Aspers Casinos

 

Connecting Multiple Sites for Improved Safety and Security

 

Aspers Casinos

Aspers growing chain of casinos required security communication connecting across all of its sites nationwide. A CSE Crosscom system provided the solution.

The CSE Crosscom system has delivered:

 

  • Improved health and safety provision
  • Improved security
  • Improved radio coverage and quality
  • Business continuity provision

 

 

 

The Client

 

Aspers owns and operates four casinos – Westfield Stratford, Newcastle, Milton Keynes and Northampton. The Group currently has over 1200 employees. It takes the health and safety, and security of their staff and guests at its venues, very seriously.

 

The Challenge

 

David Meech, Group Head of Security & Surveillance at Aspers Group, was reviewing his emergency preparedness for the four casinos across the country. The safety and welfare of Aspers staff and customers is paramount, to maintain a safe and secure environment for the casinos, the business wanted to have a solution to be able to communicate immediately and effectively from any of the four casinos to their Central Surveillance in London.

 

“The system enables all security personnel to be aware of issues on all sites making our ability to respond effectively to any incident more robust.”

David Meech, Group Head of Security and Surveillance

 

A Multi-Site Solution

Aspers has a control room at Westfield Stratford, its largest flagship casino. PCs loaded with software programmed by CSE Crosscom are installed here and at the group’s three other casinos. Each PC receives signals from the radios in its casino (each casino has a Hytera RD625 repeater base station to ensure maximum coverage) and shares this via ADSL lines with the others. Although Stratford is the designated control room technically any of the other three could adopt this function should the need arise, which is an advantage in terms of business continuity.

Aspers, Westfield, being the largest of the sites, uses 90 radios while the other three sites use 20 each. The radios are used by security, management, maintenance and catering.

Aspers, on advice from CSE Crosscom, chose the Hytera X1p for several reasons. The X1p is a very compact, which suits Aspers need for a discreet radio, and can be combined with a small earpiece. The casinos require high-level security, for maximum effectiveness this needs to be low visibility i.e. a presence. Most of the situations security personnel are required to deal with must be handled with discretion and minimum disruption. Whether it is co-ordinating discreet access for celebrity guests or monitoring suspicious incidents on the tables, nothing should detract from the enjoyment of guests.

The control rooms constantly monitor the two-way radios and the output of the CCTV cameras. If an incident occurs now that the CSE Crosscom system is in place the alarm can be raised either by a call, the operative pressing the alarm button or by the Man Down or Lone Worker functions being triggered. The alarm call would be picked up at the control room. From here the emergency services could be called, security guards would be alerted and despatched and cameras could be repositioned to identify the perpetrators.

The two-way radios allocated to Aspers’ management are programmed to roam. Their radios will automatically join the system of whichever casino they are attending. In the everyday working of the business this is useful but in a business continuity scenario it may become invaluable.

CSE Crosscom supplies Aspers’ system under a managed service contract.

 

 Advantages of a Managed Services Contract

 

  • No initial capital outlay
  • Easy to budget monthly payments
  • Faulty equipment replaced free of charge, usually within 48 hours
  • Free battery replacement
  • No threat of obsolesce
  • On-going support from Chatterbox account managers

 

Safety, Training and Accountability

Aspers  system has undoubtedly improved the Group’s health and safety provision but the benefits to the company as a whole go beyond that. All messages, both text and voice, are recorded on the system. This, combined with CCTV footage that is also gathered at the control room, gives Aspers a comprehensive record of the actions of members of staff which can be used in the event of any disputes and which also provides a valuable training resource. Staff can be played recordings of real life situations and asked how they would choose to deal with the situation.

 

 

 CSE Crosscom Systems

 

CSE Crosscom systems go beyond the provision of two-way radio communication to incorporate other functions offered by digital two-way radios and the systems that can be integrated with them. Solutions are bespoke to each customer and their requirements.

Experienced CSE Crosscom account managers consider the customers existing way of working, listen to their requirements, look at the technology available and build a system appropriate to the customer’s business needs.

 

 

 Working with CSE Crosscom

CSE Crosscom offers customers in depth knowledge of two-way radio communications and related technologies, a range of products from the world’s leading companies in two-way radio communication, and an unparalleled level of service with a committed account team for every client.

On-going service and support is an important part of the CSE Crosscom offering.

For a systems evaluation and to discuss what a CSE Crosscom system could do for your business call 0800 387 760.

Thank you to David Meech and his team for their help in collating the information for this case study.

 

On January 27, 2020   /   Case Study