The city of Colorado Springs has made advances in becoming a smart city thanks to 5G networks.
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TechTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:01 This ordinary looking trash can
00:03 is actually a smart trash can.
00:06 A sensor inside this bin feeds data
00:09 to a center that tracks and optimizes
00:11 waste management across the city.
00:13 - These are allowing us to find out the average fill time
00:17 and then we can make adjustments
00:19 based off of the pickup times as needed.
00:23 - This is one of 40 smart trash cans in Colorado Springs,
00:27 which since 2017 has been implementing
00:30 different kinds of smart technology
00:32 hidden in plain sight throughout the city.
00:35 - As you can see, the ones here have a color
00:38 that kind of blends in with the environment.
00:41 - We got an inside look at how Colorado Springs
00:43 is becoming a smart city.
00:45 This is 5G Playbook.
00:48 (upbeat music)
00:50 - What you see up there, that green pole over there,
00:56 is one of the newest small sales
00:59 that the city has enabled for vendors to install.
01:04 What these 5G small sales do is enhance
01:07 the connectivity within the more localized areas
01:09 in the city.
01:10 - Connectivity is everything.
01:13 As we look to become a smart city,
01:15 you can't be a smart city if you don't have connectivity.
01:18 It could be everything from your cell phone
01:20 to a device that's on a street light,
01:22 basically any type of sensor
01:23 that's connected to the internet.
01:25 It has to ride on that backbone of that connectivity,
01:28 and that's where 5G comes into play.
01:29 Streetlights was one of our early pilot projects
01:34 that we implemented.
01:36 So what we did is we actually implemented
01:38 streetlight controllers,
01:39 which is basically just a device
01:41 that connects to the top of a streetlight fixture.
01:44 And from that data that's collected,
01:46 we're able to tell the condition of that streetlight.
01:49 If a vehicle hits that hole, we would know that.
01:52 We would also know if the bulb goes out.
01:54 It's a subtle technology implementation,
01:57 but as a public agency,
01:59 looking out for the best interest of our taxpayers
02:01 and making sure that we're efficient in our operations,
02:04 it definitely helps improve that here in Colorado Springs.
02:08 - This is an example right outside
02:11 the city administration building,
02:13 one of the smart bins we have deployed.
02:15 We have a total of 40 within the downtown area
02:18 and its surroundings.
02:20 What these do is measure the amount of trash
02:23 that is collected over time.
02:25 And they have sensors right underneath here, the cap,
02:28 so that we can monitor that we have access to this data
02:31 on some web portals.
02:34 One of the main purposes of this
02:35 is to be able to optimize eventually
02:38 the waste management in the city of Colorado Springs.
02:41 - So the multimodal counters is a new pilot project
02:46 that we've implemented.
02:47 So this is a sensor that could basically track
02:49 whether a vehicle, a bicycle, or a pedestrian
02:53 walks by these sensors.
02:55 - And this one in particular is aiming at the alley.
02:59 What we want to do with our economic development department
03:03 is being able to understand the traffic on this street.
03:08 And this is helping our traffic engineering division
03:10 in understanding how many vehicles
03:12 so that they can use that information
03:14 in better planning for traffic
03:17 and knowing where to, for example,
03:20 deploy new traffic lights, stop signs,
03:23 or different types of signage, for example.
03:25 - And we're beginning to expand
03:27 where scooters are throughout our community.
03:29 But micromobility wasn't even a concept
03:33 five, 10 years ago.
03:34 And so that's how technology has helped change
03:37 through that connectivity.
03:38 Without that connectivity, you won't be able
03:40 to enable scooters and micromobility
03:42 because you've got to have a cell phone,
03:44 you've got to have an app.
03:45 All of that rides on the backbone
03:46 of this connected infrastructure.
03:49 One project that we recently implemented
03:52 is a program called Zone Haven.
03:54 So this helps us in terms of evacuations,
03:57 whether the evacuation be wildfire, flooding,
04:00 any other natural disaster or non-natural disaster
04:04 that occurs in our community,
04:05 and we have to evacuate a location.
04:07 Now with Zone Haven, we're able to pinpoint neighborhoods
04:11 and there's hundreds of zones
04:13 that have been developed throughout our community
04:15 so we can be more specific on who we evacuate,
04:18 who's in pre-evacuation,
04:20 who is safe and clear from danger.
04:22 Utilizing this for the safety and health
04:25 and benefit of our community,
04:28 that's why we're doing it.
04:30 A lot of the biggest challenges that we have as a community
04:33 is understanding the built environment,
04:35 the infrastructure that we have
04:36 and that we maintain as a city.
04:38 It doesn't always talk back to us.
04:40 And so by deploying these technologies,
04:43 it enables us to get data from this infrastructure
04:47 that's out there and help us make more informed decisions.
04:51 Technology won't solve all the problems,
04:53 but the data that we're collecting
04:55 and the people that are utilizing that data
04:58 will have an impact on improving that situation
05:01 into the future.
05:02 (gentle music)
05:05 (music fades)
05:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]