Sherriff Scoop Innovation Award

Sherriff Scoop Innovation Award: On day one of SALTEX 2018 at the NEC, Sherriff Amenity’s ground-breaking new app, PrecisionPro, was announced as the winner of the second, annual SALTEX Innovation Award.

Established at the show in 2017, the SALTEX Innovation Award was created to encourage innovation excellence and celebrate the best products within the groundscare industry. The award is bestowed on projects that have a significant impact and ultimately make life easier for the person using them.

This year’s award received a record number of high quality entries from across the UK and beyond – spanning a wide variety of products, services and equipment. With the entries submitted and rigorously evaluated by an independent panel of judges, it was decided that there were three stand-out innovations – the Toro Outcross 9060 from Reesink Turfcare, PrecisionPro from Sherriff Amenity and the ROBOCUT from McConnel.

The three finalists were given a final opportunity to impress the judges as they took to the stage in the all new Innovation Hub. Representatives from each company delivered a product presentation in front of a packed audience causing the judges much deliberation before making their final decision.

Sherriff Amenity’s PrecisionPro was pronounced the overall winner. Second place went to the Toro Outcross 9060; a super-duty utility vehicle, designed specifically to simplify the groundsman’s day-to-day turf maintenance jobs. Third place went to the McConnel ROBOCUT; an all-terrain remote-control work platform that boosts safety, productivity and efficiency.

The winning innovation, PrecisionPro, is a dedicated app for sports turf to measure any area, guide the operator in calibrating a spreader for any granular product and also help apply fertilisers accurately.

According to Sherriff Amenity, PrecisionPro was created due to the common issue of turf managers misjudging green/sport surface size which often results in problems such as over applying or under applying fertilisers – both of which can have a negative effect on turf performance, disease and budget.

PrecisionPro allows turf managers to have an accurate measured area by simply opening the app and walking the perimeter of the area. Calibrating spreaders has always been a difficult task but with the Calibrate feature in the PrecisionPro app, users are guided through each step of the process. Furthermore, its advanced GPS functionality informs the user when to start and stop the calibration process.

The app also features a function to ensure that every operator walks at the same speed – if someone is walking too fast or too slow then they are alerted by colour coded screens. As well as calculating the g/m2 and the operator’s walking speed, the Apply feature ultimately ensures that the exact amount of nutrition is being applied to the turf.

Commenting on the award, Karl Parry, Sherriff Amenity’s PrecisionPro developer, said:

“We are really excited to win this award. PrecisionPro has been a long time in the making but it has all been made worthwhile now. SALTEX was the official launch of the app and after we won the award people kept coming onto the stand to find out more about it, so the word definitely got round at the show.

“I’m really proud of the whole team because it has been a big collaborative effort.”

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