Bright ideas and Smart Urban solutions
TECHNOLOGY
To make cities more manageable, liveable, lovable, resilient, economically sound and sustainable officials are increasingly turning to technology. This helps realise cost reduction through energy savings and service efficiency whilst also improving quality of life. However, sufficient data capacity and data gathering points are vital to the success of these solutions.
Harry Verhaar
HEAD OF GLOBAL PUBLIC & GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, PHILIPS LIGHTING
Today, some 54% of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2020, this figure is expected to reach 66% and 80% of Europe will be urbanized. The Americas are expected to have reached an even higher level of urbanization.* Recent advances in communications and digital technologies, data sharing and analysis and connected scalable and open systems are providing new solutions to the pressures resulting from this growth.
Philips’ connected LED lighting for streets and roads in a city enables streetlights to capture and transport data. “Combining smart sensors and embedded devices with an open, connected infrastructure creates a distributed layer of intelligence that can both save energy and improve service delivery,” explains Susanne Seitinger, PhD., Philips Lighting, Professional Systems.
“With real-time monitoring of every street light in a city via a single dashboard, you unlock huge efficiencies in asset management and operations. As connected public lighting takes advantage of cloud technology, IoT and ubiquitous public mobile networks, city managers can enhance operations with data from other domains, such as traffic or weather”.
Investment in city innovation can pay for itself from efficiency gains and reduced energy costs, while improving the quality of life in increasingly busy urban environments. Research by The Climate Group, a business alliance, found that pilot schemes for connected LED street lighting in 12 major cities achieved energy savings of 50 from LED, rising to 80% when paired with smart controls. In Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, for example, dashboards and APIs provide immediate and significant insights to decision makers.
Points of Intelligence
“Adding IP and wireless connectivity to the public lighting, already present throughout urban spaces, transforms existing street furniture into a gateway for information. Street lights become digital real estate, a backbone for services management,” said Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public & Government Affairs, Philips Lighting.
Sensors can monitor everything from luminaire status, daylight levels, occupancy and relative humidity to temperature, smoke, radiation and sound. “Extending lighting into the Internet of Things unlocks great value. Light poles - new or retrofitted - become points of intelligence and communications, offering a convenient integration point for smart sensors of all kinds and networking hubs.”
Smart Buildings and Smart Cities generate enormous amounts of data, placing significant demands on data networks and structured cabling. There’s a greater need for bandwidth, flexibility and access points, greater cabling and flexibility as more and more people carry devices and exchange greater volumes of data. A Smart City consists of Smart Buildings connected by a network backbone. This plays a vital role in solving issues related to mounting pressure placed on healthcare, education, safety and access to social, economic and cultural facilities.