Harrah's takes digital video onto the network

Properties like Harrah's Paris casino (pictured) will see their video surveillance systems moved onto the network thanks to a 10-year contract with Cisco. Also in the future are possible introductions of new, networked technologies to boost the guest experience.

Harrah's Corporation has signed on Cisco as a technology partner for the next 10 years as the company readies itself to deploy network video surveillance and digital consumer interaction technologies. The terms of the contract with Cisco, which is primarily a technology and service agreement, were not disclosed, but according to Cisco's Steve Collen, this was a very significant deal for Cisco. "Even in Cisco terms, this was a very large deal for the company," said Collen, who serves as director of business development for Cisco's physical security business unit. The agreement covers 31 Harrah's casino properties in the U.S. and abroad.

"We are engaging with Cisco to help us architect and enable the next generation of our innovative vision for guest offerings across our existing portfolio of worldwide resorts as well as exciting new resorts, new channels and new guest experiences that we are developing from the ground up," said Tim Stanley, CIO for Harrahs' Entertainment, explaining the agreement.

While the deal was significant financially, it also represents a step away from the norm in terms of contract length; the 10-year contract is considerably than most business agreements signed in the casino industry, added Collen.

The contact was handled through the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), which serves partly as a consulting arm for enterprise-level projects. According to Howard Lock, director of transportation and hospitality markets for the IBSG, the project starts with video surveillance solutions as Harrah's takes its video surveillance system onto its data network.

The core of the agreement sees Cisco's Stream Manager technology (which is deployed as part of Cisco's encoders/decoders, digital storage solutions, and in NVR-like combined encoder/network storage solutions). The Stream Manager technology creates a secure, traffic managed tunnel on the corporate network, and the technology is fairly specific to the casino industry, which commonly faces gaming commission requirements that external access not be allowed to a camera system except in extremely extenuating circumstances.

Additionally, Collen said that the company was very interested in how the Stream Manager allowed Harrah's to connect other systems like the retail point-of-sale systems and the event management systems in with the video; it was something the company couldn't do when the video was locked into the camera/matrix/DVR analog format.

As the agreement moves forward, Lock, says that the technology agreement may see Cisco technologies like telepresence (the company's high-end video chat system) and custom, interactive digital signage fit into the technology needs at Harrah's. Currently, Harrah's the telepresence system is being deployed for the senior management.