TALQ Partners play an important role in evolving the Smart City Standard
Piscataway, NJ, USA / Melle, Belgium – October 25, 2023 – The TALQ Consortium, which developed the Smart City Protocol, a global interface standard for smart city applications, underlines the impact of TALQ Partners in improving and enriching its Specification. For example, Fluvius, the Flemish Distribution System Operator, has regularly been involved in TALQ meetings and technical discussions throughout the past 12 months. This fruitful collaboration enhanced the TALQ protocol's asset management capabilities, bringing transformative changes to smart city infrastructure for the benefit of cities and municipalities.
Fluvius, responsible for managing and maintaining over 1.2 million light points across Flanders (Belgium), is fulfilling its TALQ Partnership with regular participation in TALQ Requirements Workgroup meetings and joint technical discussions. In doing so the Consortium not only receives valuable feedback from an end customer perspective, but it allows partners as well to submit new requirements and shape the future of the protocol. Fluvius’s suggestions have helped to incorporate state-of-the-art technology for an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective lighting asset management.
One of the aims of the TALQ protocol is to facilitate the integration of multiple vendors into a single Central Management System (CMS), offering streamlined operations and reduced costs for the operator. "TALQ's existing framework for controlling and monitoring interactive luminaires aligns well with our operational needs," explains Filip Smets, Expert Materials & Methods at Fluvius. "However, we saw an opportunity to enrich the lighting asset management functionalities further and suggested some new requirements. As a TALQ partner, we're excited to contribute with our expertise."
Mutual Benefits in the Smart City Environment
For TALQ, the collaboration with partners and other experts in the field brings valuable end-user experience and, in the case described above, a wealth of knowledge in asset management. It's a win-win situation as the contributions from outside the Consortium are beneficial for advancing the TALQ protocol for all users.
"The lighting asset management dimension of smart city infrastructure is pretty complex. Working together on this topic with partners like Fluvius, who manages a large and diverse portfolio, ensures that the TALQ protocol continues to be comprehensive and robust for all our members, partners and users,” says Simon Dunkley, Secretary General of the TALQ Consortium.
For Fluvius, the partnership provides a pathway to implement a vendor-independent standard. This means significantly lower costs of operation and the opportunity to be compatible with a broader range of vendors, enhancing flexibility and operational efficiency.
By combining the extensive lighting asset management experience with TALQ's pioneering work to define the Smart City Protocol, the way for a more cohesive, efficient, and sustainable smart city landscape is paved. Both parties are committed to a long-term vision that values open standards, vendor flexibility, and operational excellence for investment decisions in cities globally.
About the TALQ Consortium:
Founded in 2012, the TALQ Consortium has established a globally accepted standard for management software interfaces to control and monitor heterogeneous smart city applications. The TALQ Smart City Protocol is a specification for information exchange, suitable for implementation in various products and systems. This way interoperability between Central Management Software (CMS) and Outdoor Device Networks (ODN) from different vendors is enabled, such that a single CMS can control different ODNs in different parts of a city or region. TALQ is an open industry consortium currently consisting of more than 50 member companies.
About Fluvius:
Fluvius is the Flemish Distribution System Operator (DSO), managing and maintaining over 1.2 million light points, among other assets. Fluvius is committed to providing reliable and sustainable energy distribution solutions.
