In exciting news the winner of the ADEPT Digital Innovation and Technology award was the Thames Valley Berkshire Smart City Cluster, with tough competition from Norfolk and Oxfordshire.
The Berkshire-wide collaborative smart city IoT project incorporates a LoRaWAN communications network and created nine innovation challenges to addressed real service issues.
Thingitude has worked on this project since its inception, educating key stakeholders in the local authorities and providing guidance on setting the innovation challenges. We have planned, configured and supported the LoRaWAN network, and provided technical support to the SMEs who won the innovation challenges. Plus we delivered two of the challenges ourselves – a Falls Prevention System and MyWay student safety.
The Thames Valley Smart City Cluster is a great example of collaborative working between the local authorities in Berkshire and the private sector. The project was funded by the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP, led by Reading Borough Council, and managed day-to-day by the team at Stantec. The LoRaWAN network was designed and configured by Thingitude, and installed by SSL. It runs on The Things Stack, which allows us to share the network with businesses and community groups in the region who use The Things Network.
The success of the innovation programme was down to several factors – it addressed strategically important use cases; it was well-funded and well publicised; and council staff were properly engaged and supportive throughout.
Congratulations to worthy runners-up Norfolk County Council who are using the UK’s largest LoRaWAN (IoT) network to support data-driven highways service delivery. Norfolk has strong leadership and has done a fantastic job of showing other local authorities the potential of LoRaWAN and a bit of vision.
Thingitude is trusted by many UK Local Authorities to guide them as they explore the potential of smart city technology. Please contact us to discuss how we can help you.