Borgata's Northeast Expansion

Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Carol Carey

Almost three years to the day after its opening on July 3, 2003, Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa unveiled a $200 million “Northeast Expansion” in July 2006, adding more space to its casino floor and poker room, additional slot machines and table games, a parking garage, and gourmet and casual restaurants.

That was just the beginning. A new, $325 million, 800-room hotel, called the Water Club Tower, is currently under construction with a target date of opening by New Year's 2008. It will complement the Borgata's existing 2,000-room hotel.

A virtual army of state-of-the art cameras surveys the entire operation — gaming and non-gaming, indoors and out, with a myriad of electronic eyes — color, black and white, fixed, pan/tilt/zoom, day-night and enhanced zoom. Approximately 1,000 new cameras were brought in during the Northeast Expansion, and 85 more will be installed in the Water Club Tower. In addition, the Borgata is in the process of upgrading from an analog to a digital system in the non-gaming areas, where VCRs will be replaced by a Honeywell Fusion III DVR system.

Throughout this ongoing expansion, approximately 10,000 people per day enjoy gaming, dining, shopping and relaxing at the Borgata with little disruption of their activities. In the wings, ensuring that these visitors get the most out of their stay, is a team of in-house safety, security and technical specialists. Heading the surveillance team is Gregg Schaaf, director of surveillance, and Tony Piccolo, the surveillance department's technical manager. Schaaf and Piccolo work closely with Security Department Director Michael Schultz and Fire Command Manager Diane Petrone. Assisting the managers is a dedicated staff responsible for physical security, camera monitoring, technical integrity, life safety and investigations.

“We work hand-in-hand constantly,” Schaaf says of the security and surveillance teams. The departments also operate two separate but compatible Pelco surveillance systems capable of communicating. The Pelco CM9760 and CM9780 matrix switching systems were configured by North American Video, Brick, N.J., and Boyd Gaming Corp., which jointly owns the Borgata with MGM Mirage.

Although New Jersey's Casino Control Commission and Division of Safety mandates a certain level of surveillance on the gaming floor, Schaaf says that the Borgata has gone beyond the requirements in both the gaming and non-gaming areas (which are not regulated related to surveillance), with a total of approximately 2,700 cameras.

“The cameras allow us to protect our customers, our employees and our assets,” Schaaf says. “They enable us to maintain the integrity of our operation and are an aid in helping to resolve any disputes or customer complaints that might arise.”

But even a well-staffed, well-run surveillance program can be challenged by the pace of growth in Atlantic City's gaming industry. According to a Time magazine article, “Vegas East!” published in July 2006, Atlantic City is moving away from its day-trip image to more of a Las Vegas-style destination site. High-end restaurants, nightclubs, entertainment and shopping are fueling this growth, and the Borgata is one of its leaders.

New facilities mean more customers and more cameras. They also mean more room for the space-hungry steel cabinets that house the equipment “nodes,” which operate integrated camera and alarm systems. Typically, these “nodes” are housed in six-foot high, 32-in.-wide steel cabinets, or racks. Each equipment grouping includes matrix bays for PC boards and CPUs, two computers (one for back-up) with a hot switch for activation of one when the other is down, an SEU (data controller for video), and a data translator for the alarm system.

Condensed bays save space

When Borgata added the Northeast Expansion, 1,000 Pelco cameras were also added to the existing 1,700 cameras. Of these, approximately 650 are pan/tilt/zoom. In the casino, Spectra III dome cameras are used, while the new Spectra IV, with enhanced zoom capabilities, has been successfully piloted and will be used for the Water Club Tower, as well as for replacements of older cameras, as needed.

Twenty Spectra IV cameras will be placed in the Tower area. Indoor cameras will cover such areas as the Tower's podium, public areas, meeting rooms and registration desk. Outdoor cameras will oversee parking garages as well as the valet, pool and entertainment areas.

Schaaf and Piccolo were particularly impressed with this camera's performance during the recent pilot. “We're very excited about it,” Schaaf says of the Spectra IV model. “With a few modifications, it's an excellent product, and we will be purchasing it from this point forward.” Piccolo noted that the enhanced zoom capabilities of the camera allow surveillance to zoom in on license plates in the parking areas.

To accommodate the control equipment for the additional cameras, the Borgata has found two solutions. For the Northeast Expansion, it added two of the large steel racks, or “nodes” holding the computer, video and alarm control equipment. But instead of the usual matrix bays with a 16-camera PC board (or video card), it purchased Pelco's condensed bays.

“With these condensed bays,” Piccolo says, “one bay can hold 16 video cards with 32 camera inputs each, as opposed to 16 camera inputs for each card in the traditional bay. This makes a total of 512 camera inputs per bay, instead of 256 for the traditional bays.” So far, one bay with the 512 camera inputs has been placed on one of the steel racks, and a second condensed bay, just partially filled, has been placed in the second rack and still has capacity for 436 camera inputs. Ultimately, the system can be expanded to hold 5,000 camera inputs in the total of four bays.

New hotel tower drives video upgrade

Installing the condensed bays in the Surveillance Department's switch room enabled the Borgata to accommodate the additional cameras needed for the Northeast Expansion without expanding the switch room itself, a significant savings in cost and manpower.

With the building of the Tower, however, more video system equipment space had to be found. This need prompted the Borgata to begin a transition from analog to digital recorders in its non-gaming areas. This transition involves replacing the 150 VCRs in the non-gaming area with 69 digital video recorders.

After careful consideration, the Honeywell Fusion III DVR system was chosen.

“We tested the system for six months,” Schaaf says. “Since non-gaming surveillance is managed by security's Fire Command Center, this department tested and helped with the decision to purchase the Honeywell system. This was another example of collaboration between the surveillance and security departments.”

“We chose to use the digital solution for recording only,” Schaaf says. “We will maintain the Pelco switching system. The DVRs are compatible with the Pelco system. We will eliminate the time/date generators used for the VCRs and run wire from the matrix bays to the DVRs and then to computer workstations. Instead of pulling tape through the VCR management system we can review tapes at the monitor.”

Future plans do call for the Borgata to transition completely from analog to digital recording.

Video and alarm systems integrated

Integration of systems is central to the Borgata's success in providing security in the complex Atlantic City environment, with its diverse gaming, hotel, dining, shopping and entertainment venues. In addition to the compatibility between the Pelco switching systems and the new Honeywell DVR system, Schaaf and Piccolo note that the two Pelco switching systems themselves communicate with each other.

“We satellite the two (matrix) systems so they can communicate with each other. The surveillance staff can operate all 2,700 cameras on the property, which has been a huge advantage to us,” Schaaf says. “The systems are connected through Cat-5 cable, and we have a node that's in the surveillance switching room that talks to all the other nodes at any time.” Presently, there are 24 bays with the Pelco 9760 and four bays with the Pelco 9780 system.

An Infographics Sapphire Pro alarm system (now part of GE) is also integrated with the video system, so that the closest camera will automatically be activated when an alarm goes off. “We connected the alarm system with the Pelco switching system and programmed the cameras to automatically respond to the area,” Piccolo explains. “We take the outputs from the Infographics alarm system at one of the computer ports and plug them into Pelco's Data Translator CDT 4, which is then plugged into one of the computer ports of the matrix system. We then program the camera numbers we want associated with specific alarms.”

With the expansions, additional alarm points have been added for door entries and trouble alarms.

Schaaf emphasizes that the Borgata's surveillance and security systems are only as good as the personnel who manage and operate them. Employees in these departments are all in-house, and functions are clearly defined. The Security Department provides physical security, crowd control, investigations and manages Fire Command Center.

The Surveillance Department is responsible for casino surveillance and the technical staff, which maintains all surveillance systems. Having in-house people perform these functions is, in Schaaf's opinion, “the only way to maintain high standards and security in Atlantic City.”

“Gaming is booming in the U.S.,” he says, “and with the heavier volume and new technology come new challenges. Slot machines, for instance, are now coinless, but until the public gets used to this, there is opportunity for thieves to steal tickets left inadvertently in the machines.”

Still, Schaaf notes, with Atlantic City's — and the Borgata's — focus on adding non-gaming activities and facilities, a broader clientele interested in more than gambling is arriving, making the entire area safer.

Future plans do call for the Borgata to transition completely to digital recording and, Schaaf says, “we're very excited about going digital in the future. But we will be very critical and careful about the systems we evaluate. Our operating philosophy is to have the best tools and the best people we can find.”

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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