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UK’s ‘Smartest’ street to debut at Great Exhibition of the North

ByDave Stopher

Jun 26, 2018

NEWCASTLE – June 7, 2018 – Mosley Street in Newcastle. The first street in the world to pioneer electric lighting, and now more than a century on, it is set to achieve another feat as the UK’s ‘smartest’ street. Announced today by CiscoNewcastle City CouncilConnexin,Mayflower and Quantela, throughout the Great Exhibition of the North, Mosley Street and the connecting Neville Street will be home to Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that will help showcase the amazing possibilities that smart places create for people living and working in them.

 

The project will combine live and historic data on the street from several sources, including Newcastle University’s Urban Observatory, home of the UK’s largest set of real-time urban data, to showcase the value of connecting data for the benefit of individuals, organisations and the city. For example, combined insight into pollution, waste disposal and traffic data will allow the city to make decisions to help improve the environmental health of the area.

 

From 22nd June until 9th September, visitors to Newcastle will be able to experience a number of applications of smart city technology. These will be available either at the smart street installation, or through data displayed on screens throughout the city and integrated with the exhibition wayfinding App.  All of the applications are facilitated by Cisco Kinetic for Cities, which provides one platform for all smart city use cases.

 

Use cases include:

  • Solving the parking conundrum: Using data trends to predict whether you’ll be able to find a parking spot on the road.
  • Less time idling with traffic forecasting: Using historic and real-time data to interpret patterns and support traffic management by generating short and long-term traffic forecasts.
  • Cleaner air with pollution analysis: Collecting and analysing environmental data to help find the causes of pollution, with the aim of dramatically reducing its effect in the area.
  • Less wastage for refuse collections: Using historic data to help refuse operators manage waste disposal more productively, ensuring the streets are clean and the impact on the environment is minimised.
  • Lighting the way with dynamic street lighting: Using predictive analytics to enable power companies to manage power consumption more effectively and improve safety with lighting.
  • Avoiding the pitfalls of potholes: Using artificial intelligence (AI) and video analytics to predict the effect of traffic on the road surface, providing evidence for the Council to consider for preventative maintenance.

 

A thriving city with digital ambition, focussed on being a great place to live, work and invest, Newcastle, like many other cities, is faced with a broad spectrum of challenges – including how to increase productivity, manage traffic and  prevent environmental degradation.  Today’s announcement highlights the role that digital technology can play in creating a Connected Newcastle that is intelligent, innovative and inclusive.

 

Partner quotes:

 

Cllr Nick Forbes, Leader of Newcastle City Council said: “It is fantastic that Cisco has chosen Newcastle for the location of their most comprehensive smart street in the UK. The fact that the world’s largest networking company has selected our city for such a pioneering venture puts us firmly at the heart of modern Britain. It is also testament to Newcastle’s growing skills base in digital technology and data analytics, and an example of our commitment to use innovation to help make people’s lives better. It is fitting that Cisco is launching their smart street during the Great Exhibition of the North – a celebration of the North’s inventive spirit, marking the next phase for the North’s future”.

 

Stu Higgins, Head of Smart Cities and IoT, Cisco UK and Ireland said: “Newcastle has innovation in its DNA, and we are thrilled to be working with Newcastle City Council and our partners to create the UK’s smartest street, and to build on the pioneering innovation which took place on Mosley Street over a century ago. The creation of smart places through the deployment of Internet of Things solutions brings amazing possibilities to enhance the lives of people living and working in a place. It is this type of innovation which is crucial to the UK cementing itself as a global digital leader.”

 

Furqan Alamgir, Founder & CEO, Connexin said: “Just like all those years ago when electricity began to run through our streets, connecting our cities – making them smart – will open up possibilities that haven’t even been imagined yet. No single organisation can make smart cities happen on its own. Governments, businesses, the education sector and citizens need to work together to grasp the opportunity.  The sum is way greater than the individual parts. This project is a perfect demonstrator of all the parts working together.”

 

Patrick Mitchell, Managing Director, Mayflower said: “Mayflower is delighted to be proactively supporting the aims and ambitions of Newcastle City Council to become a connected, smart city. Our connected and dynamically managed “Smart” lighting assets, combined with data collection from several on-site devices, aid efficiency through increased flexibility of control and provide a vehicle for citizen engagement. The Newcastle pilot is a great example of how technology partners can work with a city to employ technology to realise multiple tangible benefits. This is an exciting and pioneering project and Mayflower is proud to be a key contributor.”

 

Srikanth Mantha, Director Europe, Quantela said: “This project brings a great opportunity to showcase the power of enhanced decision making capabilities that come with the deployment of sensors gathering data in real time. Cisco Kinetic for Cities fosters the co-existence of diverse partners working in unison to achieve smart city objectives. Building on our collaboration with Cisco and Connexin in the smart cities space, we are excited to be working with all the partners in this project to make Mosley Street truly smart.”

 

The Great Exhibition of the North 2018 is to be hosted by Newcastle and Gateshead. The event will begin on June 22 with a spectacular opening ceremony. The exhibition will tell the story of the north of England through its innovators, artists, designers and businesses.

 

Newcastle is part of Cisco’s Lighthouse City programme, a global initiative designed to deploy next-generation technologies to impact citizens and society. The initiative in Newcastle is helping to develop an ecosystem of talent, entrepreneurship, and innovation to drive growth, generate jobs, diversify the economy, and support sustainable growth. Today’s announcement is also the latest example of Cisco’s commitment to support digitisation in the UK. Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) strategy is a long-term partnership with government, industry and academia to deliver real outcomes faster and more effectively for the country.

 

About the partners and the technology:

 

Cisco Kinetic for Cities

As the lead on the project, Cisco will provide the Cisco Kinetic for Cities platform, which securely connects city data from all kinds of devices, sensors, cameras, applications, and more, in an open, standard-based infrastructure. The digital solutions enabled by the platform are connected to a single federated data layer, eliminating redundancy and facilitating greater collaboration within a city and efficient urban services. Cisco Kinetic for Cities is a cloud-hosted subscription service that delivers an intuitive digital model and set of tools for creating a sustainable smart city framework for any kind of unique priorities, requirements, and budget.

 

Connexin

As the delivery partner on the project, Connexin will be working with multiple partners to deliver the smart solution in Newcastle, deploying a smart infrastructure that will support multiple numbers of sensors for different use-cases and CCTV cameras. Connexin will design and build a smart infrastructure to support smart city solutions in Newcastle, integrating sensors and cameras onto the network, providing Newcastle with a dashboard via CKC where data can be tracked and monitored. As a senior supplier Connexin will also manage engineering resources, support in work packages and daily monitoring of work progress.

 

Mayflower

The Mayflower smart lighting control system represents the 21st Century solution for management of exterior lighting and illuminated equipment. Mayflower’s Central Management System (CMS) provides remote control, monitoring and energy measurement of street lighting over a wireless interface (ZigBeeGPRS). The functionality and flexibility of this proven system gives asset managers the ability to monitor and report status automatically, vary light output, as well as manage energy consumption. The integral Mayflower communications network provides a smart city communications canopy which has the capability to support a wide range of Smart city applications. Mayflower has fully embraced the “Smart City” revolution and is actively collaborating with cities and clients across the UK and Ireland in what is a very exciting and innovative space.

 

Quantela

As the integration and AI partner for the project, Quantela will utilise their advanced analytics platform, Atlantis, which is tailored to fit smart city requirements. Atlantis provides descriptive, predictive and proscriptive analytics for domain specific and cross domain use cases. Atlantis is driven by machine learning and deep learning techniques which identify patterns in data and help in forecasting, predictions and a self-train mechanism to improvise on predictions.

 

The platform engages to discover, compare and correlate data across multiple domains and data sources.
The advanced machine learning capabilities of the platform can recommend and enable automated policies, resulting in better management of assets and infrastructure. The platform architecture helps deliver high performance applications and is built from the ground up considering reusability, easy configuration and flexible and faster deployment.