Brasov, Nov. 21-st, 2017

Vicentino, an extended urban area consisting of several towns in the region of Veneto, is a place where rich history and flourishing culture blend together with a highly developed economic environment. In a world where large and small cities alike are trying to manage their resources more carefully, looking for more efficient and sustainable management of resources, the joint municipalities of the Vicentino area have launched a comprehensive “SMART TOWN” project in early 2017.

The project’s objectives aimed at using modern Internet of Things technologies to improve administrative activities and increase community comfort, together with overall prosperity in nine towns of the area: Crespadoro, Gambugliano, San Pietro Mussolino, Trissino, Altissimo, Brogliano, Castelgomberto, Chiampo and Cornedo. The project, which included intelligent street lighting, traffic monitoring, wireless metropolitan Internet access, tourist information points and a smart bicycle rental

GBC Technology Service is an Italian company, specialized in system integration of innovative technologies, both at hardware and software level.

Covering areas like energy efficiency, ICT Solutions, Smart Cities and Integrated Logistics, and employing experienced engineers and installation professionals, it was the best suited for the project’s planning, sourcing and deployment.

The LoRaWAN™ compatible IoT communication infrastructure was chosen due to its capability to reliably connect sensors and actuators over long distances, using low-bitrate public radio frequencies. With its unique penetration capability, a LoRaWAN™ gateway deployed on a building or tower can connect to thousands of devices over distances up to 15 kilometers. The technology also offers unique benefits in terms of bi-directionality, security, mobility and accurate localization. The very fast deployment, the possibility to choose between a private or public network architecture and the low operation costs encouraged the adoption of this state-of-the-art communication solution.

inteliLIGHT® is a proven streetlight control solution, with worldwide deployments of tens of thousands of streetlights.

The system can use one or more IoT communication technologies into the same implementation, with extended flexibility features in terms of geographic deployment and third-party integrations. Due to its lamp-level control, inteliLIGHT® also acts as a smart-city facilitator, keeping the lighting grid powered up even during the day, offering continuous supply for other sensors and applications.

Also, the inteliLIGHT® Streetlight Control software comes with native southbound and northbound API connectivity and proved integration experience with smart city management software suites like CISCO CDP, making it accessible for Smart City interactions.

1094 LoRaWAN™ compatible luminaire controllers were used for the project so far, deployed in just a few weeks.

Two of the three available inteliLIGHT® smart streetlight controller form factors were used in Vicentino. 800 controllers were FRE-220, a wired upgrade used for retrofitting existing lighting installations and 294 were FRE-220-M, LoRaWAN™ compatible compact controllers, embedded by SPI TECNO into brand new luminaires directly from the manufacturing line.

The project deployment unfolded smoothly, conducted mainly by GBC Technology Service’s specialists during September and October 2017, with FLASHNET remote support available during the implementation. The LoRaWAN^™ base stations were installed in each town, covering the entire area and appointed luminaire controllers. The existing streetlights were retrofitted, while for the new luminaires, in order to reduce the overall design negative impact, the controllers were sent to the manufacturer and embedded directly from the production line.