Golden Gate (Photo : Reuters)
Los Angeles new street light system will soon enable to control its LED street lights from just a single laptop.
According to KSL.com, the plan which was unveiled on Wednesday is to put mobile chips to all existing street lights and connect to the city's cellular network. This will allow a city staff to be able to turn individual lights on or off. This is so to brighten the lights, accommodate film shootings or a sporting event that will be held downtown L.A.
It will also able the city officials when a particular light goes out and monitor a light bulb's energy usage. All these functions can be accessible through the web browser.
"We'll be able to find out if a light goes out right away, as opposed to waiting for someone to call," said Ed Ebrahimian, Director of the city's Bureau of Street Lighting. "It's really about customer service."
As of today, L.A. can remotely control only around one third of its 160,000 LED street lights, however the old system that is being used is not very manageable since it lacks the GPS capability, disclosed Ebrahimian.
Initially, the first upgrade will cover around 15,000 street lights and soon will hopefully cover the remaining 95,000 lights that are not yet networked.
The addition of GPS to the existing old street lights will enable the lights to be linked into L.A.'s 911 system. Through this, the lights can be controlled to shut on or off during emergencies or make them blink as a warning sign to the community, CNN reported.
