all coupled with total reliability just to allow gaming to commence. Obtaining a detailed image of chips and cards alongside clear audio, whilst taking into account the dim ambient lighting, flashing displays and dark green, blue or red backgrounds is no easy task.
Overview
The Casino at Portomaso is situated within one of the most exclusive corners of real estate anywhere in the Mediterranean. Creating a gaming experience to equal the inspiring waterfront development of Portomaso was a challenge headed by Casino Director, Laurie Galea. A key requirement in establishing The Casino as the finest gaming experience in Malta was the quality of surveillance system installed. The Casino management eventually entrusted this challenge to casino integrator, Correct Termination.
“Taking on this project was not simply one of suggesting what we thought was the best system for the casino. We also had to meet the demanding expectations of the casino’s management and surveillance teams and ultimately prove the solution in practice before the installation at The Casino could begin” states Joe Mallia, Director of Correct Termination.
Requirements
The Casino wanted the best digitally recorded video and audio surveillance solution available. Through early evaluations Mallia extracted this out to the following essential requirements:
The Challenge
The surveillance system for the casino needed to record exceptional image and audio quality. Expectations of investing in a digital solution were very high and no level of compromise was afforded. Throughout the two years prior to the opening of The Casino at Portomaso, Correct Termination evaluated an extensive list of possible solutions including Visimetrics FASTAR digital video recorder. “After evaluating FASTAR I knew we had at last found the digital recording system that would meet the requirements and expectations of the surveillance system at The Casino” comments Joe Mallia.
The Solution
Working closely with Correct Termination during the evaluation period, Visimetrics designed a FASTAR solution optimised to record the highest quality of content from all video and audio sources within The Casino. Through constantly refining and evaluating a tailored solution was achieved to give the management and surveillance teams the quality of surveillance recordings they required.
The solution utilises FASTAR’s flexibility of storage modes. All gaming cameras are recorded in real-time with full-frame video, DVD quality audio and minimal compression by FASTAR operating in diskless mode. Recordings are streamed to external network attached storage systems providing full data redundancy via RAID5 configurations. Non-gaming cameras are recorded to the internal disks of each FASTAR providing a very efficient overall storage solution to achieve the required recording period.
“With Visimetrics we have achieved an exceptional surveillance system with superb image and audio quality, ease of use and scalability. To meet the requirements of The Casino FASTAR is as close as we could have hoped to get” affirms Mr. Galea.