The project to revolutionise security and surveillance across the capital forms part of the Council's vision to create a Smart City Operation Facility, providing a holistic view of the city by utilising the latest technology to drive operational efficiencies, improve security and analyse trends.
The new Control Centre will see the provision of high-definition CCTV cameras, expanded security coverage, and the introduction of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence that can provide situational awareness and predict and alert new and existing threats.
The Council has partnered with North, the UK's leading IoT service and solution provider, to lead on this transformational project which is set for completion in September this year (2022).
The project will see North intelligently integrate the security system with traffic and transportation platforms to enhance the management of city operations. It will improve efficiency, quickly identify and address issues, provide simple and rapid retrieval of footage, and integrate with remote security systems that are currently not connected to the existing Control Room.
The new system will allow for better city planning and will be able to provide a richer view of how people interact with the urban environment – whether on foot, bicycle or vehicle.
With the support of North's expertise, the Council will have a true smart city platform which will have the ability to allow future integration with other smart technologies such as air quality sensors, smart parking applications, flood sensors to detect water levels, and intelligent camera analytics to monitor low emission zones.
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Community engagement has also been factored into the project with North providing apprenticeship opportunities, work experience placements and volunteer schemes to support the delivery of the contract, including working with local communities and organisations.
The City of Edinburgh Council Depute Leader Cammy Day said: "Edinburgh has big ambitions in becoming a world-leading Smart City – a digitally inclusive, data-rich and sustainable city with services that are easily accessible by all of our residents no matter where they are in the city, or what their circumstances are. We're looking to deliver a more digitally-enabled proactive service to help make everyone's lives in our Scottish Capital better and so we can continue our work towards ending poverty, meeting our net zero targets and improving wellbeing for all.
"With this Smart City partnership with North we're looking to make transformative differences to the way we manage our city - gathering real-time intelligence to improve safety on our streets, manage services more effectively and better serve the wellbeing of our residents.
"Through North, alongside our other partners, we believe we've found a strong partnership that will deliver on our world-leading vision, changing the way we provide our services to all, while improving our communities."
Scott McEwan, Chief Commercial Officer at North, said: "The implementation of IoT technology within our security offering has the power to truly transform the lives of citizens, revolutionising the ways in which we work and ensuring that the environments we live and work in are safe and healthy.
"CCTV is not only vital for crime detection, but also for preventing offences from happening and through the implementation of these transformative systems, the City of Edinburgh Council will have the ability to access data which will bring together essential and critical services to create safer communities and allow better informed decisions to be made that improve services across Edinburgh.
"We are thrilled to be working with the City of Edinburgh Council to help them achieve their Smart City objectives with intelligent data-driven solutions."
The City Operations Capability project is jointly funded by the City of Edinburgh Council and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme known as 'Scotland's 8th City – the Smart City'. Edinburgh is one of the seven Scottish cities collaboratively working toward becoming a world leading Smart City. Supported by the Scottish Cities Alliance, a partnership of Scotland's seven city local authorities and the Scottish Government, £48.2 million, including £20.3 million of ERDF support, is being invested in the 'Scotland's 8th City – the Smart City' Programme.
This latest project with North also forms part of Edinburgh's 2050 City Vision strategy, to become 'the' world leading Smart City, using technology to make day to day life simpler, greener and more connected while reducing carbon emissions to coincide with the Capital's net zero carbon by 2030 ambitions.
