Hippodrome Casino

As an entertainment venue, the Hippodrome Casino is unrivalled by anything else in the UK. Located two minutes from Leicester Square in London’s vibrant West End, the grand old building hosts six floors of gaming, London’s largest dedicated poker floor, a theatre, eight bars and a steakhouse.

Open around the clock, free to enter and with no membership required, the Hippodrome is one of the capital’s most happening night spots all year round, seven days a week. Keeping such a giant operation running smoothly 24/7 requires a huge logistical effort, with security right at the very heart of it. To protect customers at staff at all times, the casino employs a large onsite security team, operating out of their own dedicated office.

The team has long used two way radios to keep in touch with each other and security HQ as they patrol throughout the building, relaying real-time information and raising the alarm if and when incidents occur and back up is needed.

But getting satisfactory radio coverage throughout the giant premises has long been a challenge, mainly because part of the site is underground where radio signals struggle to penetrate. The casino had a Motorola repeater unit installed to boost radio signal range, but still coverage wasn’t as reliable as needed. Seeking another solution, bosses turned to Brentwood Communications for help.

We pride ourselves on tailoring every solution we supply to the unique needs of each client, using the assets they have available.

As we quizzed casino bosses about the premises and what they required, we discovered that the complex has a full 4G antenna system installed throughout to provide customers with flawless mobile phone coverage.

This allowed us to recommend a radical new alternative to two way radio that would resolve all the Hippodrome security team’s concerns about patchy coverage – IDARO.

A solution that marries together the best of two way radio and mobile technology, IDARO software converts push-to-talk devices so that, fitted with a SIM card, they can connect to cellular networks.

With the full in-house 4G network, this would mean the Hippodrome security team would be able to communicate seamlessly from all corners of the building, even deep underground, while still using the kind of simple push-to-talk handsets they were used to.

For this purpose, we supplied Entel DN495 handsets, compact half keypad push-to-talk devices fitted with SIM cards to connect to the 4G network. We also provided the security office with brand new dispatcher software to help streamline the way important information was relayed to personnel across the site.