The council’s Smart City Strategy focuses on introducing innovative technologies to manage resources more efficiently and improve public services. A key barrier to this vision was the city's outdated public space security system, which lacked the ability to integrate new applications and technologies.

With funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and in partnership with North, Edinburgh has launched a state-of-the-art Smart City Operations Centre built on Genetec Security Center, a unified platform that combines video surveillance, analytics and IoT sensors, through one platform.

“All truly connected Smart Cities start with unified security as success depends on centralising your operations under one platform. Otherwise, every new IoT device deployed will make you data-rich but information poor,” comments Ben Durrant, Account Executive, Genetec Inc. "Our platform differs from conventional alternatives because of its open hybrid-cloud architecture that offers the flexibility and functionality needed to evolve and keep pace with new requirements.”

With a unified platform in place, Edinburgh has been able to expand CCTV coverage in public spaces and enable secure data sharing with partners like Police Scotland, the Fire Service, and Transport for Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Council CCTV

The system not only supports day-to-day operations and the management of large-scale events such as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Royal Military Tattoo, and the upcoming Hogmanay celebrations, but it also extends its capabilities beyond physical security.

Adrew Foster, MD, Public Services at North comments: "The Security Center ecosystem allows us to gather and visualise useful data sets from advanced analytics IoT sensors on how the city is actually being used by residents and visitors. This enables the council to make more informed decision making on how Edinburgh can become even safer, greener and better maintained."

The council credits the software with saving hundreds of man hours that were previously spent manually trawling through surveillance footage. As well as with helping it to more than double the number of viewing requests from Police Scotland that it can positively respond to. The improved quality of footage submitted as evidence is also expected to increase the number of early guilty pleas, reducing the time police officers must spend attending court to give evidence.

“The benefits for Edinburgh residents are massive. Enhanced public safety, improved services, optimised traffic flow, better infrastructure and city planning,” concludes Gavin Brown, Head of Network Management & Enforcement, Edinburgh City Council.  “Genetec and North have proved instrumental in helping deliver our Smart City strategy.” 

To read the full customer story, visit: https://www.genetec.com/customer-stories/the-city-of-edinburgh-council