KEYNOTE


Keynote interview Let there be light


There aren’t many stadium images you see these days without a lighting rig in view! Kerry Haywood met with SGL founder Nico van Vuuren at their Netherlands Headquarters to find out how his vision revolutionised the industry


P 36 PC April/May 2020


rofessional rose grower and football enthusiast, Nico was sick of watching top of the bill football games being played on not so top of the bill pitches. In winter, goalmouths didn’t show even a leaf of grass anymore and world class players were slipping and sliding across the pitch. How could it be that he was capable of growing thousands of roses per day, even during the dark Dutch winters, whilst the grass in many football stadiums in Europe had serious trouble surviving?


The concept - rose growing


The answer derived from Nico’s rose growing background. In the rose


greenhouse environment at Porta Nova, all growth factors were considered, monitored and improved, and Nico knew that this same process could be introduced in a lighting system, consisting of metal rigs with lighting armatures.


Pitchcare: How long did it take to develop the idea?


Nico van Vuuren: In 1998, we started to develop the idea and build the first systems, but it wasn’t until October 2002 that the first machine made it out into the field. In most stadiums, natural light is not sufficient for steady growth all year long, because of shaded areas, shorter and colder days in winter, and sometimes even in summer,


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