Innovative Technology Holdings
Connecting People with Technology

Although various city administrations and municipalities have started going “Smart,” the use of high-tech, digitally-driven poles is rather on the lower side. According to Bryan Bayges, President and CEO of Innovative Technology Holdings (ITH), the problem lies with the aesthetics of the pole. “I can’t stress enough how much the look and feel of a pole structure influence the way a community, municipality, city, and state represents themselves,” says Bayges. Maintaining (if not enhancing) the aesthetics is a bigger priority, especially for historic downtown districts with pole structures that represent their culture. In order to integrate smart solutions with these legacy infrastructures, one has to mount additional hardware, including exposed enclosures, conduits, and antennas on the outside of the pole structure. “Our Mobility Point Connected Community Pole allows the end-user to deploy the hardware, including the RF antennas inside the pole and throughout its length. In doing so, we enhance the aesthetics of the pole structure, and improve its overall capabilities while supporting the requirements of traditional pole structures,” states Bayges.

ITH focuses on connecting people with technology through its innovative solutions and is on a mission to help municipalities, cities, and utility companies understand the value of their real estate positions and assisting them in understanding how to monetize their pole assets. The firm is successful in integrating various smart city applications and services with its Mobility Point Connected Community Pole infrastructure. The offering allows the owner of the pole structure to deploy smart technologies such as but not limited to smart street lights, cameras, analytic capabilities, Wi-Fi, digital displays, 4G/5G cellular radio’s, autonomous vehicle driving solutions, metered distributive power, hardened secure 10GB+ layer 3 managed POE/POE+ switches, and hardened micro server for AI and edge application computing inside it while maintaining the aesthetics. “We want to provide our clients an economical solution that gives them the flexibility and scalability to grow into their Mobility Point Connect Community Pole over time while enterprises figure out what smart city means to them and what technology solutions are to be deployed first. We offer all of this while providing the clients a reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and protecting their long term investment in the pole infrastructure itself”, says Bayges.

The company creates an infrastructure solution that not only works for the carriers but supports the city, device manufacturers, and other third parties that wish to integrate their services by deploying hardware devices onto the community pole infrastructure. The design of the pole enables them to manage data and power while keeping every service provider in their segregated silos. This approach allows any technician to service or update their equipment without affecting other devices. The connected community pole also brings significant cost savings as it is lightweight when compared to traditional poles. Workers can easily mount it without heavy machinery and thereby reduce labor and transportation costs. Another advantage of the pole lies in its resistance to strong winds despite weighing less. The connected community pole can withstand wind speeds up to 160 MPH, which works well during extreme weather conditions.

We are not just a pole manufacturer; rather we are a solution provider that takes into consideration a lot of business challenges that cities, utilities, and other third parties face in the digital economy

From an environmental perspective, the Connected Community Poles are eco-friendly as they are not chemically treated. Above all, the superior dielectric strength of the pole makes it much safer for a lineman to work without considerable safety risks. This property also ensures enhanced public safety as it prevents possible electrocution unlike steel poles. Digging a little deeper into protecting people from risks, ITH’s Connected Communities Poles come with an optional patent-pending advanced cybersecurity platform that addresses data protection and privacy standards mandated by the state and federal governments. Bayges says, “Every pole, every car, and every device represents a possible vulnerability and weak spot into the core network today, and the number of these possible vulnerability points multiplies each day as we deploy more and more technology. Having a cybersecurity plan with a state of the art security platform that can minimize the risk of data loss and possible loss of life is paramount for all stakeholders involved in a smart city deployment. We try to make it easy for our partners and end customers by bringing them tested and proven cybersecurity solutions that can be trusted.

“We are not just a pole manufacturer; rather, we are a secure IT solution provider that takes into consideration the challenges that cities, utilities, and other third parties face in the digital economy,” says Bayges. For instance, realizing the transition challenges in street lighting from CFL, and HPS lamps to LED lighting, ITH introduced custom multi-voltage surge suppressors that clean the power before it’s delivered to the hardware. The device prevents voltage spikes from damaging LED drivers, and any IT equipment that may be installed today or sometime in the future. The surge suppressor is also equipped with EMI filtering, which can reduce the high-frequency electromagnetic noise that protects the hardware mounted inside the pole.

“As technology evolves, so does ITH’s products and solutions,” Bayges says, “In the days to come, we will focus on testing innovative products, applications, and services. Through this, we strive to deliver and support a variety of smart devices that can transform businesses and communities. With that, we intend to connect more people with technology.”