IGUZZINI
Sergio Padula, technical director


How’s business?
We’ve just had the best year since we opened the office in Dubai [in 2008], so things are very active for us, but only within the emirate at the moment. There’s a lot going on here, including infrastructure and hospitality projects keeping us busy.

What trends are influencing the lighting industry?
There is a technological revolution going on based around LED and associated with that is the idea of how to control the LED. So these are issues around the management of the lighting system and consequently what is known as the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes looking at how to integrate artificial intelligence into the system.

Is there much regional interest in energy management?
Of course – even within public transport and other government entities we can see that there is a great deal of interest in it. We predominantly talk with lighting designers because we work on a specification business model. They want the data we can provide to them, particularly the data with specifications that are the most up to date and that they can trust in it. These details cover the lifespan of the components and all related information and is, of course, independently tested by third-party laboratories.

In which sectors are you most active?
Hospitality is a massive sector, for sure. Infrastructure is important too, especially around how to integrate lighting into large-scale landscape and master plan projects. Because this is a key part of our project portfolio, we are able to offer everything from down lights to street lighting – customers choose to deal with us because they can get a full-package solution.

What products are these sectors demanding?
For hospitality we introduced a technology we call tuneable white. This enables the user to adjust the colour temperature, so that when the fittings are dimmed, you get a greater warmth of light.
This is the kind of thing the market is definitely demanding now.

How do you think your business will play out in the future?
It will be tough because there is a lot of competition, especially from the Far East, but we are sure we will succeed due to the high standard of the fittings we produce. We support conferences, learning programmes and lunch seminars to build awareness within the market that a high-quality product is always the best choice for the end user.

www.iguzzini.ae