What equipment does a live casino studio need?
The table-side and broadcast kit a live casino studio runs on, with layouts, bar-coded cards, wheels and shoes read from manufacturers' own pages.
A live casino studio needs two layers of equipment. At the table: layouts, playing cards, shoes or roulette wheels, a card-reading system and table displays. Behind it: HD cameras, lighting, a game control unit linking table to software, video encoders and a monitoring control room that watches and sends out the stream.
What equipment does a live casino studio need? The explainers that rank for it answer by function: cameras, lighting, OCR, an encoder. Of the three bodies read for this post, in the text we could open, only a 2022 MacSources guest post names a supplier, CTC Holdings among table makers, and none mentions bar-coded cards. This desk read CTC Holdings’ studio-equipment page, TCS JOHNHUXLEY’s home page and a SAFE-SHOE product page on 23 September 2026. This is an evergreen explainer. The budget for it is in what suppliers disclose about studio cost.
What equipment does a live casino studio need at the table?
| Item | Seller named on a page read | What that page says |
|---|---|---|
| Table layouts | CTC Holdings; TCS JOHNHUXLEY | CTC: “standard and custom-designed” layouts in its studio range; TCS menu: Table Game Layouts, Custom Themed Layouts |
| Playing cards | CTC Holdings | “playing cards with bar code” |
| Roulette wheels | TCS JOHNHUXLEY | Menu lists the Velocity Auto Roulette Wheel and the Saturn Roulette Wheel; no specification read |
| Shufflers | TCS JOHNHUXLEY | Menu section: Shufflers & Card Handling Solutions |
| Electronic card shoe | SAFE-SHOE product page | Card recognition, “no markings required”, results sent to i-SCORE PLUS |
| Table displays | TCS JOHNHUXLEY; CTC Holdings | TCS: Table Displays; CTC menu: Displays & Accessories |
| Accessories | CTC Holdings | “various acrylic gaming accessories” |
CTC Holdings’ category page is the only page read that sells a range under the words “live casino studio equipment”. TCS JOHNHUXLEY calls itself “the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of live gaming solutions”; that is its own marketing, not a ranking this desk can check. No page read ties any product above to a named online studio.
How do live casino studios read the cards?
The two ranking explainers that describe card reading say OCR and name no hardware. CTC sells bar-coded cards. The SAFE-SHOE product page advertises “proven card-recognition technology” on all card types, a stop that engages after the last card of the round, and results sent instantly to an i-SCORE PLUS display. That page presents SAFE-SHOE as a baccarat shoe and does not say it was built for streamed studios. These are two approaches found on the pages read, not a complete list of methods.
What broadcast equipment does a live casino studio need?
Cameras, controlled lighting, a game control unit, encoders, a monitoring control room, fast connectivity and backup power. A 2022 MacSources guest post puts one to three HD cameras on a table; Makerstations says up to six. MacSources describes the game control unit as essentially an encoder; Makerstations calls it the bridge between table and player interface. Neither cites a source, so a vendor’s specification is the only number worth budgeting against.
What the list means for an operator
Every item is capex before the first hand and a line on the fit-out schedule in how long a studio takes to build. The shufflers and technical team who keep it running are in how many staff a studio needs.
FAQ
What is a GCU in live casino?
A game control unit is the hardware that turns what happens at a physical table into data the game software can use. The explainers that rank for this question describe it differently: Makerstations calls it the bridge between the table and the player’s interface, while a 2022 MacSources guest post calls it essentially an encoder. Ask the vendor which job its unit does.
How do live dealer casinos read the cards?
Two ranking explainers say optical character recognition. The manufacturer pages this desk read show two published approaches: CTC Holdings sells playing cards with bar code as studio equipment, and the SAFE-SHOE product page advertises card recognition on all card types with no markings required. Neither page says which method any named studio uses.
How many cameras does a live dealer table use?
There is no sourced figure on the pages read. A 2022 MacSources guest post says one to three HD cameras per table; Makerstations says studios typically run up to six, plus standby backups. Neither cites a studio or supplier. The honest answer is that it depends on the game and the vendor’s specification.
Industry coverage for an adult, 18+ readership on the supply side of the sector: Onkaji Scout offers no gambling services and does not say where to play. The equipment above is assessed as a studio’s capital list, not as a reason to sit at any table.