Urban Lighting Innovations is a Berlin smart city company that turns streetlight poles into IoT hubs for traffic, environmental and parking data. It has used Fleximodo sensors since 2021, when its first 67 sensors went into service, and the programme now spans several German municipalities.
What problem did Urban Lighting Innovations have?
Its pole-mounted cameras could not see every bay. Camera detection from a streetlight works where there is a clear view of the parking spaces. In tree-lined streets, narrow historic centres and under building overhangs, leaves and structures block that view, and occupancy data drops out.
The company needed a detection method that works from ground level, whatever is overhead, and that feeds the same municipal data platform as its cameras.
What was installed?
The core is the IoT Parking Sensor Standard 2.0 on NB-IoT, in three mounting variants chosen per site:
- In-ground for standard streets where the surface can be cored.
- On-ground with On-Surface Adapter for sites where road cutting is restricted.
- Flush-mount where the sensor must sit level with the road surface.
Every variant uses the same dual detection: a 3-axis magnetometer and radar, with automatic temperature compensation. Connectivity runs over NB-IoT, with a private APN option for municipalities that want sensor traffic kept off the public network.
From late 2023 the programme also added a full guidance and permit stack at two sites:
- IoT Permit Cards (BLE) to identify authorised vehicles.
- Flip-dot parking guidance signs showing live free-space counts on approach.
- CityPortal for driver navigation, monitoring, reporting and statistics.
IoT-HUB processes the sensor, card and sign data. DOTA handles sensor monitoring and remote firmware updates, so the fleet can be updated without site visits.
What does the city get from it?
Occupancy data for the bays cameras miss. Cameras cover open areas, ground sensors cover obstructed ones, and both feed one municipal platform through Fleximodo's API.
Where the full stack is installed, drivers see free spaces on the signs and in CityPortal, and enforcement staff can see which occupied bays hold a permit. The municipality gets one view of parking across very different street types.
For another city programme in Baden-Württemberg, see Digitale Agenda Ulm.