Cities and municipalities are incorporating intelligent lighting into their towns with smart streetlights. Facility managers and commercial property owners have the opportunity to take advantage of this technology for their own use as well in parking garages or other large parking areas that could be subjected to danger and crime. These streetlights are being implemented as a way to improve safety and environmental efforts simultaneously. The smart streetlights will be controlled remotely to operate and control streetlights from a centralized management system (CMS). CMS operations will help maintenance managers give a better and faster diagnostic about lighting repairs that are needed.

Intelligent lighting makes a useful tool for public safety. Adding lighting in parking areas and walkways already helps deter crimes like theft and vandalism. Smart streetlights can either be motion activated or sound detected which will turn the streetlights on whenever there’s a sound or a presence passing by. Video technology can be incorporated into the lighting to capture any incidents or situations. Intelligent lighting can also include speakers or digital signage to activate important public announcements.

Lighting controls, like motion sensors or timers, have been proven to conserve energy and reduce utility bills. By combining smart streetlights with LEDs, cities will be able to conserve energy and promote sustainability within their communities. Areas that have converted their high-pressure sodium lighting to LEDs have the potential to reduce the estimated national streetlight energy cost by 70%.

Click here to read the full article, originally published by Verizon.