A smart city in a connected-everything world

Jacques Der Ohanian

February 24, 2022

Welcome to a future built on Digital Age Communications with “connected-everything” where life is simpler, cities are smarter, and people are happier.

In a digital world, where intelligent and connected objects are infiltrating our homes, buildings, and cities, the need to provide the right solutions that can connect everything to create smart cities, with smart services, for smarter living, has never been more urgent.

The good news is a world of “connected-everything" offers a foundation to address the growing demand for smarter, healthier, and more efficient cities.

But what do citizens really want?

Creating a smart city isn’t just about implementing technology. It’s about enabling connections. In our current world climate, people have recognised their need to connect, and not just with their colleagues, friends, and family, but with other citizens, their government, and local leaders. They want to have a voice in what the future looks like, and they want to be actors of change.

Ultimately, the goal of many cities today isn’t to create just a “smart city”, but rather, a “smart life”, where everyday interactions are better and easier — in a better environment. The rise in smart city technology, from Internet of Things (IoT) to analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as the benefits that sensors and connected tools can bring, is enabling communities to connect in a way never before possible.

Intelligent sensors can improve communities’ security and safety, and they can help make us feel more connected and informed by providing indicators about health conditions, sustainability, and climate change. The right tools can respond to urgent situation that need to be attended to quickly in the modern world. They can also identify social trends, paving the way for improved interactions and communications.

Enter the era of Digital Age Communications

Multimedia communications has emerged as an essential part of everyday life. However, in the last couple of years we’ve increasingly seen that communications don’t always start with human interactions. Conversations can be triggered by objects, sensors, and also by applications and AI. Truly smart communications only start when all interactions that happen in the digital world are linked.

The smart city of the future will be developed around the idea that we communicate better when we consider all potential input from any conversation, between people, things, and objects. Even when they seem to be primarily between people, conversations can be enhanced with contextual information from devices, machines, and AI.

It’s clear the global health crisis has exacerbated the need to address the challenges of ever-increasing city populations, the desire for connection and inclusion, and the ongoing need to address climate change. While the concepts at the centre of smart cities have been growing in popularity for some time — namely AI and IoT — the pandemic has certainly forced us to take stock of what we can do in a world of connected communications.

A bright future

Whatever the trend or evolution in areas like AI and IoT, the success of any new initiative starts with a basic need to connect people, objects, and applications. Today, many locations around the world are beginning to experiment with the concept of constant communications. Cities are deploying smart parking, lighting, and waste management. Autonomous vehicles are being tested in living labs. Noise, air, and scent analytics are being studied to facilitate methods of early detection and incident prevention. Energy, from delivery and consumption, to security management is another significant area of focus and investment.

In the emergency services landscape, ensuring people get the help they need as quickly as possible is essential. Technology that could automatically send interactions, for example, between an emergency vehicle and a traffic light system to turn the light from red to green when it’s safe, could be a game changer in saving lives.

Digital Age Communications is poised to take us into a “connected-everything” future. It’s time to embrace the possibilities and the promise of a world where lives are simpler, cities are smarter, and people are happier.

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