The purpose of this project was to continuously monitor wind speed, direction and horizontal cable load on the cables suspended across Aberdeen's main shopping street, on which Christmas lights were mounted. There was a concern that in high wind speeds, particularly if the cables and lights became encrusted in snow and ice that the horizontal loads generated on the mounting bolts which were fixed into the stonework of the buildings might increase to the point where the mounting could detach, causing the lights to fall onto the street below.

The system supplied by Omni Instuments continuously monitored the critical parameters at various locations along the street. Solid state wind sensors were fitted measure wind speed and direction, and load pins were installed on the cable fixing points. In the event of a high wind or load event the system automatically generated email and SMS alerts. Council officials were also able to view historic data online via our M2M web interface.