Last year I came to the realization that I may not be 29 anymore. The tipping point came when (ironically) I noticed, I couldn't notice, like I used to. It took me by surprise and it happened overnight. I woke up one morning per my standard operating procedures. I nuked my oatmeal, retrieved my daily newspaper and let the dog out for a pee. I sat down with my piping hot yoghurt covered oatmeal and spread the newspaper on the kitchen table.

Something felt weird. At first I thought the newspaper print was faded. Then I thought the light bulbs in the kitchen needed changing. I finally came to the conclusion that the newspaper people must have changed the font. So I skipped over the stories and went straight to the cartoons.

Days passed and it became clear (or unclear) that the newspaper font was never going to change. I didn't care. News is overrated anyway. The cartoons are all I need. Then I noticed the cartoon text was getting blurrier. Sadly all that was left for me now was to look at the pictures. It was happening. I was turning 30. My wife, sensing my frustration, tried to console me. She subtly suggested I might need reading glasses? What! She may as well have hit me over the head with a walking stick and made a happy face of Cialis pills on my bed pillow next to her false teeth.

As the months went by, the cartoons became less funny and the pictures of politicians started morphing into casino surveillance mug shots of convicted cheats, thieves and fraudsters. Eventually my stubbornness and denial started to gradually subside as I realized that the inevitability of deteriorating vision was becoming a handicap for me. However, unlike real handicaps, this one could easily be fixed.

So one day I ducked into Walgreens and bought my first pair of reading glasses (they were 1.25s if you're interested). They weren't stylish like I'm accustomed to, being a slave to fashion and all, but I kind of think the instant IQ increase you get from wearing reading glasses may make up for it in the long run. I went home. I grabbed the daily newspaper. I put the glasses on. The angels sang.

High definition (HD) cameras are the angels of the CCTV world. They're a game changer. There is no longer a reason to be in denial. We don't have to pretend we can identify the cards on the table or the spots on the dice. HD cameras can. I've "seen the light." There is no longer a need for casinos to keep their nasty old grainy videos from public view for fear that the public may find out what we can't see. There is no longer a reason for senior executives to be embarrassed when their casino gets robbed and the terrible surveillance video ends up on the "Crime Stoppers" and the nightly news. There is no longer a reason for casino legal counsel to cringe when the judge and jury look at the surveillance video in court and ask the question, "is that the original?"

Even recently I was reminded in my own living room how far the rest of the world had come when it comes to video resolution. I was channel surfing and came across the 1982 movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Cool mullet hairdos aside, the picture quality was bloody terrible. The most terrible thing about it was that it was the same resolution of most casino surveillance cameras currently being utilized in the industry today. I quickly switched to an HD channel for some instant visual relief. The angels sang to me again although I have to admit the negative side of high definition TV is the revelation that some of my favorite screen goddesses have zits. I can live with that. A wise old surveillance man once told me, "Sonny, your job is to find zits and squeeze them."

I don't think anyone can deny the difference in picture quality and the benefits it can bring casino surveillance professionals and the organizations they protect. HD is righting a wrong. From a casino surveillance standpoint, there should be an industry mandate to get the best picture quality we can get. We should not settle for standards that are three decades old. HD is the standard. Not SD. Not 4 CIF. If a surveillance camera system is not using HD cameras, the "state of the art" tag that is often used in casino media relations and regulatory verbiage must go.

I'm a big fan of HD and believe it will be the catalyst for bigger things to come but when I talk to casino executives three questions always come up: What are the main challenges and areas of skepticism? How valid are they? How should we get started? So to help explain how casinos go from SD to HD I asked Bill Miller of Reliable Security, a casino CCTV system integration company, a few questions.

First off Bill, can you explain what HD cameras are and how do they work?

Mega pixel cameras will finally deliver the image quality that Hollywood movies portray in films. HD cameras are any cameras that have a resolution greater than SD (standard definition 640X480 pixels). Mega pixel cameras start off at 1.3 Mega pixels (1280x720) and go to 2.0 mega pixels (1920x1080). By definition all mega pixel cameras are greater than 1.3 mega pixels and are IP based rather than analog which only supports a maximum resolution of 640x480 (yes there are high resolution analog formats but they haven't gained wide acceptance in security applications). Because of the higher resolution, mega pixel cameras have large bandwidth requirements. This means they need more digital storage. It's important to realize that mega pixel cameras come in all sorts of resolution and record rates. And they also come in different formats like H.264, MPEG4 and Motion JPEG to name a few. Mega pixel cameras are displayed in a 16:9 ratio and lend themselves to be displayed on LCD type of screens. Mega pixel cameras require Ethernet cable, IP addresses, a network switch and a computer with a software program that is compatible with mega pixel cameras. Unlike analog cameras you cannot just plug them in and "presto" you get a picture. The only issue is the IP address tends to alienate people, but remember that an IP address is nothing more than an electronic representation of a patch panel. Once you get used to the differences of analog vs. HD you never go back and the picture is far superior and worth the effort.

What sort of infrastructure does someone need to go HD? Can someone with an analog switch go HD?

You will have to have a cabling system (called structured cabling) that supports Ethernet, which is the same as your computer cabling and is it at a minimum Cat5 cable. Network switches in casino applications need to direct traffic to storage devices, workstations and monitors. You will also need work stations with VMS (video management software) installed on it if you wish a favorite joystick controller to be connected to the workstation. There are several rules for the cabling, first of which is the cabling length between the camera and the first network switch cannot exceed 295'. To accomplish this you need secure extra rooms to house the first network switch. The alternative to structured cabling is to use IP extenders that allow you to use your existing coax or to use Cat5 or Cat6 cabling beyond the 295' rule.

Can you transmit HD across coax cable?

Yes you can, and this works best in retrofit applications. It is a major budget saver as re-cabling is almost as expensive as the rest of the upgrade project and there is no disruption to the casino operation. This allows you to simply plug in IP extenders at the head end and a transmitter in the field. The field transmitter needs to have low voltage power but you already have power to the analog camera. I have run HD cameras on 1000 ft. rolls of RG-59 and had no derogation in the picture. Remember to check your existing cabling and make sure that it is up to electrical codes and is a standard RG-59 coax with a copper center core and a copper braid.

Do HD cameras require more recording storage?

Because of the increase in the pixel count you will have larger bandwidths (sometimes referred to as the data rate or byte stream). There are several types of bandwidth encoding (codex) including MPEG4, H.264A, and motion JPEG. There are some older streams such as MPEG2 but for this discussion I will assume the codex is MPEG4. SD PTZ will have a byte rate of 4mb/s (megabytes/second). A 720p or a 1.3 mega pixel camera will have 12 mb/s, this assumes that we have about 40% screen motion. A 1080P or a 2-mega-pixel camera will have almost 7 times the storage requirements. The good news is storage costs have dropped over 200% over the last several years and continue to drop in light of the impending release of high duty cycle 3TB drives!

What other considerations should be made before going HD?

There are several things you need to do in order to use and get the best out of mega pixel cameras. Firstly, invest in the proper monitors that will support the HD resolution. Throw away your analog matrix switch because you will not be able to display your mega pixel cameras on it. You will need to change your cabling system as discussed above. And you need to decide on a VMS platform with a workstation that will support the bandwidths and processing power required. From a room operation standpoint you will need to consider how you will want to redesign the observation stations to take advantage of the increased visual abilities of mega pixel cameras. Also you will need to think about the change in how your room will operate (because it will be different) and whether you need to change your policies.

What advice would you give to casino surveillance managers to help them make the transition to HD smooth?

It has been my experience that it takes a good year to get your budgets and a plan of attack to make the jump from analog/digital hybrids to full 100% IP systems. It is worth it because you can then finally show management that you can deliver video images that are no different in resolution than your home theater set-ups. Mega pixel cameras will change how we do business. They will facilitate and usher in real facial recognition, ease of integration of secondary systems such as slot systems, time clock and others. It is worth the effort and when it is finished even management will approve and appreciate the increase in resolution. The one thing I have learned over the almost 32 years that I have owned Reliable is that management will in the long run pay for good video.

Bill Miller, RCDD is the President of Reliable Security, Sound & Data. www.reliablesecurity.com. Bill can be contacted at bill@reliablesecurity.com

Contact Willy Allison with Bill Miller: willy@worldgameprotection.com | Forward to Friend