To become a leading example in smart city development, though, GCC nations have some stiff competition, and several ranking places to climb.

Smart cities getting ready for the big push

Key to all smart cities is a willingness of local governments to fund and commit to the rather huge undertaking that is transforming a sprawling metropolis into something that can utilise increasingly efficient and sustainable technologies. At the moment, Oceania and Asiaraces to become “smart” cities, and the typical suspects emerge among the top-ranked smart city administrations.

London tops the bill for smart city governments, with Singapore, Seoul, New York, Helsinki, Montréal, Boston, and Melbourne in tow. That said, by all accounts, Singapore was the first that managed to become a smart nation – due to it being a city-state – presenting itself as a sound model for others to follow. The city of around 5.4 million people pivoted to becoming a smart city due to the need to be efficient with such a high-density population.

Over in the United States, a country that many would have likely tipped to be a leader in smart cities, the process is somewhat slow. Cities are certainly attempting to apply new technologies to relieve issues like traffic congestion and to meet green targets, but the national government committed a mere $160 million from 2016 to 2021 to support smart city plans. In contrast, in 2015 India offered up $7.4 billion for smart city development.

Instead, the focus appears to be on the underlying technology first in the US. The North American nation and China at least triple the next highest spender in IoT, with Japan being that next top spender at $65.4 billion, according to 2019 data. The US also leads G20 countries by way of IoT development opportunities, with South Korea and UK just behind.

With so many of the richest nations in the world seeking to transform their biggest cities with IoT, it’s understandable that GCC countries would see this as the next necessary step. The UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia – in particular – have rapidly developed their urban areas in an attempt to catch up to and exceed the rest of the developed world at breakneck speed. Now, their sights have turned to extravagant smart cities.

State of play in leading GCC nations

The Middle East famously has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world, with Qatar even going as far as topping the global internet speeds index in 2021. While Iraq, the State of Palestine, Syria, and Yemen lag behind significantly, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bahrain, and Kuwait all boast internet penetrations in excess of 90 per cent. The populations are also rapidly becoming digitally inclined.

Already, the vast majority of people in the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait actively use social media regularly, even to the extent that those three nations are world leaders in this regard. While once blocked, now VoIP services have been able to become wildly popular, with Zoom and Skype leading the market. There’s also an increasingly high demand for online entertainment.

While sports streaming and mobile gaming are coming to the fore, the less demanding and more readily available platforms of online gambling continue to accrue players in the Middle East. Recognising the needs of the market, a site collating online gambling reviews for Arabic players was established. Now, would-be players can quickly find trusted sites that offer their services in local languages, such as Arabic and Persian,as well as all the necessary information required to get started.

This aspect of tailoring an online service to local languages is very important as, for the most part, the IoT hasn’t been crafted for the Middle East. So, nations of the region have taken it upon themselves to change this. Now, IoT revenues look set to eclipse $50 billion by 2025 in the Middle East and North Africa region, with over one-third of Middle Eastern companies already adopting IoT, according to reports.

It’d be easy to palm off these efforts as one-upmanship, but there’s far more logical reasoning behind Middle Eastern countries pouring money into IoT and smart city development: sustainability. The Middle East rose to prominence on oil, and now, seeing the changes coming far quicker than their client nations, the GCC is turning to smart cities as their efficiency solution. Already established or in development are The Line in Saudi Arabia, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, and Lusail City in Qatar. The desire, drive, and funding are there for the Middle East to, once again, surge up the global rankings as it rapidly applies the IoT and smart city solutions.

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Well, we might not have created an AI partner like J.A.R.V.I.S but we are able to control, not just our smartphones and computers, but everything including lights, doorbells, speakers, windows, door, appliances, heaters, you name it! We are able to communicate with these devices and they take our commands.

I repeat, this is not science fiction; it’s the Internet of Things (IoT). It is a crucial component of smart homes and home automation installers sydney.

Home Automation is exactly what it sounds like. You have the ability to control items around the house with the click of a button or voice command. This has made our life simpler and better. By introducing smart devices into our daily routine, the stress on mundane tasks are considerably lower and the ease of living have gone up. You just need Cox Internet to connect with these smart devices and everything will be at your bay.

We created a list of all the smart devices you must-have for your homes:

Digital Home Assistants

To be honest, digital assistants have come a long way. We have witnessed the revolution from the first IBM PC that could recognize a handful of words to Siri, the first digital assistant ever in a smartphone. Google and Amazon have also jumped in the bandwagon with their assistants. There are multiple options available to choose from. However, we recommend getting the Amazon Echo powered by Alexa.

Amazon Echo

Although, the Amazon Echo is a Bluetooth speaker it has tons of useful features. It is powered by Amazon’s handy voice assistant called Alexa and works directly with your smart home devices by the sound of your voice. This isn’t it. If you already have a speaker, you can connect Amazon Echo with its and Alexa’s functionality will be added. Furthermore, you can also get the Echo Show that comes with a touch screen and lets you rule the house by the touch of your finger.

Smart Home Surveillance Cameras

Homes are our most valuable possessions. You do not want any intruder to rob you out of your valuable possession when you are away for holidays. With Security cameras in place, you can keep an eye on things and this brings peace of mind. With Smart Cameras in the market, you can monitor everything from your cellphones or laptops and authorities can be alerted just in case there is a security breach.

Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera

Gone are the days when you had to manually wire your security cameras with computers for surveillance. Arlo is the gold standard in the world of security cameras and Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight is their newest product. The Pro 3 is the first wireless camera and that is right: You can stick it on your doorway with no hassle of wiring.

It comes with 2k video with HDR, night vision, built-in alarm, 160-degree field of view and many other advanced features

Smart Cleaning Solutions

The core purpose of home automation is convenience. We can even get some help with the vacuuming instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a house cleaner. 

Roomba

iRobot has a superb variety of robot vacuums and their Roomba is legendary. These vacuums can be controlled from your smartphones. With Roomba, you get a 60 minutes battery life and it takes very little time to charge them once again to the dust cleaning business.

Smart Thermostat

We waste a lot of electricity on heating or cooling empty rooms and by automating your thermostat you can save a fortune on your electricity bills.

Ecobee Smart Thermostat

The new Ecobee Smart Thermostat comes with the voice control feature and has a number of features to choose from. You get enhanced Alexa, multimedia support, and most importantly you can control the temperature of your house from your smartphones. The installation is quite easy and comes with a user-friendly app.

Smart Lighting

Philips Hue family gives you complete supremacy over the lights in your home. You get to control the color and intensity of light. Although it gets a bit pricey Hue ecosystem works with all other systems such as Alexa and Siri.

The post Must Have Devices for a Smart Home in 2020 appeared first on Proche.

Interior design renderings are changing the real estate industry in numerous ways. If you haven’t considered using this as part of your selling process, you might want to reconsider.

Showcase the Property

The best way to make a prospective client in a particular property is by having them take a tour. However, if they have an incredibly busy schedule or live in a different town or state, this can be challenging. By using technology to your advantage, customers can look at the property from the comfort of their home and get an idea if the house is something they’re interested in.

Starting from the front door, you can take the customer through the house on a virtual tour. Since this technology is so precise, you’ll be able to show clients the exact measurements of a home and what features and colors are included. They can go on the tour on their own time, and this can be just what they’re looking for with their busy schedule.

Make Changes to the Home

Not all houses on your list will be in pristine condition. Some may require work, and it may be hard for clients to imagine what the finished product will look like. However, if you use interior design rendering, you can visually display what the house will look like once renovations or changes to paint colors have been made. This can help with already built homes that need some work, as well as for newly constructed ones.

If your client is curious to know whether or not their furniture will fit into space, you have the ability to answer this question for them as well. Again, these renderings give accurate and precise measurements, so if you know the measurements of their furniture, you can show them how their new home may look.

More Cost-Effective

Your client wants to make sure they are investing in something that will be worth their time and money. If they are building a new home, the traditional way of using 2D blueprints opens up the possibilities that mistakes can occur. It becomes more challenging for the client to see the final product. When you use technology, they’ll be able to see the final product from the get-go, as well as make any changes to their design. You’ll also ensure that mistakes are taken care of before construction begins.

It takes a huge chunk of money to buy a house and finding the right one takes some time and effort. To make things easier on your clients and increase the visibility of your listings, you should consider using advanced technology.

The post How Interior Design Renderings Are Changing the Real Estate Industry appeared first on Proche.

Smart infrastructures and smart Data Centers (DCs) are at the core of smart cities and they manage, coordinate, and rationalize the resources demanded. Array has assisted in devising futuristic data centers for smart cities by introducing unique concepts such as Hyperconvergence in networking into the DCs. Their advanced security solutions are designed with network security protocols like ECC. It enhances application security, and provides complete visibility into various threats and performance inhibitors, allowing organizations to make informed and proactive security decisions. Array’s hyper converged solution stack include ADC , Web application firewall , DDoS , Web vulnerability scanner , SSLi & Array MARS Visibility & analytics tool .

Shibu Paul, Regional Sales Director– APAC, Array Networks said, “We are glad to be part of making ‘Smart Cities’ real. We have been contributing to the initiative since it started back in 2015. Yes, we are making cities smart from the start. The smart cities will be the future enabler in accelerating India’s economic growth and at the same time will improve lifestyle. If we talk about numbers, smart cities have helped us in growing at a rate of 40% in last two years. It has generated $5Million revenue for us.”

Besides contributing to smart DCs, Array supports various advisory bodies like state missions ,Various national security council’s involved in the smart city initiative. Array helps in drafting the application and cyber security policies ensuring the highest level of cyber security with punitive actions against unscrupulous access. Besides, they have a full-fledged IT testing lab for providing sanitation and security assurance for products/solutions and Bangalore Center for Technical assistance (BCTA) for assisting tier 2 smart cities.

“Array’s smart city solutions are designed keeping in mind the growing importance of utilizing data in safe, secure way. Our solutions are field-proven in the world’s largest telecoms, financial institutions and Fortune 500 enterprises with 99.999% uptime.”

The post Array Contributes to Smart Cities Mission; 15 cities and counting appeared first on Proche.

Use Less Paper

Setting up a system in which you use less paper every day is one of the first steps towards going green in any office. Purchase paper that comes from recycled sources. Reuse paper whenever possible, such as by using both sides before tossing it into the recycling pile so it can be kept out of landfills and recycled again.

You can also reduce your overall use of paper by opting to maintain digital records for your business, such as electronic balance sheets and digital receipts. Whenever possible, you should also opt for paperless statements and other correspondence from the banks, clients, and vendors that you work with regularly.

Save Energy by Using Smart Lighting Solutions

LED light bulbs are energy efficient, so you can save money on your energy bill because they’ll consume less energy than other types of light bulbs. On top of that, they’re long-lasting, they have become much more affordable than they used to be, and they can brighten up a space really well.

However, in addition to light bulbs, you can also make your office more eco-friendly by allowing plenty of natural light to flow into the space throughout the day. By doing so, you might not even need to turn the lights on at all. So, if you don’t already have a large window, or perhaps even a skylight, consider using a different area of your house that offers more light, or consider installing new windows if that’s possible and within budget.

Turn Off Electronics at the End of the Day

You might be tempted to leave your computer on throughout the night by just allowing it to go into sleep mode, but this actually causes you to waste energy. Instead, shut down your computer, as well as other electronic equipment, such as your printer, at the end of the day. Also, consider installing smart appliances and sockets where you can that can be switched off from remote. 

Cut Out Water Bottle Usage

Try to cut down on the amount of bottled drinks you buy. It can be all too easy to keep a crate of bottled water in your office for easy access, however, something as simple as installing a smart water cooler will help you eliminate plastic water bottle usage.  You can follow this link for more information and additional ideas on how to create an eco-friendly office.

Use Eco-Friendly Furniture

Eco-friendly furniture that doesn’t contain plastic or is made of sustainable or recycled materials is yet another way to create an eco-friendly office. This type of furniture is stylish and a great investment for those who want to be kind to the Earth. Setting up a home office that’s environmentally friendly is actually quite easy. You don’t need to spend a lot of money or time in establishing a workspace where you can do what you love and support the health of the planet at the same time.

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Dholera SIR is not the only smart city in India but there are number of private and Govt funded projects are under construction. To reap the market potential there are number of smart cities companies in India, ready to incase the market opportunities. Here is the list of smart cities companies, pioneering in India market.

The must attend annual smart city events:

1. www.smartcitiesindia.com
2. www.smartcityexpoindia.com

List of Pioneering Smart Cities Companies

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