Cox through its smart city platform, Cox2M, and Henderson, NV have extended their smart lighting project to include smart water meters and smart parking.
Smart water meters lead to early leak detection, early freeze detection – which can prevent water main breaks – and reduced truck rolls through remote water valve actuation. Cox and Henderson note smart water management is especially important due to the droughts that have become increasingly common in parts of the country.
Cox2M—the digital transformation organization within Cox Communications–tested water meters that use LTE and LoRA networks to determine the most scalable and financially prudent for the Henderson. Two types of hardware were deployed to determine the accuracy of meter readings, the quality of data and the impact of remote control of the meter. All this information will determine if, when and how a rollout is conducted.
Smart parking can help a community as well. In the case of Henderson, it can help guide residents and visitors in the revitalized downtown Water Street District, which includes bars, restaurants, shops and the new Lifeguard Arena. The smart parking solution being tested was deployed at a structure – at 235 S. Water Street – and monitored several parking spots with a single sensor.
Data from both the water and parking projects is fed into Cox2M’s Smart Communities platform, which helps city planners gain insights that are used to create policies for the city going forward.
“Successful smart community innovation requires robust and reliable data. That is why we invest tremendous effort testing and integrating the best IoT solutions into our platform,” said Barak Weinisman, Vice President, Cox Communications Cox 2M and Smart Communities in a prepared statement. “This pilot program will allow Cox to get real-time data that can be utilized by the city to improve efficiency in water conservation and parking resources.”
At the end of last October, Cox said that it and Henderson had deployed smart lighting controls and 33 decorative and non-decorative lights in the first stage of their smart community collaboration. It is slated to be a one-year project.
