RIU Pravets Golf Spa and Casino Resort is a luxury complex in a unique location near Sofia in Bulgaria. The facility offers several restaurants of different sizes and has conference halls and many other facilities for corporate events and conferences. The guests therefore have high expectations of service and, with those, a high level of security. This is especially true for the Casino and the reason why the investor decided to step ahead of the current regulations and invest in a future-proof, high-resolution, IP-based video surveillance system.

The Casino is the final piece of the RIU Pravets Golf & Spa development. Corporate customers and guests looking for luxury and leisure will be impressed by the facility and the services provided by the hotel. A key-factor for any visitor's comfort is security and, when it comes to the thrill of the roulette table or a blackjack game, security turns into a must.

Certain specific requirements defined the basis for the sophisticated IP solution: the cameras had to be used for general surveillance but at the same time able to focus on the tables when required. Identification of even the smallest object was essential. Several tests with various types of equipment took place to find the best performing vendor in this specific environment.

The real-time live view and huge volumes of recordings placed high demands on the network, and especially on the servers. Not a frame could be lost; no object should be unrecognizable. Real-time video and image recording must contain as much detail as possible. These were the mandatory requirements from the security officers and, when talking about the casino business, easily understandable. Minimum levels of redundancy and flexibility were also defined.

Next-generation Casino Solution
A local integrator, Telelink, was involved in the project from the design phase. Based on the customer's requirements, the proposed solution included five different Axis cameras - from VGA up to 3 megapixels. Depending on the specific application, different cameras oversee the different operational areas. Megapixel cameras provide the highest level of details for the games in progress while lower resolution cameras provide an overview of the non-critical areas of the casino. Milestone Xprotect Corporate video management software runs on IBM servers to provide the central monitoring room with live views and reliable recording capabilities.

Test results and previous experience led the engineering team to the solution using Axis IP video surveillance and a Milestone video management system. Axis provided various options for the cameras, depending on the floor height, mounting options, lighting scenarios and resolution requirements. Taking all those specifications into account, the design of the system included 5 different camera types: the Axis P3301, 215 PTZ, P3344 (1 megapixel), P1346 (3 megapixel) and P5534 PTZ (1 megapixel). Having many megapixel cameras makes the network traffic grow significantly, so to optimize the traffic and at the same time maintain image quality, H.264 compression was widely implemented in the system. This approach also reduced the volume of the archive.

Essential Archive
Different types of storage technologies were introduced to meet the requirements of recording speed and volume. Having 25fps for 3 megapixel and 1 megapixel cameras proved to be a major challenge for the Telelink team. Fast and well-organized SAS disks handle the video streams as the initial recording destination, and the oldest video is transferred to a long-lasting SATA storage archive. The unified playback in Milestone allows the use of different archive locations, depending on the speed and storage requirements. "The megapixel solution from Axis ensured outstanding level of detail of live and recorded video streams for this very sensitive and specific casino application" said Lachezar Todorov, CEO of Teratour Services who operate the complex.

The final result is a sophisticated, real-time, high-resolution, IP video surveillance solution with extremely detailed recording and advanced management. Nothing can stay hidden now! Each move and action can be played back from several different angles and views, if necessary. As a result of the implementation, the customer is now operating a surveillance system with megapixel quality records and real-time live view. Time will prove the concept in this particular market segment.