The City of Edinburgh, Scotland recently opened a new City Operations Centre, as part of its goal to become a leader in the UK for smart security and surveillance tools. With support from the Scottish Cities Alliance, Edinburgh is one of seven Scottish cities – including Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth, and Stirling – working towards becoming a world leading smart city.
The new smart operations center will be staffed 24/7 to receive real-time data from the city’s new CCTV network. The new network significantly expands security coverage, with an upgraded digital video surveillance system (VSS), enhancing video analytic function and data protection capabilities, and replacing analogue cameras with high-resolution internet protocol (IP) devices. This data will be integrated with other technologies to aid in improving traffic flow and transport infrastructure and city planning, with the end goal of improving the city’s collective carbon footprint.
“This new operations center has been years in the making and it’s fantastic to see it live in action,” said council leader Cammy Day. “With cutting-edge low-carbon technology designed to keep the city moving and our communities safe, it drastically steps up our capabilities as a council. We’ve completely overhauled the technology we use within the control center and across the city – replacing outdated analogue cameras with intelligent internet-enabled devices. This means we can analyze events and traffic in real time. Edinburgh is fast becoming an example of a truly smart city and it’s thanks to trailblazing projects like this. The whole operation is much more sustainable and data-driven which, crucially, is going to lead to more efficient council services for the people of Edinburgh.”
The city partnered with IT service and solutions provider North as part of a £2.6m (~ US$3.16m) contract, which was funded by the council and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
“Helping to drive positive change through smart technology and improved operational systems across Edinburgh is something that North is incredibly proud of,” said Scott McEwan, acting CEO at North. “Working together, the city now has access to real-time data that will influence the future of city planning, improve large-scale events and create a greener environment for generations to come. The City of Edinburgh Council is making transformational steps to becoming a smart city and its forward-thinking approach to the adoption of IoT solutions will help to accelerate their ambition to reach such status. We are really excited for the local authority to see the seismic impact introducing smart technologies has on the quality of the environment, and importantly, on the health and wellbeing of people who live in and visit Edinburgh.”