Nokia and Ooredoo Qatar announced the rollout of the first 4G/5G Smart Node femtocell solution in Qatar, marking a regional first for Ooredoo Group affiliates across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia Pacific.

The deployment, showcased during MWC Doha, uses Nokia’s technology to support Ooredoo Qatar’s goal of introducing a slim, highly optimised indoor system that integrates seamlessly with its existing network.

The Nokia Smart Node is a compact indoor small cell with integrated omni-directional antennas, designed to extend LTE and 5G connectivity to businesses and residential units at low cost.

It provides secure, efficient and easily deployed coverage for small and medium indoor environments, offering clear voice quality and high-speed data with scalable capacity. Its plug-and-play design reduces dependence on customer infrastructure, while software-defined parameters can be adjusted remotely via the OAM interface, removing the need for site visits.

Versatile in both dense urban and remote settings, the Smart Node helps create reliable indoor coverage while keeping operational costs low.

For Ooredoo Qatar, the rollout is expected to significantly enhance service for enterprise and VIP/premium customers, reducing churn and strengthening loyalty by ensuring stable, secure 4G and 5G performance across key indoor locations.

Emerson has relaunched the ASCO Series 327C solenoid valve, featuring new Intrinsically Safe and Manual Reset construction versions

The valve is designed with a direct-acting, high-flow technology that offers superior flow-to-power ratios, making it ideal for high-demand industries such as power plants, refineries, and chemical processing facilities.

The ASCO Series 327C offers a balanced poppet construction for high-flow efficiency and is capable of operation in harsh environments, with temperatures ranging from -60 to 90°C. The valve’s unique two-layer dynamic seal technology reduces friction and ensures stiction resistance, providing reliable and consistent performance over its lifecycle.

The Intrinsically Safe and Manual Reset versions provide faster response times and greater reliability. The intrinsically safe model eliminates the need for an electronic booster, enabling more consistent partial stroke testing and faster response times, a significant advancement for these types of valves. Features including a unique electrical test connection, help streamline field commissioning and prevent moisture ingress during storage, providing added value to OEMs and end users.

“Facilities in demanding industries like power and chemical processing need valves that offer long-term performance with minimal maintenance,” said Anne Sophie Kedad, director Marketing Process and Sustainability, Emerson. “With the Series 327C, we are not only providing superior valve performance but also meeting the industry’s growing need for intrinsically safe solutions capable of performing critical operations with minimal downtime and lower maintenance costs. This new IS construction enables our customers to access a much more simple design as there is no electronic booster to operate the solenoid valve.”

As nations across the globe search for reliable, efficient and cost-effective ways to meet the needs of growing populations, interest in the development of smart cities continues to grow.

Nations like the UAE are pioneering the use of smart technologies and artificial intelligence to address energy concerns, optimise transit and improve public safety, leveraging real-time data from smart sensors and cameras to make informed decisions about city management.

Existing smart cities like Dubai demonstrate the potential for intelligent technologies to help streamline traffic investigations, cut energy waste and reduce crime, laying a foundation for emerging projects like Neom to develop innovative and forward-thinking safety infrastructure.

While many aspects of smart cities differ by project, all developments share a single central component. Video security systems provide the insights required to achieve smart city goals, meaning as projects become more ambitious, the features of video security systems evolve.

The role of video security in smart cities

Most major cities use video security systems to help deter crime, inform investigations and improve public safety, but the role of video security in smart cities is typically more involved as cameras become yet another sensor to leverage.

Traditional video security systems support passive workflows that rely on human operators continuously observing feeds and reviewing information to plan effective incident responses.

In smart cities, advanced technologies like data analytics and AI are used to enhance video security operations, helping operators to proactively address events with less mental strain.

The addition of smart technologies that can autonomously review video data, identify people and objects and inform real-time responses enables smart video security systems to support more advanced operations, ranging from traffic and waste management to law enforcement.

Examples of roles enhanced by video security systems in smart cities include:

• Traffic management: Solutions like Dubai’s Intelligent Traffic System use AI-driven cameras to automatically detect, record and warn law enforcement of road accidents. 
• Waste management: AI cameras fixed to waste collection vehicles scan waste bins and roads to detect missed refuse and collect data used to improve collection routes.
• Disaster response: AI-informed sensors and cameras analyse real-time data to help detect and prevent disasters, one example being Dubai’s smart fire detection system.
• Law enforcement: Solutions like Abu Dhabi’s Falcon Eye system leverage insights from thousands of smart cameras to inform police of unfolding incidents in real-time.

The impact of smart city security technologies 

Smart cities demonstrate the potential for intelligent technologies to transform the way safety and security incidents are addressed in modern society; data published by McKinsey reveals existing solutions can improve some quality-of-life indicators for citizens by as much as 30%.

In the same report, researchers suggest cities that leverage smart technologies could reduce fatalities by up to 10% and violent crimes by as much as 40%, with wider reports from Dubai revealing AI-informed security systems have already helped to reduce serious crime by 25%.

The growth of smart cities has seen video security transition away from resource-intensive, passive monitoring operations towards more proactive workflows, with leaders prioritising systems that help operators not only respond to incidents in real-time, but also anticipate potential threats.

As smart city developments become more ambitious, this theme is being expanded, with the advent of advanced GenAI-powered solutions driving new evolutions in smart video security.

The future of video security in the smart city era

To further enhance the capabilities of smart city video security solutions, new technologies are leveraging cutting-edge AI to streamline complex workflows and address unique threats.

The smart analytics solution Avigilon Unity Visual Alerts, for example, helps users overcome the limitations of existing tools that can often only detect simple objects like people and cars.

Through tools like Focus of Attention, powerful AI-based search and customisable AI-based Visual Alerts, users can set rules to alert for custom threats using natural language, enabling operators to receive real-time notifications for potential security events and then quickly find related video of specific events without manually combing through footage.

In a smart city context, these advanced AI analytic capabilities can alert operators to unusual activity, such as signs of a crowd forming, safety risks such as flooding or fire, or traffic at specific times and locations.

Solutions like Visual Alerts represent the natural evolution of smart video security as a tool to help prevent security, safety and environmental threats as well as respond more quickly to them. Informed by data-rich, specific security alerts sent to handheld devices, responders across the city can make fast, well-informed decisions.

The Middle East is a global leader in smart city infrastructure, with existing smart cities like Dubai and emerging projects like Neom paving the way for the future of urban development.

Of all the technologies that power smart cities, video security systems stand among the most important, providing required insight into most major aspects of day-to-day city management.

As smart cities become more advanced, video security technologies evolve, with emerging AI-powered solutions helping officials take a more proactive approach to creating safer cities.

About the author

Steven Mueller, senior product manager for Avigilon Unity at Motorola Solutions, has over a decade of experience in product within the video security sector. He is deeply knowledgeable about how AI and other emerging technologies can be leveraged to address security challenges, and is committed to creating solutions that facilitate response to increase safety.

At ADIPEC 2025, Technical Review Middle East spoke to AVEVA’s Jesus Hernandez, the company’s senior vice president – EMEA, who provided an in-depth perspective on the transformative journey his company is leading within the industrial sector. 

During the discussion, Hernandez outlined AVEVA’s vision for creating a more agile, efficient, and sustainable industry, underscored by their innovative Connect platform.

At the heart of AVEVA’s technological strategy is the Connect platform, which Hernandez described as an “intelligent data platform” integrating the entire asset lifecycle from the initial concept through design, build, operation, optimisation, and even into the broader community. 

This holistic integration is designed to facilitate agility within companies, empowering them to make faster and smarter decisions. Such improvements in agility, Hernandez believes, are essential for increasing operational efficiency, controlling costs, and driving sustainability initiatives across organisations.

A significant facet of AVEVA’s approach is the digitalisation of industrial assets. Hernandez emphasised the importance of collecting, contextualising, and maximising the value of data at every phase. This is from engineering and operations to optimisation. By leveraging digital twins, AVEVA enables its customers to simulate and optimise engineering, operations, and maintenance activities. This approach not only enhances decision-making but also serves as a foundation for deploying advanced AI throughout industrial processes.

However, Hernandez was quick to point out that AI is not merely a “plug-and-play” solution. He stressed the critical role of human intervention in developing, testing, and fine-tuning AI models. According to him, successful AI deployment at scale requires a marriage of technological, industrial, and domain-specific skills, supported by robust change management practices.

Energy intelligence forms another cornerstone of AVEVA’s work. Hernandez discussed how the company’s technologies are being used not only in energy-intensive environments like data centers but also to optimise the power mix for utility companies advancing renewable energy. For example, AVEVA’s solutions help firms such as Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest renewable energy companies, to maximise wind turbine efficiency, integrate diverse energy sources, and prevent network disruptions. This helps in delivering substantial monthly performance gains.

AVEVA’s platforms, Hernandez noted, are industry-agnostic. Their tools are employed across various sectors, from pharmaceuticals and mining to metals and even environmental monitoring, showcasing the versatility and innovation AVEVA brings to numerous industries worldwide.

Through these initiatives, Hernandez sees AVEVA playing a pivotal role in ensuring that artificial intelligence, data transformation, and human expertise work in harmony to unlock sustainable, long-term value for industry.