Most big cities think of smart lighting as a platform for their smart city ambitions. But what about the small towns that still want to reap all the benefits of smart street lighting? How can they use technology and data in a way that addresses their specific concerns influenced by local particularities? Several towns form Southern Italy have found the answer: inteliLIGHT FRCM lighting cabinet controllers.

Apart from the usual benefits in terms of energy savings, community comfort and sustainability, the inteliLIGHT solution addressed one of the towns’ local priorities: improving administrative activities and the infrastructure control. By using advanced user management, the solution allows different towns to manage their street lighting together. The solution’s capacity to integrate multiple deployments, supports the local effort to foster collaboration between municipalities and promote a stronger connection at a regional level.

The FRCM cabinet controllers installed inside the feeder pillar enable segment-level lighting for a cluster of lamps. It allows the municipalities remote real-time on/off control and even completely autonomous lighting operation based on predefined astronomic calendar and/or external light level sensors.

More than that, the controllers come with immediate benefits in terms of detailed electrical measurements for the segment power supply and consumption. The entire lighting network connects and communicates with the inteliLIGHT Streetlight Control Software, which allows the administration to control and monitor the street lighting of the desired areas.

The other factors that encouraged the Italian small towns to consider the inteliLIGHT FRCMs were the fast and easy deployment, the lower implementation cost and the hassle-free maintenance. All these aspects make the cabinet controllers a suitable solution for the towns with budget constraints that are on track to become more connected. Comune di Sammichele, Castel Madama, Formigine and Commune di Gravina are only a few of the towns that decided to improve efficiency and community life with a smart street lighting system.

With a minimum investment, small communities such as Trepuzzi or Tivoli have access to all the essential functionalities of a connected lighting system. FRCMs enable them to evaluate both the costs and benefits of switching to an individual lamp control, while opening the way for the implementation of other smart city applications in the long term. And given the fact that the inteliLIGHT system is a modular, interoperable future-proof solution, all of that can be gradually implemented, without any pressures on local authorities’ budgets.