Category Archives: Surveillance

Take a gamble with change

While we’re in that time of the year when change is at the top of most people’s mind, I’m reminded of a famous quote by George Bernard Shaw, “Progress is impossible without change”.

As I have traveled around the world over the last few years, I have noticed a significant number of surveillance professionals changing their approach to their jobs. They are becoming more aware of the need to grow casino revenues and not only protect them. As a result they are forming closer relationships with their marketing departments and assisting them with their observations and insights. Ultimately, this improves customer satisfaction and increases revenues. Surveillance are the eyes and ears of a casino and can bring a view to marketing that they might be missing. I’ve noticed how this increased collaboration is empowering casinos to engage with their customers more effectively. A true 360 degree view of the customer can be built which enables relevant, targeted marketing which leads to increased customer engagement, brand loyalty and revenue.

Just a few months of immersing yourself in the world of marketing from a surveillance vantage point will be a stimulating experience and will undoubtedly add tremendous value to your casinos marketing efforts. Your personal and department value-add will be impressive and it will definitely be an exciting year as you take a gamble with change.

A note to casino marketers: We will be attending and exhibiting at the Casino Marketing Conference in Las Vegas from the 15th – 17th July, 2014 and our range of casino marketing software will be on show.
A note to surveillance professionals: We will be attending and exhibiting at the World Game Protection Conference in Las Vegas from the 24th – 26th February, 2014 and our range of casino protection software will be on show.

We will also be at the following trade shows:
ICE, London, Feb 4-6, 2014
NIGA, San Diego, May 11-14, 2014
G2E Asia, Macao, May 20-22, 2014
G2E, Las Vegas, Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2014

Smart Surveillance: Iain Sinclair Interview

Our smart surveillance series starts next week with an interview we’ve managed to track down. Author Iain Sinclair discusses his views on the “post-surveillance age”, amongst other things. A quote from the interview: “We are now living in a post-surveillance age with no obvious CCTV cameras. This is the age of intelligent buildings …”.

UPDATE:

The quality of the recorded interview was not good. However, we will be interviewing Iain in November regarding his “post-surveillance” views. Webinar dates and details will be posted soon!

City of Surveillance Cracks

After the London riots, the UK surveillance society must be questioning the effectiveness of surveillance systems in London, often known as the “City of Surveillance”. Author Iain Sinclair describes London as a ‘ring-fenced ghetto, city of surveillance, privately policed estate.’ However, Ross Anderson of Cambridge university in response to the recent London riots states in the Economist, “If you want the surveillance society to become a reality, you’re going to have to increase budgets by an order of magnitude.”

Maybe it’s time to turn to the “casino surveillance society” for answers? Is throwing more money at traditional surveillance the answer or is it not time to become smart as Theron Thompson from the Scarlet Raven Group advocates in his article, “Surveillance Technology: Moving from the Catwalk to Smart Technology”. Casinos around the world are using smart software to direct their daily surveillance activities instead of aimlessly scanning. The casino surveillance society are solving real problems; there’s no need for them to “become a reality”.

I’ll be writing a series of posts titled “Smart Surveillance” which will include tips, case studies and interviews on using smart software to direct surveillance activities. If you have any requests or questions which you would like answered during this series, please email me at “Smart Surveillance”.

Be smart city of London!