Manufacturer’s latest Living Product plank finds inspiration in the urban environment of the future
Press Release
Smart cities unite people through high-speed technology and connectivity. Mohawk Group’s Smart City collection—a 12" x 36" Living Product carpet plank system—explores a future in which the urban environment nurtures its citizens through these advancements and sustainable development. As cities become more desirable for business, culture and personal opportunity, they are shaping the evolution of human experience.
The rise of the smart city will rely on the ability of stakeholders to collaborate, engage citizens and act on data. Partnerships are hard at work and planning is under way to overcome the legacy of siloed services, focus on integrated systems that will ultimately be more adept at delivering critical services, empower communities and elevate our quality of life.
For more than 100 years, electric utilities worldwide made relatively few investments to electric distribution networks; focusing primarily on generation and transmission infrastructure. As such, the traditional electric distribution system—comprised of a passive network of poles, wires, transformers and capacitors— delivered power to commercial, industrial and residential customers in largely the same manner for decades.
Black & Veatch’s 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/Smart Utility Report reinforces lessons learned in the past year—although governments and municipalities believe strongly in the smart city model, they continue to struggle to fund these efforts.
Data collection and the processing power needed to support autonomous driving are huge areas of focus for development. Companies are investing heavily in driverless technologies, evidenced by news that Intel Corp. is acquiring Mobileye, an autonomous driving technology leader whose portfolio includes machine learning, road mapping, sensors, and data analytics among other technologies.
The future of electric utilities is tightly bound to their ability to provide automated distribution of electric services. To support these evolving intelligent delivery systems, reliable high performance Internet Protocol (IP) data communications are required. Today’s utility communications networks consist of two distinct parts: Information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), with the IT network supporting the business operations and the OT network supporting electric service delivery operations.
Black & Veatch 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/Smart Utility Report
Multimedia with summary
As the communication technologies leveraged by the public safety sector advance, the intersection with smart city initiatives becomes all the more inevitable. Technological advances afforded by broadband long-term evolution (LTE) networks have changed how first responders, city and county officials, public agencies and transportation fleets communicate and gather data to better serve their communities.
Black & Veatch 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/Smart Utility Report
Multimedia with summary
As governments consider where to spend their smart city funding, they may initially center on the critical building blocks of a smart city but often become subject to short-term budget priorities.
Strategic Directions Report reflects increasing engagement tied to smart city, smart utility efforts
Press Release
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas, January 24, 2017 /3BL Media/ – Cities and utilities are increasingly relying on data analytics tools to advance their smart systems, even as municipal leaders grapple with how to pay for these upgrades. Fulfilling the smart city promise will require integrating communication technology and increasing stakeholder engagement.
