Toronto based Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG), one of the largest professional horse racing operators in Canada, has updated its overall security stance with Genetec Security Center and Genetec Clearance. WEG selected the open, unified Genetec platform with an eye toward future growth.
Founded in 18181, WEG properties welcome over seven million visitors annually, and over the years the WEG security team have deployed many different physical security technologies, but did not always gain access to the latest advancements in a timely way.
They were also managing video, access control, and other tasks from different monitors and applications, which slowed response and investigations. Knowing expansion plans were underway for a new leasehold casino and entertainment venue, the team took the opportunity to partner with a forward-thinking video management solution supplier.
Tina Soobramanie, Integrated Network and Security Specialist at WEG said, “Genetec Security Center ticked all the boxes when it came to innovation, future growth, and everything we envisioned for our security operations. From more basic features such as tenant partitioning to full-scale cloud services and extensive integration capabilities, we had everything we needed to build a robust and progressive security deployment all within one unified platform.”
Today, the WEG security team works around the clock from a new Surveillance Operations Center (SOC) powered by Genetec Security Center. They manage over 800 cameras across sites as well as existing access control and intrusion detection systems within the unified security platform. This gives them real-time visibility on all emerging events and alarms from one intuitive solution. Choosing an open-architecture platform also allowed WEG to keep existing cameras, which made the transition to Genetec more affordable.
In addition to their physical security duties, the WEG team spends a lot of time fulfilling information and evidence requests from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), lawyers, insurance adjusters, and law enforcement agencies. In the past, when a request came in, they’d export and burn video onto DVDs for intended recipients. With many different parties requesting video and data, this manual process became overly time-consuming. With Genetec, WEG investigators can now easily retrieve video from Security Center and export it into Clearance in a few mouse clicks. Then they can simply email external agencies and internal stakeholders a secure link to the files.
Since implementing Security Center and Clearance, the WEG security team has streamlined partnerships with law enforcement to help them close cases faster, and also to expedite information requests from the AGCO. This allows WEG to uphold best practices and regulatory compliance within their operations, and help the AGCO maintain high integrity across the horseracing business.
Looking ahead, WEG expects to evolve the platform to support a Champions off-track betting location and additional cameras to extend coverage to hospitality areas in the new casino. They are also considering adding the Genetec Mission Control decision management system to further empower their security operators by enhancing automation across their processes.
