The Irrigation Association (IA) announced the winners of its 2022 New Product Contest.This year’s contest combined both virtual and live elements. All products and technologies entered in the contest were featured in the online product showcase at irrigationshow.org and displayed in person at the 2022 Irrigation Show and Education Week held Dec. 5-9 in Las Vegas.
Thirty new products and technologies were entered in three categories: agriculture irrigation, landscape irrigation and landscape lighting. Products were evaluated based on innovation, design quality, increased water/resource-use efficiency, ease of use and product life expectancy. Official judging was conducted via Zoom Oct. 11-12, and these winners were announced live on Dec. 8 during the General Session at the Irrigation Show.
New in 2022, the IA recognized three products in each category: gold, silver and bronze winners.
The gold winner of the landscape irrigation category is the Ultrasonic Flow Sensor by Rain Bird Corporation. The Ultrasonic Flow Sensor reads flow rates for landscape irrigation controllers using ultrasonic waves instead of the traditional impeller-type sensor. Specially designed with wide set ultrasonic reflectors inside the body, it can be installed immediately after a pipe bend or in the same box as a master valve, able to sense both high and low flow rates without special calibration.
The silver winner of the landscape irrigation category is Irrigation Management as a Service by Calsense, and the bronze winner is the LXME2 & LXME2 PRO controllers by Rain Bird Corporation.
The gold winner of the landscape lighting category is the Brilliance Sector Selector by Brilliance. The Sector Selector creates specific zones that can be controlled independently from a single transformer. For new or retrofit projects, it splits a single transformer into four separate zones with up to 200 watts to each sector. The multiple zones allow the user to separate lighting schedules, create special scenes or design with layers of light.
The silver winner of the landscape lighting category is RUPS – Renewable Universal Power Supply by Lite the Nite, and the bronze winner is INSPIRA by Unique Lighting Systems.
The gold winner of the agriculture irrigation category is the S5 Pressure Compensating Heavywall Dripline by Rain Bird Corporation. Through its precise emitter spacing, the S5 Pressure Compensating Heavywall Dripline allows growers to specify repeating patterns of variable spacing between emitters to deliver water to the plants and not the areas in between. By not watering areas outside the root zone, growers can save water and energy while reducing chemical consumption.
The silver winner of the agriculture category is the Nelson R2000FX Rotator by Nelson Irrigation Corporation, and the bronze winner is AlphaDisc by Netafim.
Visit irrigationshow.org for more details about the contest and to see all the products entered.