Why choose LED stadium lights?

Why choose LED stadium lights?

Stadium lighting fixtures are lamps specially designed to illuminate various sports fields. Usually installed at a height of more than twenty meters, they also have higher lighting requirements for professional stadiums. Today, they are mostly based on LEDs for high efficiency and use high-end narrow-beam optics to hit the ground without glare. It makes the lighting of the entire stadium more uniform, and also allows the best results for various matches.

Watching the game requires brighter lights, less energy consumption, vivid and consistent lighting, and LED stadium lights provide the brightest illumination. It is important to note that lumens and watts are not the same. In simple terms, lumens are the brightness of the light emitted. Watts are the energy used to produce light. LED lights produce significantly more light (lumens) than conventional light sources of the same wattage. A thrilling light show captivates fans and livestreamers alike, bringing a variety of events to life. Extraordinary lighting effects ignited passion, bringing teams and entertainers together with the audience. LED stadium lighting meets HD broadcast requirements and reduces operating costs and promotes sustainability.

For example, if you compare a 1500-watt conventional incandescent lamp with a 500-watt LED stadium light, the difference in light brightness is striking. LED lights produce more lumens than traditional HID bulbs, are also more power efficient, and last longer. While the initial investment in LED lighting for your football stadium may be slightly higher, you'll save on your electricity bill thanks to lower energy consumption and still have the vivid and uniform lighting you need to watch the game. We also know that the maintenance cost of stadium lighting is very high, and the use of LED high-quality products not only has good results, but also greatly reduces follow-up maintenance costs.

Advantages:

Improve the viewer experience

Create stunning lighting effects, sound effects and music, so that every game and every performance will be amazing.

Operating income continues to flow

Deliver exceptional lighting for high-end entertainment and attract more events with a multi-purpose venue strategy.

Comply with the latest broadcast requirements and sports league standards

Flicker-free LED lighting meets HD photography and ultra-slow-motion playback standards

Build safe venues

High-quality lighting ensures that competitors and spectators are equally comfortable and safe, and can focus on the race or stage performance, while improving crowds.

Reduce operating costs

Energy-efficient LED lighting fixtures and control systems promote sustainability and simplify maintenance

Illuminance requirements

Color TV broadcast lighting should be designed with the vertical illumination of the venue as the main indicator of design, and the venue lighting must generally meet the requirements of athletes, spectators and cameras. For this reason, horizontal illumination, vertical illumination and brightness when the camera shoots panoramic pictures must maintain the consistency of changes. The ratio of brightness change between athletes, venues, and spectators must not exceed a certain value in order to accommodate color television camera requirements.

Color TV transmission requires higher illumination than black and white TV, high-definition TV transmission requires higher illumination than standard-definition color TV broadcasting, ultra-high-definition TV broadcasting is now also in the experiment, the lighting requirements will be higher. In addition, the illuminance is

closely related to the format of the TV picture, and the illuminance is low, then the TV transmission is limited to the capture of panoramic views; If the illumination is high, it can capture both panoramic views and close-ups, making the TV broadcast more vivid.

Illumination uniformity

The uniformity requirement is mainly derived from the requirements of the TV camera, and the disproportionate uniformity can also cause visual pain to athletes and spectators. Illumination uniformity specifies the ratio (U1) of minimum illumination (Emin) to maximum illumination (Emax) on a surface and the ratio of minimum illumination (Emin) to average illumination (Eave) (U2). Uniformity is used to control the visual condition on the entire site, and U1 facilitates the visual viewing function. U2 is good for visual comfort.

The average illumination measured in the range of 1.0-1.5m high on the playing field perpendicular to the main direction of the lens axis should not be less than 1400lx, in fact, 1000lx is also possible for photography.

For a fairly large sports venue (such as a running track around the stadium, with an area of 120m ×200m), the uniformity of horizontal illumination is not as uniform as that of the football field. It is necessary to maintain the illuminance gradient required for broadcasting, and to meet the requirements of illumination uniformity to ensure that the TV camera can absorb high-quality TV pictures.

Brightness and glare

The role of the TV camera is somewhat similar to human vision, the camera and the human eye are based on the intensity of the sensory lighting as the brightness, so the picture contrast and its background are the most important for the picture quality. On the one hand, due to the lack of sufficient contrast, a good picture cannot be obtained; On the other hand, because it is difficult to handle light and dark, it also hinders the production of high-quality pictures.

Brightness and glare are important for the visual comfort of athletes and spectators, considering that to avoid too dark backgrounds, part of the light should shine into the stands, the average illuminance of the audience seat should meet the requirement of 100 lx, and the illuminance of the rostrum should not be lower than 200 lx. The vertical illumination of the audience seats in the first 12 rows (15 rows) near the competition area should not be less than 25% of the vertical illumination of the venue. This not only reduces the glare of spectators in the opposite stand, but also makes the TV picture more favorable because of a bright grandstand background.

In general, glare is largely determined by a series of factors such as the brightness of the lighting facility, the solid angle of the lamp arrangement, the luminous area, the angle between the direction of the lamp and the normal viewing direction, the relationship between the brightness of the lighting facility and the background brightness when viewing, and the conditions for the adaptation of the human eye (mainly determined by the brightness of the field of view). For comfortable viewing conditions, the direct brightness in the field of view must not exceed a certain brightness value on which the background can be based.

The glare problem can be solved as long as the contradiction between the audience and athletes is coordinated, and this coordination work is completed by the designer, that is, the light distribution of the floodlight, the installation scheme, the hanging height of the lamp and other factors should be considered when designing. Wide-beam floodlights are easy to achieve the uniform effect of the field, but will increase the glare of the spectators in the stands, so a combination of medium beam and narrow beam floodlights is appropriately selected to solve the glare problem.

The importance of beam angle:
Uniformity and brightness are crucial on any sports field. Some sites are near residential buildings, that the spillage value of LED lights, glare value will be higher, but also to minimize light pollution. Traditional HID, MH lamps are difficult to meet this high requirement.

We can design the required lamp through specific requirements, the combination of luminous angles, generally small angles can illuminate farther, large angles will irradiate a wide area. For professional pitches, small angles are most used, such as 15 degrees and 30 degrees can be combined to ensure the best lighting for the venue.

Preliminary considerations for LED stadium lighting
If there is a case where stadium lights are currently required, the first thing to consider is whether the installation is intended for a replacement site or a new one.

If it is replaced, you can look at the specific illuminance requirements and budget, and consider the best plan comprehensively. On the other hand, if it is a new project, we can also customize the plan for you, providing specific site details, illuminance requirements, etc.

Romanso has more than 16 years lighting experience, we have supported many different projects and got good feedback. If you have any project in hand, please don't hesitate to contact us at romanso@romanso.com.