Smart city of the year also thanks to HESS modular columns

The Australian city of Newcastle, located in the state of New South Wales and the country's eighth largest city with around 300,000 inhabitants, is characterised by an interesting contrast between the world's largest coal export harbour, with its huge cargo ships on the one hand and the distinctive art and culture scene with numerous galleries, colourful street art and graffiti on the other hand.

Smart City initiative with new lighting solution

In 2017, the city launched a Smart City initiative planned to be implemented over a four year period of time. This initiative had the aim of improving the quality of life, sustainability and economic diversity.

Part of this initiative is an intelligent and versatile public lighting system which, in addition to its functional and energy-saving nature, includes other smart systems such as public WLAN, cameras, loudspeakers, spotlight technology, illuminated decorative elements and sensors.

So far, this unique lighting concept, for the entire city centre, has been implemented using around 250 CITY ELEMENTS 230 from Hess. The illuminating columns are not only sophisticated in their minimalist and modern design, but also meet the different lighting requirements of the strict Australian-New Zealand standard.

All these devices are perfectly integrated into the light column and do not impair the cityscape – on the contrary, they create a uniform appearance.

Intelligent multifunctional street lighting in Newcastle

Wharf Road, Hunter Street and Scott Street play an essential role in the new street lighting solution. While the 2km long Wharf Road runs alongside the Hunter River and to Nobbys Beach at the eastern end of Newcastle, Hunter Street branches off into Scott Street and Hunter Street.

Both streets lead through the city centre and end at the Tramway Reserve and at Pacific Park, respectively. Both parks have playgrounds, barbecue areas and host festivals, markets and concerts, inviting visitors to come and linger.

If you drive along Wharf Road, you can catch a glimpse of the Queens Wharf Ferry Terminal, the restaurants and the green areas. Furthermore, the Wharf Road is part of the "Newcastle 500", an annual motorsport event in which the racing teams compete in so-called "supercars".

The CITY ELEMENTS 230 from Hess were ready for action just in time for the first race ever in 2017 and the rush of visitors that the event attracted.

In addition to high-quality lighting, they also ensure public WLAN and, with integrated loudspeakers and cameras, provide information and security to visitors to the "race track". What’s more, additional integrated headlights provide further lighting options.

The 50 Watt LEDs with a light colour of 4000K in the terminating elements, meet the lighting requirements on all three streets.

While variable luminaire heights of up to 10 metres were chosen for Scott Street and Wharf Road, the CITY ELEMENTS have a uniform height of 11 metres along the entire length of Hunter Street.

A further objective was to homogeneously illuminate the car park on Wharf Road from above, in order to provide a high sense of security.

The planners met this requirement with additional 27 Watt spotlights in some of the intermediate elements.

Added value for the people in the city – thanks to multifunctional elements

In order to create real added value for citizens and visitors, multifunctional elements were integrated into all CITY ELEMENTS 230.

The comprehensive, public WLAN is integrated in an almost invisible way – only a small antenna in the terminating element discreetly indicates the presence of WLAN.

In a large part of the CITY ELEMENTS, the cameras integrated in the intermediate elements ensure greater security. This is particularly important at the previously mentioned major event, the "Newcastle 500" race, as well as at other events on Market Street Lawn.

Loudspeakers integrated into the luminaires along Wharf Road also ensure that spectators and guests can be informed and entertained during the events by means of announcements and music.

The 150 watt JBL column loudspeakers, installed in the basic elements, guarantee great sound thanks to their excellent quality.

In order to be prepared for more extensive multifunctional requirements, some illuminating columns are already equipped with the corresponding devices, which, among other things, enable the integration of a wide variety of sensors.

This year, the city was chosen as "Smart City of the Year" at the national "Smart Cities 2019 Conference". Newcastle is thus following up on winning the "Smart Cities Strategy Award" in 2018.

Further smart luminaires are planned for the next few years in the centre of Newcastle. With additional multifunctional applications, the aim is to make the city even more efficient, for example in order to be able to analyse traffic by collecting data. But one thing is already clear: The quality of life and inviting atmosphere will continue to be improved for residents and visitors thanks to the Smart City Initiative.