Comark Corp Launches CIVIQ Smartscapes
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
At Smart Cities Week in Washington, Comark Corporation is launching CIVIQ Smartscapes LLC, a new company that is intended to design and manufacture interactive ‘smart city’ communications structures.
For more than 40 years, Comark has designed and built ruggedized display and computing systems such as safety control systems for high-rise office buildings and mission control systems for ships at sea.
Over the past several years, opportunities in the smart cities marketplace have expanded dramatically as municipalities, city leaders and planners look to technology and data to solve urban growth challenges.
Drawing on its deep expertise as a developer of robust public-facing hardware and extensive partnerships with best-in-class service providers, Comark created CIVIQ Smartscapes to specifically serve this emerging market.
The company and its partners create smartscapes – a cityscape transformed by the addition of networked communications devices. An always-on smartscape enriches the lives of a city’s residents, business owners and visitors by providing a wide range of social benefits and services, and fueling connection and commerce.
The types of benefits and services provided by smartscape structures vary depending on a city’s need, but could include free public Wi-Fi, wayfinding and emergency communications, for example. CIVIQ Smartscapes has also devised an innovative and scalable funding model by which cities worldwide can implement customized hardware solutions with up to 100 percent of the cost, from planning and manufacturing to installation and ongoing operation, covered by non-tax revenue streams.
With CIVIQ Smartscapes’ interactive communications devices, city planners and on-the-ground users get more than just a public Wi-Fi system – they get a streetside destination that is tailored with services based on each community’s specific needs. With the option of smart city sensors, small cells, and city-specific apps and data services, CIVIQ Smartscapes increases the overall functionality of urban landscapes and improves the lives of the people who use them.
CIVIQ Smartscapes Chief Commercial Officer Brad Gleeson told us “The primary goal for our smartscapes is to connect people. By bridging social technology gaps, we can improve residents’ quality of life and visitors’ travel experiences, while simultaneously making cities everywhere more efficient, interconnected and prepared for the future.”
CIVIQ Smartscape’s vision will become a reality with the installation of its first LinkNYC terminals on the streets of New York City – as part of the consortium CityBridge, CIVIQ Smartscapes designed and manufactured terminals to replace outdated telephone booths. These new elements of urban tech amenities will give users unprecedented access to free 24/7 public Wi-Fi, free phone calls anywhere in the U.S., free mobile charging stations and more, while at the same time generating more than $500 million in revenue for the city over the first 12 years.
The LinkNYC project has already won recognition as one of the Harvard Kennedy School’s 2015 ‘Bright Ideas’ conferred by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. It is the first step in CIVIQ Smartscapes’ strategy to design and deliver smart technologies to cities worldwide, providing citizens with hands-on access to leading-edge technology services right where they live.
About CIVIQ Smartscapes
CIVIQ Smartscapes designs and manufactures interactive “smart city” communications structures that provide access to and enhance public information, commerce, safety and efficiency to create “smartscapes” – the future of intelligent urban infrastructure. By pulling the best technology and most relevant partners together, CIVIQ Smartscapes is able to design, manufacture and deliver turnkey networked structures that provide cities with a range of beneficial services and capabilities, covering up to 100 percent of the cost through advertising revenue.
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