Sprint is considering partnerships with other cities on smart city
deployments similar to the one it has struck with Kansas City, Mo.
Meanwhile, Sprint's partners in
Kansas City, beyond Cisco Systems, are gearing up for the deployment
near the carrier's headquarters in Overland Park, Kan.
They include construction and engineering firm Black & Veatch and
Sensity, a company that makes and manages smart sensors for lighting and
other applications.
In Kansas City Sprint will
deploy hardware from Cisco to construct, own and manage the intelligent
Wi-Fi network as part of a smart city deployment covering a 2.2-mile
Kansas City streetcar line through downtown,
The project is expected to cost
more than $15 million over the next decade.
The city is investing $3.7 million in public funds, Sprint is spending
around $7 million and Cisco is going to pony up $5 million.
The service is expected to be operational when the streetcar opens to
the public, probably on or before March 1, 2016, and if the system works
well, it could be expanded beyond downtown.
The project is expected to cost
more than $15 million over the next decade.
The city is investing $3.7 million in public funds, Sprint is spending
around $7 million and Cisco is going to pony up $5 million.
The service is expected to be operational when the streetcar opens to
the public, probably on or before March 1, 2016, and if the system works
well, it could be expanded beyond downtown.
The network will also support
smart city applications that deliver maps and information, as well as
help manage parking, traffic, city lighting, water and waste management.
Additionally, Sprint said that its subsidiary Pinsight Media+ will
operate the data analytics and advertising platform and will e-enable
commerce.
One of Sprint's partners is
Black & Veatch, which is also based in Overland Park.
The 100-year-old engineering and construction firm supports oil and gas
projects, wastewater management, telecoms and also has clients in the
federal government.
The company is also working with Tesla on electric charging
infrastructure for Teslas's cars in California, Connecticut and New
York.
Several years ago, the firm started a smart cities-focused division
that cuts across all of the vertical industries Black & Veatch
supports.
The unit supports applications for transportation, energy grids, smart parking and lighting, roadways and more.
Black & Veatch works
closely with Cisco but Cisco needed a systems integrator for the
project, which is the role Ellermeier's firm will serve.
Black & Veatch is also going to bring its expertise in water
systems, watershed management and other areas and is working with Cisco
and the city's water department on projects like advanced leak detection
in pipelines.
The deployment schedule of the
smart city systems has not been set yet, Ellermeier said, but will
proceed in phases that will extend past the opening of the street car
line.
Another partner is Sensity,
which was founded in 2012 and is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
The firm decided that smart LEDs were the perfect infrastructure to
embed sensors that could collect data for use in smart city
applications, since many cities are moving to LED lighting.
Sensity has an application platform that exposes the data its sensors
are collecting and analyzing through a set of APIs.
Harrington said that lets application developers "go far beyond
lighting control" and develop apps for security, smart parking traffic
analytics and people counting for retail stores.
Sensity is deploying 125 core
nodes and 125 video nodes as part of the Kansas City deployment and
there are prototype or reference design applications
that Sensity will enable directly via its partnership with Cisco.
One potential use case could be using video cameras in lights to
identify open parking spots, and then having an app tell citizens where
the spots are and letting them pay for the spot, which cuts down on
emission from cars.
Another could let cities dynamically price parking based on demand.
Another could store security camera footage locally in cameras embedded
in street lights and only send back data when it is requested.
Pinsight, noted that the company is "a hometown
team" with its headquarters in downtown Kansas City, in the streetcar
line's footprint.
Part of the company's role will be to deliver the free public Wi-Fi
portal, which could also promote local apps, businesses and services.
The firm will also enable local companies to promote targeted
advertising and offers based on factors like customer location profiles
and foot traffic.
No comments:
Post a Comment