VIDEO: UK’s first smart village with assistive tech devices gives residents total control

120 dwellings across the Hugh Fraser Retirement Estate in Newton Mearns, Greater Glasgow, have been transformed into high-tech digitally enabled retirement homes to give residents greater independence.

The project ensures each home is fitted with smart technology and sensors to give residents total control of heating, lighting activation and doorbells – all managed using the Amazon Alexa platform.

Promoting increased independence, the assistive technology allows reidents to control their home as they please, often from the comfort of their living room. Residents can also benefit from a greater range of interaction as they can make telephone calls through the platform, as well as listen to music and the radio.

Commsworld, a leading UK provider of networking and connectivity solutions, partnered with retailTRUST, a trade charity for the retail sector and leading UK assisted-living provider, to deliver the country’s first major use of smart technology in an assisted-living setting. The Edinburgh-headquartered company rolled out the high-speed connectivity solution across the retirement estate.

Commsworld completed the comprehensive roll-out of digital access in February 2020, shortly before the lockdown period.

It has therefore proved an “invaluable” tool for staff to support residents remotely and only attend when urgent, ensuring social distancing is adhered to and the safety and wellbeing of residents is retained.

Learn more about the smart village in the short video below:

The implementation of technology has been heralded by residents. Gordon, who has been using his Alexa device since the lockdown, said: “I get total reassurance that someone is there that I can call upon and I am connected to my relatives, staff and people through my Alexa in these difficult times.”

Commsworld built an extension to its existing modern network and connected this to the internet. This technology is used to deliver fast broadband services to residents and provide corporate connectivity to support staff.

Ricky Nicol, Chief Executive at Commsworld, commented: “We are delighted to provide this valuable solution to the residents and staff at the retailTRUST Newton Mearns estate in East Renfrewshire.

“At Commsworld, we pride ourselves in providing high level networking and connectivity solutions across a range of sectors, but it gives us a great deal of satisfaction to see the level of independence and joy our work has provided to the retailTRUST residents.

“As it is the first time that a project of this magnitude has been carried out in the UK, we hope that this innovation will be a driving force behind establishing further smart home villages throughout the country. It is the residents that ultimately reap the benefits of a full and fulfilling retirement.”

Also highlighting the growing smart home technology space to give people greater independence, at the beginning of the year at CES 2020, Toyota unveiled plans to build a prototype smart city in Japan, which combines autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and AI in a real-world environment.