The HIDI Group provided Mechanical, Electrical, Communications and Audiovisual engineering for this complex project in Toronto. This is the largest and busiest electronic games casino in Ontario. Located in Toronto at the Woodbine Racetrack, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission (OLG) operates this large facility in partnership with the racetrack owner and operator, Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG). The facility is very popular in Toronto, with round-the-clock gaming and large crowds. OLG and WEG, in 2010 embarked on an expansion plan to dramatically upgrade the facility, increasing the total electronic machine count to 3000 from the previous total of 2300. This involved the fit-out of a previously unused area and the deployment of 700 electronic games including table poker. Also included was a complete renovation of the existing gaming floor over a period of 2.5 years. This included new walls and ceilings and the installation of an access raised floor, all while the Casino was operating 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. New electrical distribution was required to feed the more powerful electronic games, and the HVAC systems needed to be upgraded to handle the increase in people and equipment loads.

On the IT side, HIDI helped OLG transition to their new Gaming Management System, which is a dual redundant fibre backbone to dual Core Network rooms. This IT change required that we assist the interior designer to embed Network IDF cabinets and Electrical panels inside column cladding. The new Network would have dual fibre fed Cisco switches, in 17 locations around the gaming floor. These IDF cabinets feed out through the access floor to the ‘banks’ of electronic games, which are now all Ethernet connected, rather than the previous serial connections.

Expansion of OLG’s telephone system and back of House facilities were also included in the work. On the Audiovisual front, HIDI designed a large Ethernet based digital Audio system, zoned with PoE paging controllers and ambient noise sensors, for background music and emergency mass notification functionality. Also designed was a very large digital signage network with over 350 portrait and landscape displays, with Cat 6 UTP distribution and digital matrices with simple touch screen control. Many different concurrent message streams are possible over the display network.