It’s a big idea, a testing site shared among competitors, with a big price tag, upwards of $10 million, but IGT’s new Global Technology & Interoperability Center in Reno, Nev., has a common goal — bring together industry companies at one neutral facility and test the different technologies that will fuel the inevitable server-based casino floor.

What was the genesis of the Interoperability Center?

Entezari: About a year ago, when we started talking about the server-based system going live and how we can support open-architecture network systems in the field, we decided that we needed to have an environment where we can pretty much duplicate the casino environment.

What was your design process for the facility?

What we did was we went to Microsoft and visited their interoperability lab, and pretty much what we told them was, “How would you design your environment, redesign your whole lab, if you had a chance to do it all over?” They gave us so many design hints and things that they would have done, so we brought that back here. We also went to Hewlett-Packard, their lab. There are distinct differences between the two. At Microsoft they deal mostly with the software side. At HP it’s the opposite. They are into the hardware. At IGT, you have to have a solution that brings both of them together because we are both a hardware and software solutions provider. It took us about three to four months to take their input and include what we wanted to come out of this whole thing and another six months to manufacturer it, pretty much do all the construction.

What are some the features of the lab?

There’s enough space for over 200 machines. The whole floor is a raised floor. Underneath this raised floor we have full connectivity for any type of casino configuration that you want in terms of fiber communication, Internet communication and serial communication. You can pretty much duplicate any type of hybrid-type floor. We spent about $10 million. This whole area is about 6,500 square feet just in lab space. We have more space behind the walls that we are planning for next year to expand on because for the SB itself you want to have as many available machines on the system as possible. With 200 machines right now, if you can take it up to 1,000 machines, then you really have a true environment.

How is the new Interoperability Center different than past testing facilities?

One difference that is happening here is that usually they test with a watered-down version of the systems, so you don’t have a full-blown system. It prevents you, in your software test environment, from doing any type of load and performance testing or stress-testing the system. There wasn’t the ability to put a couple of hundred machines on the system or interface it with any of the back-end hotels systems like Opera or LMS. We just had simulators, so when you go into the casinos and turn on the systems and machines there might be surprises. So what we have decided to do was bring that testing back into our own house and pretty much work with all other manufacturers and vendors that bring their systems, their equipment here, so jointly we can work together to make sure that everything is working correctly versus taking chances in the field.

How has SB changed the demands of testing?

Up to this point, you really didn’t have any type of solution where you had your whole floor running on one network. Usually it was just the back-end station monitoring system, smaller pieces, but not utilizing your whole floor. With SB that is all going to change. Now you have one networked, interconnected system throughout your whole floor. Now you are going to have all these different vendors and gaming manufacturers. Pretty soon, with all these new applications that are going to be installed on the server-based systems for every customer, they are going to have their own customized data bases. Now you are getting the other software companies that are not necessarily in the gaming industry but they want to get their foot through the door and install their applications. You have to have an environment to test this before they actually turn it on. So that is where we came up with the idea of: let’s bring this all together and work with other manufacturers.

You’re offering competitors a place to bring their products and technologies, some of which haven’t been released yet, for testing. What assurances have you given them in terms of IP issues?

As part of the design what we did was provide a multi-layered security environment. We have five private rooms, and companies have their own card access. So if the manufacturers have their own confidential games or systems that are not out in the field yet, and they want to keep it confidential, and they want to make sure it works with IGT systems or any other manufacturer’s, they can have that room to themselves and have full connectivity to the lab. There is still some reluctance there, but we have invited everyone to come and visit us. All of our systems are available to everybody.

What has been the response from companies using or considering using the lab?

It takes some time to build that relationship, and some of them are a little hesitant because of the IT sensitivity. As it goes further along we can create that comfort level. WMS has been very receptive. The other thing we are doing is that we are working with MGM Mirage and Harrah’s. Instead of IGT telling other manufacturers that they need to come here, we tell [the operators] that if you want a seamless system, not bug-free but less than what you are seeing currently, you should be the one to tell them that they should come to this facility, test their equipment and make sure everything works together before it goes live on your floor. That approach is going to benefit everybody. Most of [the operators] want to see the end-to-end picture, the whole thing. They don’t want to see the bits and pieces — the game works over here and the system is over there. They want to see that everything is going to work together and, more importantly, that what we developed is what they asked for.

What other considerations were necessary?

That was the whole thing with the open-network architecture and making sure that everyone was compliant with GSA protocol. We are in the process of getting our ISO 17025 certification. We are already ISO-certified 759001 and 759002, and when we can get 17025 then we get GSA certification for all of our IGT firmware or systems products. We are predicting we’ll get that in the next month or two. That also fulfills us for other manufacturers when they come in here. So that is a huge piece on our side. GLI is also going to be doing GSA certification on their side, which is more of a neutral piece, but we are not out there really to compete with them.  

What’s the long-term vision for the lab?

The dream in two or three years is to have all the other manufacturers’ systems and games available here. Obviously if they don’t come here we would still benefit because at IGT we have never had a full-blown testing environment running all of our systems. But if we can get all the other manufacturers and the customers to come in it’s going to be successful for the whole industry. There is no charge for any of this. It’s free of cost. So for them not to take advantage of it would be a waste.