account Manager Marco Brueck adds: "The casino needed cameras that could give them video and images clear and detailed enough to easily identify individuals they might be interested in."
At the VIP Casino in Oehringen, MB-PC's solution combined VIVOTEK's 5 IP7361s and 34 FD7160s. At this site, the casino wished to implement a surveillance system inside the casino as well as in the parking area and entrance area to the adjoining shopping area that many customers visited before or after time spent in the casino. For the outdoor areas-parking and shopping centre entrance, MB-PC recommended the IP7361, a high-end network bullet camera tailor-made for outdoor environments with an auto-iris lens and IR cut filter to ensure superior video quality whatever the lighting conditions night and day. Inside the casino, MB-PC urged the casino to use VIVOTEK's FD7160. Like the IP7361, the FD7160 produces high-resolution 2-megapixel video, essential for a usage scenario like the casinos.
Seamless interoperability
Recordings of the surveillance video were archived using the go1984 Enterprise package from German software vendor Logiware. Brueck explains: "go1984 is popular worldwide, but especially here in Germany. VIVOTEK hardware works especially well with go1984, which was another reason we advised the casino to use the IP7361 and FD7160." Yet another point in the VIVOTEK cameras' favour was their PoE support, according to Brueck: "We just plugged the cameras into PoE switches, providing electrical power and the LAN connection the casino's security team needed to manage everything. That made for a really clean, clutter-free setup."
At a second facility in Bad Friedrichshall, MB-PC helped the casino set up another VIVOTEK camera-based surveillance system, this time consisting of 4 IP7361 cameras outside and 49 FD7130 cameras inside. The system was largely similar to the one in Oehringen, with one major twist: one of the IP7361 cameras had to be installed on a completely separate building, a dilemma that MB-PC resolved by using a wireless LAN bridge. The camera has performed flawlessly, enabling the casino to seamlessly manage it along with the other VIVOTEK cameras on their network, demonstrating its suitability as part of a wireless LAN-based surveillance installation.
The VIVOTEK-based surveillance has been so effective, and cost-effective, that VIP Casino is set to implement similar systems at an additional three to five casinos later this year.
