Inside Asian Gaming

February 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 35 JCM Global iVIZION will also be used in any new slot machines added to the Hard Rock floor. “Hard Rock had the ability to see all products as they made their decision,”points out Kunal Mishra. “Their decision, we believe, was not just based on JCM products today, but, more importantly, the roadmap of JCM in the future. JCM has a commitment to technology and we understand our business is in an evolutionary phase where networked gaming is starting to take precedence.” Asian debut The iVIZION will be released to the Macaumarket next year to complement JCM Global’sINTELLIGENTCASHBOX®(ICB),which is already available in Asia, and the SENTRY 2.0 Bezel. The ICB automates operators’ cash box systems by standardising revenue drop and soft count functions across the gaming floor, allowing for better data tracking and reducing the need for human labour to reconcile accounting issues. SENTRY 2.0 is the ‘doorstep’ of JCM’s bill validation system—the point where the bill or ticket is first introduced to the system via a slot machine. SENTRY 2.0’s power-efficient light emitting diode (LED) indicators can list up to six denominations and cope with different formats of barcode. SENTRY 2.0 also provides four error indicators, a general fault indicator and a cashbox full indicator. “On our SENTRY 2.0 Bezel, we can change languages dynamically. This is important for the casino operator because not everything in the gaming industry is English-based any more,” states Kunal Mishra. “Depending what different types of notes are accepted, the player interface language can match the language used on the local currency. That gives the machines a very local feel. The best way to attract gamblers in any market is to make them feel comfortable. And when English is not the primary language, JCM has created technologies around that reality. “Our aim is to go to markets in Asia and elsewhere and localise products for their needs. It’s very rare that a product for one market fits perfectly into another market,” adds Mr Mishra. “We will explain to operators in Asia, ‘Here’s a baseline suite of products we have. They work, they’re field-proven, and they’re best of breed.’ “We then sit down with the local customers to work out what features we need to add on to fit the needs of that market.” Intelligent scanner The iVIZION uses the latest image scanning technology, known as a contact image sensor (CIS). This innovation in the field of optical flatbed scanners places the image sensor in near direct contact with the object to be scanned. This is in contrast to using mirrors to bounce light to a stationary sensor, as is the case in conventional scanners. The iVIZION scanner technology captures 100% of the full front and back of the note or ticket. “CIS offers the fastest note to note processing speed, and the highest acceptance rates. It represents the pinnacle of bill validators for gaming,” explains Kunal Mishra. The CIS scanner also uses LEDs as a power source, allowing the technology to be power efficient, so that many scanners can be powered through a low voltage line supplied by a PC-style USB connection. Use of the CIS technology is an important part of JCM Global’s strategy in creating a dynamic system that can be developed in a modular way, suggests Mr Mishra. “The bill validator’s role historically has been to communicate to a slot machine directly—to accept good bills, to reject bad bills, and to let the slot machine know the amount of money it has accepted. As we look at the evolution of our business, right now we are at phase of creating technology with the ability to behave dynamically. That means we have to be able to provide the operators with online tools for diagnostics, to ensure bill validators are running at optimal performance levels and also to create products that provide the single point of entry of all currency media entering slot machines. The iVIZION has been designed for that. Market edge “Our company has grown to a dominant position based not only on the quality of our products, but also on quality of our service,” states Kunal Mishra. “It’s a total commitment to the customer, from new generation products, from soliciting customer input in the design of next generation products, all the way to the other end of the spectrum and our sales and service organisation. It’s really a commitment that spans product development as well as sales and service. “As technology evolves, the iVIZION bill acceptor with its future technologies built in is also going to be the application you use tomorrow. It will serve you well today, but as your technology develops, the same product will keep up with the pace of technology. We created iVIZION as a foundation, a baseline. Evenourmarketing slogan—The Foundation of Intelligent Validation—came from our product development arm. “The way we sell iVIZION to operators is to describe exactly the way the product was designed. I don’t want to tell someone something I don’t believe in. It’s the best bill validator you can buy today, period.” The SENTRY 2.0 Bezel