Case Study
Global Technology Company Quantela Partnered with UST to Provide End-to-End Engineering Expertise
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OUR CLIENT
Quantela is a global technology company that offers end-to-end infrastructure digitization solutions to help cities and communities meet their economic, social, and environmental objectives. The company works with cities and towns as well as utilities and public venues to offer a vast array of outcomes-based business models through technologies like digital advertising, smart lighting, smart traffic, digitized land records, and digitized citizen services.
THE CHALLENGE
Client wanted to upgrade 35,000 legacy streetlights with a connected, smart system
When the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) needed to replace its aging streetlights, it spotted an opportunity to improve energy consumption, simplify operations, reduce maintenance costs, and increase public safety. Since Queensland covers nearly two million sq km of diverse and remote terrain, the DTMR project team had to address some unique requirements, including:
- A highly dispersed existing streetlight network: An off-the-shelf solution would be cost-prohibitive because DTMR would have to install many telecommunications gateways to accommodate a coverage area the size of Queensland.
- Upside-down streetlight sensors: The sensors and controllers are above the light fixture with a typical smart streetlight. However, Australia’s harsh weather conditions and abundance of birds necessitated a creative design and hardware solution.
- In-country data residency requirement: Per Australian law, all smart streetlight data had to reside on servers within the country’s borders, which meant a cloud-based solution might not be feasible.
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THE TRANSFORMATION
Deployed Quantela Smart Streetlighting solution
Queensland’s DTMR team contacted specialized vendors for the project. Quantela’s worldwide expertise in smart streetlight projects made it an ideal fit. Using the Quantela LightingGale Central Management System (CMS) to control the 35,000 streetlights and Quantela NB-IoT/CAT-N Street Light Controllers (SLCs) as the basis of the project, technicians attached wireless hardware to every streetlight.
Given the complexities and unique challenges, Quantela enlisted UST to provide end-to-end engineering expertise to develop and enhance the SLCs.
- UST engineers validated that The Quantela LightingGale hardware, firmware, and CMS met the rigorous certification requirements of the Telstra telecommunications network; Data would be confined to an in-country cloud infrastructure
- They chose narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) technology to transmit data over long distances in a low-power mode on both LTE and 5G networks; Ensured real-time connectivity for streetlights in remote and urban locations
- They enhanced the Quantela iSLC3100-N controller and the associated firmware; the enhanced SLC could fit on top or underneath the light fixture
- They implemented a multitenancy feature so different localities can cluster, and control streetlights based on their specific needs without impacting the master streetlight grid
THE IMPACT
Improved public safety, reduced energy costs by an estimated 20-30%
With an implementation timeline of six years, the project is underway and delivering positive results. The Queensland DTMR team can remotely monitor and manage the deployed smart streetlights from the Quantela LightingGale CMS dashboard.
- They have full visibility into energy consumption and streetlight status across the system
- They can dim or turn off lights individually or set dimming and energy-saving schedules for clusters of lights better to manage usage, energy consumption, and costs
- Anticipated savings across Queensland set to be 20-30%
- Smart streetlights are easier to maintain with outage notifications, automated fault reports, and remote diagnostic capabilities
- The reports and notifications include pole IDs and GPS locations for repair teams to go directly to the outage location
- Remote diagnostic capabilities improve maintenance crew efficiency; crews are dispatched with information about the issue and necessary equipment for repair
Resources
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