The Open Platform
The Chickasaw Nation standardizes video technologies to secure one of the world’s largest casinos
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Mar 01, 2020
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized,
independent Native American nation located in
south-central Oklahoma. The nation’s territory
covers more than 7,600 square miles and is home
to a population of nearly 70,000.
The nation is economically strong, culturally vibrant and full
of energetic and talented people dedicated to the preservation of
family, community and heritage. Since the 1980s, tribal government
has focused on building an economically diverse base to
support programs and services for its people. The structure of the
current government encourages and supports infrastructure for
strong business ventures and a thriving tribal economy.
The Chickasaw Nation is a champion of using technology and
dynamic business strategies to meet their goals. This support of
infrastructure is evident in the nation’s proactive deployment of
technology to help assure the safety and security of its citizens
and visitors.
Kenny Mayfield, director of surveillance for the Chickasaw
Nation, has been with them for more than 13 years. Nicholas
Burger is the senior surveillance manager for the nation, working
with Mayfield on designing, deploying and supporting the nation’s
video security and surveillance systems.
Mayfield, Burger and their teams manage video systems for
153 sites, covering everything from hospitals and pharmacies to
schools, child and daycare centers, retail sites, cultural and historical
centers, as well as more than 20 casinos and gaming facilities.
The Chickasaw Nation’s police force works closely with the
surveillance team as well. Currently, the nation has more than
14,000 cameras deployed and that number continues to grow.
A Need to Standardize
When Mayfield joined the team, the nation had a multitude of
disparate surveillance systems in use. The systems of various facilities
and organizations were not able to integrate with each other,
and system use was difficult and fragmented. Some large facilities
had multiple, dissimilar video systems within themselves.
“When I started here in 2007, I worked
as an internal installer with our surveillance
integration team. Then in 2012, I
became the head of surveillance,” Mayfield
said. “That same year, we decided we
needed to migrate all our systems toward
a single video management platform, and
used our internal IT team as an in-house
integrator, which started the formal process
of solidifying a single, network-based
video management solution. In 2014, Nick
joined our senior surveillance staff.”
The team faced a large surveillance hurdle
because they were running a multitude
of digital and analog systems, Burger said.
“We had four primary VMS that were
scattered throughout our gaming facilities
alone,” Burger said. “We needed to standardize
on a single video platform and a
single camera supplier for all properties and
have it all work as a single system. We’ve
been working on this now for several years.”
The team spent a great deal of time
testing and comparing video management
systems to decide on the single VMS that
would give them the performance, flexibility
and scalability needed to cover their
many properties and facilities.
“We had some Milestone VMS within
our older system mix, and I always liked
how it worked,” Burger said. “But as we
went deeper into the process of standardizing,
and after meeting with Milestone
and seeing their willingness to partner
with us, the deployment of this system became
an obvious choice for us.”
Mayfield and Burger standardized on
Milestone XProtect Corporate open platform
VMS to meet their diverse needs.
With an open platform, systems integration
is easy via Application Program Interfaces
(APIs) to share data between
systems, devices and components for an
efficient, unified solution. Potential device
integration can include network video
cameras, encoders, digital video recorders,
storage equipment, access control, alarm
and detection systems, video analytics,
GPS technology, laser scanners and emergency
call boxes.
“We run this solution for large facilities
like our casinos, and use XProtect Pro
Plus for non-gaming sites — and that flexibility
is a big factor for us,” Mayfield said.
“We have a multitude of customers that
we support and it is important that we
use technologies that offer multi-solution
options, not just top-of-the-line packages.
There are always budgets and costs
involved, and sometimes we simply don’t
need all the bells and whistles at a smaller
location.”
In evaluating camera suppliers, the
team looked at a number of different data
components, including image quality, reliability,
fail rates, model and option availability,
and advanced in-camera processing
and apps.
“We have an excellent working relationship
with Milestone and Axis, and they
have both been very helpful in supporting
us with such a huge project,” Burger said.
“And with Axis being so tightly integrated
with Milestone, our selecting Axis became
an easy choice.”
WinStar World Casino
Located in Thackerville, OK, near the
Oklahoma–Texas state line, the WinStar
World Casino and Resort is owned and
operated by the Chickasaw Nation and is
considered the largest casino in the United
States and one of the largest in the world
based on gaming floor space. WinStar’s
nearly 600,000 square feet of gaming space
plays host to nine gaming plazas and over 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 restaurants
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 property,
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 determine
the camera layout and models we need, and we decide on
the required retention times, and our IT team takes that information
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 defining
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 valuable
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 stolen
cars and to help identify abandoned vehicles.
“The integrated LPR is nice for us because it just adds an extra
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 everything
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 deployed,
their options for add-ons and third-party integrations are
almost limitless.
“We’re watching the progress of facial recognition technology within our industry. We’re not sure if it will
ever be a fit for us, but it is an interesting
technology,” Mayfield said. “We are actively
looking at overlay data systems right now
that can potentially tie in with databases
like our electronic games database and provide
real-time information to the room, as
far as jackpots and things like that.”
of access control integration is a key next
step as well, and the team has also been
looking into people-counting analytics and
direct point of sale integration software.
“We’re now starting to test various
third-party applications, and our goal is to
find solutions that can provide more realtime
information,” Burger said. “It’s all
about keeping our operators working in a
single system with easy access to the information
they need to make good decisions
and take action appropriately.”
Burger added that they are proud of
their approach to the system standardization,
and happy with the supplier choices
they have made.
“Our supplier partnerships continue
to be fruitful for all involved,” Burger
said. “Both companies are very responsive
to our needs, and they are always
asking for our input and feedback on
how to make things better. These types of
relationships are critical
to our success and greatly
appreciated.”
This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of Security Today.