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Frequently Asked Questions

What would you like to know about TALQ?

What does 'TALQ' mean?

'TALQ' is just a name, not an abbreviation or acronym, but it relates to the goal of the consortium: making outdoor device networks (ODN) from various suppliers interoperate and 'talk' to a single central management software (CMS) through an agreed application protocol.

How can TALQ help cities in their tendering processes?

The TALQ Consortium aims to simplify the tender process for smart city applications and to allow cities to select a Central Management Software (CMS) from one supplier and device networks (ODN, gateways) from various other suppliers as well as simplifying in-house integration. Thanks to TALQ, cities are not locked in with one single supplier, which fosters competition and can allow mixing of the control of many devices from various suppliers within one single software solution.
Additionally, TALQ has released a Pocket Guide for Smart Tendering in various languages that cities can use as a template.

What is the TALQ Consortium?

TALQ is a global consortium and was initially founded by companies from the lighting industry. In 2016 the scope of the consortium was enlarged to various smart city applications. The aim was and is to create a globally accepted open standard smart city protocol for central management software (CMS) to configure, control, command and monitor heterogeneous outdoor device networks (ODN).

What are the Consortium’s activities?

The TALQ consortium's activities are:

  • Evolution of the TALQ Smart City Protocol, a RESTful / JSON-LD API that allows Central Management Software (CMS) to configure, control, command and monitor various networks of smart city devices.
  • Certification of new products, Central Management Software or Smart City Device Networks, thanks to the TALQ Test Tool and the TALQ Certification Process. The strict certification process proves that the TALQ interface has been integrated correctly to allow certified TALQ-compliant products to be interoperable with TALQ-certified products from other vendors.
  • Promotion of the TALQ Smart City Protocol.

Why is standardization necessary?

The TALQ member companies and other smart city experts have analyzed the obstacles for the entire smart city applications market to develop, and the lack of a standard is one of the reasons why some municipalities are not willing to deploy such systems at the moment. We feel we can grow the total smart city market by establishing a standard, which should be of interest to all stakeholders.

What is the TALQ Consortium’s scope?

The scope of the Consortium is:

  • To develop and refine an application protocol (API) to enable Central Management Software to configure, control, command and monitor smart city device networks.
  • TALQ verifies and certifies that single products operate according to that application protocol.

Please note:

  • TALQ does not analyze how the TALQ interface is integrated into products’ end-to-end capabilities. End users must ensure that they receive assurances that individual implementations will deliver the declared features.
  • TALQ does not guarantee solution performance.
  • TALQ does not specify any physical aspect of the connection or connectivity.
  • TALQ does not specify how to achieve the required smart city application.

How is the TALQ Consortium organized?

The members form the General Assembly. The Regular Members elect the Steering Committee to oversee all activities of the Consortium. The Secretary General runs the day to day activities and reports to the Steering Committee and General Assembly. The ‘Technical Work Group’ develops the technical specification(s) based on the input of the 'Requirements Work Group', and the 'Certification Work Group' is in charge of defining the certification policy an compliance tests. The ‘Promotion Work Group’ takes care of the promotional activities of the consortium. All is supervised by the ‘General Assembly’. 

Will the Consortium membership be open to all?

Every legal entity willing to contribute to and promote the TALQ specification(s), can join as Regular Member.
Associate Membership is open to persons and legal entities with an interest in the objectives of the Consortium.

Will all members have equal access to all activities?

Regular Members have the right to access all activities. Associate Members have access to the General Assembly without voting rights, have the right to comment on draft TALQ Specification(s) and can join the Requirements and Promotion Work Group.  

What cost is involved to participate in the Consortium?

The membership fee depends on the membership type, Regular or Associate membership. Current membership fees are available upon request.

How often does the TALQ Consortium meet?

The Consortium organizes regular calls and several face to face meetings (respecting restrictions of the pandemic), as often as the members see fit to achieve the objective of a standard management interface protocol for Outdoor Device Networks in an efficient and rapid way.

Where will the Consortium meet?

The consortium aims to hold meetings hosted by members, with meeting locations rotating according to the geographical distribution of the global membership.

On the TALQ Specification

How can I get access to the TALQ Specification?

The TALQ Specification is available for free on GitHub.

Why is TALQ restricted to an application specification ?

The smart city control & monitoring market is composed of many applications including streetlight control, waste management, parking place management, traffic management, city information, electrical vehicle charging station, energy management, water management and many more.
Various communication networks, wireless or power-line, star or mesh, are available to connect devices in these vertical markets. Each of them offer a proprietary application interface. Because of this, customers such as municipalities, hesitate to invest in new technologies. A standard management interface protocol needs to support various kinds of network technologies, be it wired or wireless, to provide customers with as wide a selection of vendors as possible to overcome the fear of being locked-in.

What is the exact definition of the TALQ Smart City Protocol?

The TALQ Smart City Protocol is  an easy to integrate software protocol with RESTful APIs and a JSON data schema. It can be implemented in different devices that are used in the different systems. The TALQ Smart City Protocol makes sure that different devices understand each other, since they talk the same 'language'.

What is the scope of the TALQ Specification?

The TALQ specifications describe an application language and protocol to enable a Central Management Software (CMS) to configure, control, command and monitor various networks of connected devices (ODN, Outdoor Device Networks), to enable customers (e.g. cities) to control devices connected to networks from various suppliers through the CMS of their choice.