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SLSC Conference wrap-up: Illuminating the path to smart cities

By intouch * posted 05-04-2019 15:39

  

Featuring nineteen world-class international speakers, 20-plus exhibitors and an astounding line-up of sponsors, the 4th International Street Lighting and Smart Controls Conference has successfully delivered on its promise to bring clarity to the complex area of LED street lighting and smart controls. 


IMG_0597.jpgHeld every two years as part of IPWEA’s Street Lighting and Smart Controls (SLSC) Program, the conference focused on providing delegates with the next steps needed to accelerate the rollout of large-scale street lighting and smart control deployments. 

The more than 200 attendees present at the conference represented:

  • Councils and council organisations encompassing more than 800,000 street lights across Australia and New Zealand.
  • Australian utilities with more than 1 million lights under management.
  • Private sector specialist providers with more than 2.5 million lights under management around the world.
  • All major LED providers and almost all of the globally leading smart controls providers.
  • A contingent of Australian Commonwealth and state government agencies, including several of the largest main road authorities.
Martyn Glover, City of Nedlands’ Director of Technical Services, said the previous conference – held in Brisbane in 2017 – was the catalyst for the city’s current street lighting program.

“It’s been a great conference. It’s been a great follow-on from the conference we went to two years ago, we got a lot out of that conference as a city – my mayor and I attended that and we looked at our street lighting strategy as a consequence of that. We came to this one to see what happens next and what is going to be the required controls for our street lighting network,” he said.

Jess_Scully.jpg“A couple of key takeaways for us has been if we’re going to do something we have to do it now. The ability to control or at least influence what happens on our street lighting network is going to be the most important thing that comes out of this, and if we don’t do it then someone is going to do it for us, and we might not end up with the result we want. It’s going to be quite interesting, all of the additional equipment that’s going to be mounted onto streetlights, I think there will be a level of resistance from the community in that space. I’m quite sure that come the next conference we’ll have even more case studies and even more places within Australia and New Zealand that have gone some distance with their smart controls and their LED street Lighting. I think the more of these [conferences] there are, the better for everybody.”

Martin Butcher from Melbourne-based Martin Butcher Lighting Design said it was the best conference he had attended in 20 years.

“I’ve enjoyed it tremendously – I think it’s a brilliantly arrange conference with a really great range of speakers. I think it’s the fact you’ve managed to get expertise from a really good range of countries, so there’s more of a global perspective in this space, mixed with some local speakers to give us a good view of what’s going on in our backyard,” Butcher said.

“The specific expertise in areas to do with ecology, to do with dark sky astronomy, the whole process of central management systems, adaptive control – lighting is such as complex area, but these areas are really important areas in their own right. To have a conference that brings all these diverse areas together under one banner is very appropriate for people trying to move forward in this space.”  

Anja McAlevey, Dunedin City Council Senior Transportation Planner, described the experience as “fantastic”. McAlevey presented on Dunedin’s upcoming LED and smart control rollout.

IMG_0547.jpg“It was really well run, really smooth and this venue is amazing, but I think the people were the real strength. I was quite humbled actually to speak amongst an amazing line-up of people who really knew their stuff. I had inspiring conversations with lots of delegates, especially people who I knew their names but hadn’t met before,” she said.

“I’ve been quite inspired by some of the speakers here to go back to Dunedin and take another look at our project monitoring – we’re about to head into the installation phase, but I really want to make sure we monitor the changes in safety, and the effect on wildlife. Overall amazing, thank you!"
 
Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public and Government Affairs for Signify (previously Philips Lighting) – the Platinum Sponsor of the SLSC 2019 Conference – said the practical nature of the program had set it apart.

“I’ve really liked the whole conference. You see many conferences where people are advocating awareness – we should do this, we should do that – but what I really liked about the SLSC Conference is it’s really practical, all the building blocks that are needed to take action and move to a more connected and smarter city to unlock the many benefits. I’m really glad we contributed and to see the appreciation of what we do, but we take as much back from the other participants,” he said.

The conference was also the launchpad for IPWEA’s new Model Business Case for Street Lighting and Smart Controls –  a document that, when released later this month, will provide guidance for local government, main road agency and utility staff wanting to put forward a compelling and accurate case for making the change to LED street lighting and/or smart controls.
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