The LED Technology Revolution in Stadium Lighting

The LED technology revolution in stadium lighting

Now more and more people choose LED lights to replace the original traditional halogen lamp lighting, which shows that more people are aware of the great advantages of LED lights in energy saving and enhancing effective lighting. Of course, there are still some stadiums that use traditional lighting fixtures, but it has become a trend for LED lights to replace traditional halogen lamps and become the new star on the sports field.

Below, Romanso will share more information about LED lights to help you choose the most suitable stadium lights.

1. Energy-saving advantages drive the replacement trend

The luminous efficiency of LED lamps is much higher than that of traditional lamps. At the same power, LED lamps are brighter, which means that LED lamps require less power to achieve the same brightness. For example, the luminous efficiency of traditional halogen lamps is usually between 10 - 30 lumens/watt, while the luminous efficiency of LED lamps can reach 100 - 200 lumens/watt. This means that LED lights require much less power to achieve the same illumination requirements.

Taking a small football field as an example, if traditional halogen lamps are used to achieve the average illumination required for the game of 200 lux, lamps with a total power of 10,000 watts may be required. If you use LED lights, you may only need 4000-5000 watts of power to achieve the same illumination. The light efficiency of led lights approximately the 3-4 times of traditional halogen lights. This energy-saving effect is more obvious for large sports venues, which can significantly reduce electricity expenses in operating costs.

%1. Long service life reduces maintenance costs

The service life of LED lights is usually several times or even dozens of times that of traditional halogen lights. Generally speaking, the service life of halogen lamps is about 1000-2000 hours, while the service life of LED lamps can reach 30000-50000 hours.

For stadium lights, frequent replacement of lamps is a relatively tedious and costly task. When lights are used frequently in a season, halogen lamps may need to be replaced multiple times, while LED lamps can be used continuously for multiple seasons, greatly reducing the workload of maintenance personnel and the cost of lamp replacement. For example, a medium-sized stadium has 200 stadium lights. If halogen lights are used, about 100 lights may need to be replaced every year; but with LED lights, they may only need to be replaced every 5 to 10 years. This not only saves the purchase cost of lamps, but also reduces accounted for the time the stadium was out of service due to replacement of light fixtures.

3. Improved light quality to improve game experience

LED lights generally have a higher color rendering index (CRI) than halogen lights. The color rendering index is a measure of how well a light source restores the true color of an object. The higher the color rendering index, the closer the color of an object looks under light to its color under natural light. Generally, the color rendering index of halogen lamps is around 70-80, while the color rendering index of high-quality LED lamps can reach 80-95.

In sports competitions, high color rendering index LED lights can allow players to more accurately judge the color of the ball, field markings, etc., and also allow the audience to better appreciate the details and colors of the game. For example, in football matches, players can more clearly distinguish the green of the lawn and the black and white of the football, and the audience can also see more realistic and vivid images in the TV broadcast, improving the game viewing experience.

4. Intelligent dimming system enhance flexibility

LED lights can be easily integrated into intelligent control systems. Through intelligent control, stadium lights can achieve multiple functions such as brightness adjustment, color temperature adjustment, and timer switching. Below are some popular intelligent dimming system used in led stadium lights.

1) DMX protocol is needed for dynamic light thanks to its immediate reaction time and virtually unlimited number of addresses.DMX can also be used in functional dimming using simple lighting controls in high-end sport installations. DMX allows all range of scenic effects, as well as the monitoring of each luminaire and ease of configuration thanks to the self-addressing DMX-RDM fun ctions.

2) DALI protocol enables the dimming control of light, thanks to the vast range of control accessories and the full interoperability granted by the DALl logo present on the products. DALl protocol is recommended for functional dimming (energy saving, scene setting, remote control and has a scalable architecture.Wireless dimming can be achieved with a DALl driver in order to add this function in traditional installations that have been converted to LED, without the need to install.

3) 1-10V: a 1-10 voltage rate is applied to the driver to produce variable light levels, which are proportionate to the light emitted by a LED lamp (uponrequest).

Traditional halogen lamps have relatively limited functions in terms of intelligent control. This intelligent control function enables LED stadium lights to better adapt to different usage scenarios, further improving the flexibility and practicality of stadium lighting.

5. Environmental protection characteristics meet the requirements of sustainable development

LED lamps do not contain harmful substances such as mercury, while halogen lamps contain halogen elements (such as iodine, bromine, etc.) and tungsten filament and other materials. When discarded, LED lights pose less risk of environmental pollution.

From the perspective of energy utilization, the energy-saving characteristics of LED lights also reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide produced by power generation. In the context of global advocacy for sustainable development, using LED lights to replace halogen lights as stadium lights is an important measure for sports venues to implement environmental protection concepts.

In recent years, the number of newly built stadiums and stadiums has continued to increase around the world. In these new projects, LED lighting systems are almost always used, which has greatly increased the proportion of LED lights on the stadium. For example, many stadiums for the 2022 Qatar World Cup have adopted advanced LED lighting technology, providing a high-quality lighting environment for the game and leading a new trend in stadium lighting.

Many old stadiums are also gradually upgrading their lighting systems, replacing traditional halogen lamps with LED lamps. According to relevant statistics, between 2018 and 2023, about 30% of old stadiums in China completed lighting renovations, most of which used LED lamps, further promoting the growth of the number of LED lamps used in stadiums.