Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) and the City of San Jose announced a joint project to install 50 Philips SmartPoles, which feature a combination of energy-efficient LED lighting and fully integrated 4G LTE wireless technology by Ericsson.

The project was initiated through the City’s Demonstration Partnership Policy, which was established to support the City’s Economic Development Strategy and City operations. The project is expected to help the city test the backbone technology needed to power San Jose’s smart city transformation so that it can save energy, have brighter streets at night and respond to the changing needs of its residents.

“San Jose is a leader in leveraging Silicon Valley innovations to help adapt to the realities of today’s super-connected, global world,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo. “The SmartPole initiative provides the City of San Jose with a unique win-win-win: more energy conservation, reduced expenditures on energy and maintenance, implementation of LED lighting on dark city streets, and an enhanced broadband experience for our residents.”

Benefits of SmartPoles

Philips’ SmartPoles are 50 percent more energy efficient than conventional street lighting, according to Philips, and the installation is aligned with San Jose’s Vision Zero Street lighting goal, which aims to improve nighttime safety by providing better street lights.

Philips has also collaborated with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) and its metering engineering team to design, test, certify and install a specialized two-way communicating meter affixed on top of the SmartPoles. The meter measures the amount of electricity used by the mobile network and transmits data directly to PG&E. This new meter eliminates the need for standalone pedestal meters that are installed next to equipment that uses electricity, thereby decluttering dense urban areas.

For 4G/LTE connectivity, the SmartPoles house small cell technology from Ericsson to provide increased data capacity in the mobile network to ensure improved data coverage. The SmartPoles are designed and tested to accept FCC-licensed wireless mobile network operator equipment, allowing an alternative deployment methodology for 4G LTE broadband services, which streamlines, standardizes and broadens the capacity for Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and allows for increased innovation in Smart City technology to benefit the citizens of San Jose.

Mobile operators can also benefit from the SmartPoles, as the technology opens up new possibilities to find the right site location and scale mobile wireless 4G/LTE infrastructure deployment, thereby improving data coverage and capacity for citizens, businesses and visitors so there are no more signal dropouts.

Smart street lights

This isn’t the first project that aims to deliver lighting and wireless connectivity to more people. In Dubai, Smart Palms are being planted, and aside from lighting and Internet connection, it also features a screen where people can get information, a 360-degree infrared CCTV camera and an accessible Emergency button. It comes with solar panels on top of the tree to power the structure and its operations.

Another similar effort comes from Schréder Group, which showcased its Shuffle LED light pole at the International Motor Show last September. The Shuffle LED light pole features a light ring, which is intended for emergency signaling, video cameras with night vision, audio systems and speakers that can be used not only to blast music, but also broadcast public service announcements. It also features a Wi-Fi access point that offers public broadband Internet connections.

Image source: Royal Philips