Getting started with the smart village: Alpha-Omega Technology presents the flexible IoT solution "Ortsbeleuchtung"
Municipalities can now monitor and control their street lighting intelligently with plug&play starter packages. The GreenBox Compact 3 from CleverCity replaces the ripple control technology and connects to a LoRaWAN network.
Schimberg and Berlin, 20 April 2023: Towns and municipalities in Germany are under pressure to act. Policymakers are pushing the use of smart metering systems and citizens expect digital services, while municipalities suffer from staff shortages and rising costs. Alpha-Omega Technology GmbH & Co. KG is now making it easier for them to start digitalising their street lighting with a new product package. The IoT solution „Ortsbeleuchtung“ replaces the existing ripple control technology with the GreenBox Compact 3 from the Swiss manufacturer CleverCity and an Internet of Things based on the Long Range Wide Area Network radio technology, LoRaWAN for short. A visual dashboard makes it possible to control the street lighting digitally and thus supports the path to the smart village. What makes the new solution special is its flexibility: depending on requirements, the starter packages for the conversion contain three, five or ten configured GreenBoxes plus everything else needed for operation. Available from iot-shop.de.
The conversion is simple and quick, which makes the IoT solution a sensible first project when building your own LoRaWAN infrastructure. Any number of further applications can then be integrated, because the radio technology is easy to scale. Towns and municipalities that already operate a LoRaWAN network can also use the "Ortsbeleuchtung" starter package to advance their digitalisation on the existing network. They simply replace the old ripple control receivers in their street lights with the GreenBoxes. Remote control then no longer runs via ripple control but by radio via LoRaWAN.
In addition to the configured GreenBoxes with integrated angle antenna, the package includes a LoRaWAN outdoor gateway, three months' use of the Alpha-Omega Technology demo dashboard, an introduction to using the dashboard and, depending on the package, two to four hours of support. The advantage of the solution is that it works on many of the LoRaWAN servers established in the market. The demo dashboard runs on The Things Stack. Groups can be set up and switched via multicast.
A smart solution for everyone
Jan Bose, founder and managing director of Alpha-Omega Technology, explains: "The GreenBox Compact 3 is already established as an alternative to ripple control receivers for controlling street lights via LoRaWAN. Through use case implementations, we have continuously developed demo dashboards into a standalone solution. Together with CleverCity, we now offer a flexible package with several options for newcomers as well as for established LoRaWAN operators."
Martin Weidmann, CTO of CleverCity, comments on the new solution: "We developed the GreenBox as a system-compatible successor to the common ripple control technology. To my knowledge, the 'Ortsbeleuchtung' starter package from Alpha-Omega Technology is currently the most affordable option for a conversion and a very efficient solution."
The features of the "Ortsbeleuchtung" starter package at a glance:
- Group switching with multicast
- Device overview of all GreenBoxes
- Alarm notifications
- Dynamic setup of group and gateway assignment
- Group queries
- Map view with the locations of the individual devices
- Automation
- Group overview
- Individual downlinks to the device or as multicast
LoRaWAN: potential for a wide range of use cases
Beyond replacing the ripple control technology, the solution offers further advantages: the GreenBox in combination with LoRaWAN is a sound basis for introducing smart metering or for making more effective use of the smart meter rollout. The switching times of individual lamps can be controlled intelligently and faulty lights are detected more quickly. Existing lamps can continue to be used, which saves resources and leaves the townscape unchanged. Once the LoRaWAN is in place, further applications can be implemented that help municipalities save energy, money and staff and improve their services for citizens. The possibilities range from measuring road surface temperature and fill level sensors in waste bins to traffic counters for traffic management, monitoring of transformer stations and environmental sensors. For agriculture and forestry, weather stations or the monitoring of soil properties are of particular interest, with sensors measuring temperature, moisture or precipitation, for example. They also help to detect forest fire risks early or to monitor river levels.
A pioneer in smart village solutions
With his company Alpha-Omega Technology, managing director Jan Bose is one of the pioneers of intelligent street lighting for smart villages: six years ago, in the Thuringian village of Martinfeld, Jan Bose and the then district mayor launched SMARTinfeld , a model project for smart village applications. Here too, the technical basis is a LoRaWAN. Jan Bose says: "Our company is based in Martinfeld, so we are the driving force behind the project. The expert know-how from our many years of IoT project experience flows directly into the development of new solutions such as the 'Ortsbeleuchtung' starter package."
Further information
"Ortsbeleuchtung" starter package: https://ortsbeleuchtung.de/
GreenBox Compact 3 from CleverCity: https://clevercity.ch/loesungen/GreenBox-compact/
iot-shop.de: https://iot-shop.de/GreenBox-iot-solution