Case Studies

The City of Perth has launched its Smart Cities program, implementing CCTV data and analytics, smart irrigation technology and smart lighting. The program has been jointly is funded through the Federal Government’s Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, with the Federal government and the City of Perth separately committing $1.3 million.

For Smart Lighting, the City of Perth has enabled the Meshed Private LoRaWAN Solution together with our partner, The ARCS Group Smart Lighting Controllers and CMS.  The solution has been designed to support:

• the reduction of Co2 emissions and energy costs
• intelligent asset maintenance and greater visibility for scheduling
• major events within the Smart Precincts; and
• safety and security improvements for its businesses and residents.

John Hawke from the City of Perth explains the benefits of the Smart Lighting Solution in the following video.

In November 2017 the Federal Government awarded City of Greater Geelong $415,000 under it’s Smart Cities and Suburbs Grants Programme.

“The project will invest in smart city technology to deliver LED lighting, environmental sensing, digital signage, smart parking and free Wi-Fi. This will benefit the community by encouraging local industry growth in digital services. Data analytics associated with this technology will enable evidence-based decision making and planning.”

Meshed was engaged by The City of Greater Geelong to establish LoRaWAN Internet-of-Things coverage across large tracts of the municipality, with the objective of enabling technologies to support the vision for a Clever and Creative Future. LoRaWAN network technology can support a myriad of different use-cases such as:

• Street Lighting control
• Environmental sensing
• Digital signage
• Pedestrian/Device Counting
• Smart Parking
• Smart Waste Bins

One of the most attractive features of the Meshed LoRaWAN model for Geelong was that all citizens and businesses can use the coverage at no cost. The network uses The Things Network global IoT cloud so that anyone can access the network and obtain information from sensor devices for free.

“The LoRaWAN model is a great fit for City of Greater Geelong as it provides us with both the ability to operate and manage our network of sensor devices as well as  providing a free public network to our community. As a region it provides Geelong with the opportunity to expand the network beyond our boundaries and enables our neighbouring councils to mutually benefit from accessing or building upon the same network”

This enables innovation opportunities for everyone in the area, at the lowest possible cost, and thus, helping school students, entrepreneurs, technologists and tech start-ups to bloom.

Geraldton is a coastal city about 400km north of Perth on Western Australia’s mid-coast region, and is an important regional hub known for itss great lifestyle, surfing/kite-surfing opportunities, commercial and recreational fishing, and it’s amazing beaches. Meshed was asked by City of Greater Geraldton in 2018 to supply a competitive proposal for establishing LoRaWAN coverage and building several proof-of-concept solutions for the city.

Geraldton is trialling several LoRaWAN Smart City use-cases including:

• Hyper-local beach weather conditions and UV rating
• Tide heights and water temperatures
• Storm water level monitoring
• People Counting in the CBD
• Smart Waste Bins
• Building security
• Free public LoRaWaN

Meshed has supplied a cloud-based dashboard so all data can be visualised in a single location, or pushed through to other council applications.

Hamilton is a thriving rural community 300km west of Melbourne in Victoria’s Western District. Southern Grampians Shire Council is based in Hamilton and is the Local Government Authority of the area, that also takes in the towns of Coleraine, Dunkeld and Penshurst. In 2016, Southern Grampians developed a regional strategic plan that aimed at improving the economic opportunities for the population into the future. As part of that plan, the Shire engaged Meshed to build LoRaWAN IoT coverage across large tracts of the Local Government area. The aim of the network is to:

• Improve connectivity options throughout the region
• Enable Precision Agriculture for local farmers at the lowest possible cost
• Enhancing on-farm productivity
• Provide a technology platform for Ag-tech startups and local entrepreneurs
• Provide council with opportunities for evidence gathering to promote data-driven decision making to improve service delivery
• Enable long range remote asset monitoring
• Enable skills development opportunities for local schools and the wider community

Manager of Business Systems at Southern Grampians Shire Council, Russell Bennett notes “We were drawn to LoRaWAN due to its open source nature, enabling our community to leverage the IoT network at no cost was the main reason for us choosing LoRaWAN over other IoT networks. Having Meshed in our corner to support and educate us on the technology has been tremendously valuable and enabled us to fast track our IoT pilots and solutions.”