Southend-on-Sea Chooses Telematics Wireless to Smarten Its Streetlights

Telematics Wireless, a leader in smart city applications, today announced it has been selected to deploy its T‑Light™ Pro streetlight control and monitoring system across the Borough of Southend-on-Sea. The implementation includes the deployment of approximately 14,500 Light Control Units (LCUs), system gateways, and a central management solution, integrating LED Ampera lanterns supplied by Urbis Schréder. This deployment supports the council’s energy-saving initiative to upgrade street lighting to LED and replace legacy lighting columns. Southend-on-Sea is located 40 miles east of central London and is the largest conurbation in the East of England, with a population of approximately 175,000 residents across more than 16 square miles. Deployment of the Telematics Central Management System (CMS) was scheduled to begin in February 2016.

The T‑Light™ Pro system is a wireless mesh multi-hop network, incorporating self-healing and cognitive radio algorithms, enabling secure and reliable two-way communication between lighting nodes and the CMS. Communication is supported via a wireless network using a limited number of lamppost-mounted gateways equipped with cellular modems. Southend-on-Sea selected 7‑pin NEMA LCUs for ease of installation and seamless network integration. The system provides real-time control, allowing the council to adjust lighting levels dynamically, receive automatic fault reporting and alarm notifications, and respond more quickly to outages while reducing maintenance costs and delivering energy savings.

The smart lighting system will also act as a platform for future smart city applications. The new CMS RF infrastructure can support additional connected solutions, including water resource management, traffic applications, and environmental monitoring.

“A smart infrastructure will give our residents confidence in the council’s ability to reduce energy costs and CO₂ emissions efficiently, while enabling future savings through advanced smart capabilities,” said Paul Mathieson, Group Manager at Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. “We aim to integrate this smart CMS system with other IT applications, including future ICT procurements and cloud-based solutions.”

“Southend-on-Sea is clearly demonstrating its commitment to expanding the use of technology. Deploying a smart infrastructure will enable the Borough to cost-effectively introduce additional smart city applications,” said Eddy Kafry, Chief Executive Officer of Telematics Wireless. “We look forward to supporting Southend-on-Sea in advancing its technological capabilities while enabling further savings and efficiencies through smart city solutions.”