MALAYSIA, June 2016: South Oceans™, a 1,200-acre ocean-front development in Kuala Rompin along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, will be built as a smart city. Residents, tenants and visitors will be able to enjoy the smart solutions developed for the project, including the villas, retail outlets, hotel and adventure park.

The intention is to harness the potential of ICT to make living more enjoyable. For instance, visitors can be in touch with friends and family, and keep up to date with the latest news. Ultimately, the intention is for technology to complement lifestyles than compete for attention.

Using state-of-the-art smart solutions embedded at the central core of the project, it is building a RM200 million smart city using innovative planning, investment and implementation of key technologies. This direction is in tandem with South Oceans™’ vision of becoming a city of the future, and role model for others to aspire towards.

“The aim of developing South Oceans™ as a smart city is to improve the lives of Malaysians through job creation and skills upgrading. We also want to develop new business opportunities, and help improve the overall standard of living for residents of Pahang. More importantly, we want our future residents and visitors to know that we place their well-being as our top priority,” says Director, one of two directors from Kairos & Dashen Resources (Rompin) Bhd, the Malaysian entity that owns South Oceans™.

A dedicated team will be in charge of implementing smart city solutions in the development, which is projected to have approximately 15,000 residents and one million visitors annually.

What is a smart city?

A smart city is an urban development that integrates multiple information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to manage a city’s assets. These include the communications network, wireless technology systems, intelligent business management systems, transportation systems, waste management, security enforcement, and other community services. The aim is to improve the quality of life.

ICT allows direct interaction with the community and infrastructure, hence permitting the monitoring of the current situation within the city. It also tracks how the city is evolving and changing to enable a better living environment.

How will it benefit residents, visitors and businesses?
Physical Security – Security is of utmost importance in any city. Threats including theft, unauthorized access, vandalism, sabotage or terrorism can have crippling effects on community. As such, it is critical to incorporate smart solutions into the planning of the infrastructure to ensure the safety of South Oceans’ residents and visitors.

Leveraging on technology brought about by the Internet of Things, security systems will have video and audio analytics integrated into them, to enable intelligent and adaptive recognition, and situational awareness. They will be able to perform actions such as detect any tampering with the security cameras, and keep track of the movements of suspicious characters through analyzing their body language.

ONE proprietary device –
Providing interactive services within South Oceans will make it more accessible and enjoyable, and offer everyone the chance to be connected 24/7. A proprietary device named ONE will be developed for residents and visitors to use within the project.

Want to visit the Jumanji Adventure Park? ONE will show the way. Walk past a shop and be alerted to an ongoing shopping promotion. The device will even open the hotel room door so visitors need not grapple with key cards.

Big Data –
Businesses operating in South Oceans will also get to benefit from smart city technology. Big Data collected via ICT will empower enterprises with knowledge and information to use to their advantage. It will also help to maximize operating efficiencies, enhance marketing efforts and optimize sales and revenues.

Understand the profile of visitors and stock the shelves with items that will be of interest to them. Be kept up to date with changes to the inventory and get alerted when an item is running low. An employee called in sick? A quick click can update the roster and contact a part-timer to stand in.

Cybersecurity–
The cybersecurity threat is very real. The dedicated smart city team at South Oceans is well aware of this, constantly checking and implementing the necessary safeguards to offer complete peace of mind. Data protection is its number one priority, as is cybersecurity.