An integrated vision

Since its incorporation in 2016, the City of Tucker has strived to balance small-town character with forward-thinking growth.

For Tucker, Ga., the road to a smart city is rooted in a multi-element integrated approach. By leveraging its existing lighting infrastructure, Tucker helped manage costs and simplified the process of bringing AI-powered monitoring and connectivity into this public space.

Tucker faced several challenges in moving forward with its smart city initiative.

One, the city had to consider how to upgrade its lighting infrastructure on a public trail, particularly as the city’s green spaces are proliferating. It also had to find a solution that was not only scalable but also affordable to improve their infrastructure, enhance lighting, implement safety protocols, and add public Wi-Fi for their trail.

Slovin said Tucker “set an ambitious goal” that would be best accommodated by an integrated design that leveraged the city’s existing lighting infrastructure.

The cable MSO used a specific smart light that had the things they wanted, including high-resolution cameras embedded with environmental sensors, Wi-Fi embedded into the cameras, as well as AI monitoring capabilities. “This solution allowed us to help them achieve their goals and have an aesthetic look that looks unique and is ubiquitous across the trail,” Slovin said. “So ultimately, we deploy these lights across the trail, which modernized their trail, and after the installation, they are planning to expand the solution to other trails and public spaces across the city.”

This installation enables real-time monitoring and provides insights into foot traffic and trail activity, while also providing public internet access. As a combined solution, Tucker officials will be able to respond more quickly to potential issues, enhance safety efforts, support a connected environment, and use data insights to help inform future updates of the trail system.

With Comcast Business’s Dedicated Internet serving as the foundation, the solution integrates multiple features, including video analytics, CCTV functionality, and a Wi-Fi hotspot into single, multipurpose high-efficiency light fixtures from smart technology provider Juganu.

Each of the lighting poles is equipped with cameras embedded along with environmental sensors. Wi-Fi was also embedded into the cameras.

Juganu’s unified smart city platform can transform city lighting infrastructure into multifunctional assets. The solution integrates energy-efficient lighting with remote management. AI-driven analytics provide comprehensive urban services, including real-time traffic management, security enhancements, and environmental monitoring of air quality and transportation.

Slovin said leveraging Juganu was part of a process to find the best players that support the solutions that it offers and certifying them as a Comcast smart solution for cities like Tucker. 

“Juganu has a lighting fixture that has an embedded Wi-Fi capability and monitoring,” Slovin said. “It's an elegant solution that allows you to control all the piece parts through one interface.”

Tucker City officials said this park initiative aligns with its broader goals to improve infrastructure, modernize public spaces, and enhance the quality of life for residents.

“Integrating smart technology into our public spaces and trails is a key step forward,” said Micah Seibel, Assistant to the City Manager. “It allows us to deliver reliable connectivity to our community and better monitor usage in a way that’s scalable, efficient, and simple to manage.”

Diverse connectivity options

Being a part of Comcast, a city has access to the cable MSO’s wide array of connectivity options.

Each solution Comcast helps create is powered by the right tools designed to provide optimal connectivity, whether it’s fiber, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, or other technologies.

For the use case with the city of Tucker, which includes green spaces, they're not near the administration building, where there is some type of fiber or internet connectivity.

“The nice thing about this solution is yes, we use the Comcast business network, but the way our solution works is that as long as you can connect the first light, these lights will propagate our Internet signal via Wi-Fi from light to light and create a mesh network,” Slovin said. “So, in this case, the first light starts really at their admin building and then goes down the trail. We were able to connect via Wi-Fi to the light from the administration building.”

He added that while “the light could have just as easily been connected with some type of wireline service, this is the single connection that will allow connectivity and public Wi-Fi throughout the trail.” 

With the first phase up and running, Tucker is building out more of the public spaces and more of the trail.

“The city has leveraged the video for CCTV monitoring,” Slovin said. “Tucker has also lit the Wi-Fi capability so the residents and guests can be in those public spaces and leverage the public Wi-Fi, so it has worked out well for the city.”

Overcoming implementation obstacles

For all the promises that the notion of a smart city has raised over the past two decades, the challenge has always been implemented.  

A smart city uses digital technology and data to improve the quality of life, enhance efficiency, and increase sustainability in urban environments. This is achieved by using technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence to connect services such as transportation, energy, water, and waste management, making them more efficient and responsive to residents' needs.

While many cities have talked about the idea, Slovin said that the implementation curve never quite lived up to expectations because carrying out a plan is fraught with the challenge of integrating all the necessary pieces to make it happen.

“As we talked to cities and communities around the country, the first challenge is complexity,” he said. “It takes a village when you think about how you develop a smart technology solution for a city: you need hardware, software, connectivity, design, implementation, and support work.”

As Comcast started to develop its own unit to address smart city opportunities, it talked with various enterprises and cities.

When it looked at surveys, most of these communities have done some type of pilot or were during a pilot, but less than 10% said they've deployed a smart solution citywide.

“We thought we could get into that business and really help reduce the complexity, leverage the various businesses under Comcast and put those various items like hardware, software, connectivity, support all under one umbrella and really help these cities solve specific business needs like improving sustainability, improving safety protocols, or improving energy management,” Slovin said. “So that's really kind of how we thought about overall the smart city opportunity and have had a fun time working with cities and creating applications to help the cities improve the lives of their residents.”

A tailored approach

When Comcast works with communities on implementing smart technology, Comcast looks at tailoring solutions for each community.

Along with Tucker, Georgia, the service provider has been involved with various smart city projects, including Philadelphia's "SmartCityPHL" initiative, a partnership with the city and other organizations to test and deploy smart technologies for traffic management.

The project incorporated Comcast’s connectivity and optical sensors onto 14 streetlights from the smart streetlight provider, Juganu. The resulting smart technology allows the City to collect real-time data to count objects, check air quality, and monitor weather conditions.

It is also working with other communities like the City of College Park, where it installed its MachineQ Gateway, which connected sensors to the city’s receptacles, addressing concerns by residents and businesses of ongoing trash overflow issues.

“College Park, which is where the Atlanta Airport is located, is an interesting case study of building a network when the garbage bins were full to notify public works and create a cleaner city and leverage that network to really grow their smart solutions from just the cleaner city initiative to OK, hey, can I use that network to add video monitoring to create a safer city,” Slovin said. “Then, they ask if they can use that environment for public Wi-Fi to create a better visitor experience.”

And while cities are starting to understand the use cases for smart technology, Comcast looks to figure out what is the best path.

"We kind of try to understand, hey, what are some of the things that are challenges of their community, and use those areas where we can help them implement a solution that helps their residents,” Slovin said.

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