Round1 Entertainment provides bowling, arcade games, billiards, karaoke, and other indoor recreational activities. In order to secure several of its American facilities, Hanwha Techwin installed video cameras and video management systems.
Round1’s video surveillance program was initially targeted at both internal and external theft. The company began being sued by visitors who made claims of injury once it began building Sports Challenge zones.
Round1 has decided to increase data retention requirements at its facilities to store surveillance footage for two years, allowing staff to review incidents in order to determine the validity of claims made against the company.
The Round1 data security team designed a physical security system to meet the updated retention requirements based on a 124 TB NVR from Hanwha Techwin, which performs continuous back-ups to ensure data security. The NVR is then supported by an outside server. This facility has a total storage of 528TB, which meets the requirement of retaining records for two years.
The most effective way to protect yourself from liability is by capturing and storing wide-angle, high-resolution video. An array of 77 cameras, including fisheye cameras, was deployed to accomplish this. The security system is able to capture 360-degree views of key areas by using these cameras placed throughout the center.
The size of video files is a challenge when using fisheye lenses and dual-headed cameras. High-resolution 360-degree images captured by these cameras are extremely bandwidth-intensive and data-heavy. Round1 is using Hanwha’s Wisenet WAVE VMS at one of its locations at the Cumberland Mall in Atlanta. This is to manage the bandwidth while reducing the file size, as well as motion detection to reduce the amount of video captured. The video cameras have also been adjusted to optimize motion capture so that flashing lights and other background elements do not trigger the sensors.
The Wisenet WAVE solution offers Round1 everything it needs to achieve its retention goals. According to Matthew Strawn, Head of Loss Prevention at Round1, “the cameras are so much better in terms of day-to-day operations compared to anything else on the market.”
The security system at Cumberland’s facility was completed in 2020, and it is already showing results. It was reported that an injury occurred in the skating rink long after the incident was alleged to have occurred. Strawn was able to retrieve the relevant video footage from the remote storage with the help of WAVE and then isolate the relevant images.
WAVE has been implemented in seven Round1 locations to date. Despite the overall success of the project, Strawn said, “We have not encountered any issues and the coverage has been excellent.” The system has not required any adjustments and fully meets our retention needs.” And he is not the only one who is pleased with the new system.
Round1 hopes to upgrade more centers in the future after success with the Cumberland Mall project and migration of seven others to WAVE.