City of Connectivity

Smart Connectivity connects the community together through networks and information, to enable the flow of data in real time to share information and stories digitally.

Investment includes:

• Smart poles installed in CBD, Beresfield and when upgrading local centres to improve amenity by:
  • Providing access to free Wi-Fi.
  • Access to real time environmental monitoring data to help determine our city’s environmental quality, such as soil moisture, air quality and pollution monitoring.
  • Easy connection to power for street activations.
  • Efficient street lighting.
• Free public Wi-Fi available in Council owned cultural facilities and public buildings. To log on to the free high speed Wi-Fi network, look for ‘City of Newcastle free Wi-Fi’ in your network settings. No password is required.
• Cutting-edge technology like Augmented Reality (AR) to connect the current City landscape with historical indigenous sites and other cultural stories.
• Virtual Reality of our Art Gallery so that rare and fragile artworks can be made available via VR from our home.
• Establishment of an Internet of Things (IoT) Sensor Lab with local industrial designers and technologists to create an integrated product that provides sensor access to the City Centre.
• A City App to make information available such as What’s on, walking trials, information of facilities available in our parks and augmented reality experiences.
• A Digital Library. Meet Pepper the dancing robot and see books come to life inside the Magic Box. Explore the five-metre digital Storywall to discover Newcastle’s heritage, history and top 10 things to do, or use the interactive tables to browse newspapers, magazines, games and storystomp collections.