Petards to U.S. with casino jobs

ORLANDO, Fla.--Petards, a U.K.-based manufacturer of CCTV equipment, has announced $2 million worth of contracts to supply its UVMS NVR systems in casinos owned by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. One of the installations, at the Broken Bow Casino, Petards is calling the "the first all-digital installation in North America." "Every single camera is digital," said Petards president Frank Baitman. Petards, which already manufactured cameras and DVRs, acquired the UVMS video management system, and entry into the North American market, with the acquisition in 2005 of PI Vision, based here. "We see great potential in the North American market," said Baitman. "We're looking forward to growing our place in it significantly, adding another office [in the Mid-Atlantic], and bringing some of the other products from the UK over here." Adam Radford, Petards vice president of business development, said the key now is to "identify integrators and get them to a level of training where they're certified." Baitman said Petards can also offer the benefit of lessons learned in the UK market. "The U.S. market is just becoming ready for some of the things we're doing in England already," he said. "There's a knee-jerk fear about privacy, for instance. In England, they've been doing public surveillance so much longer and Petards has been part of that discussion all along. People accept public surveillance now for all its benefits and don't have that knee-jerk reaction. That's given us some lessons about how to help our clients explain all the checks and balances that go into public surveillance."