Requirements of Outdoor and Indoor Sport Lighting

Nevertheless outdoor or indoor, the places for sporting are of large size. Many people enjoy exercise or watching matches in sport halls. The sporting places are cubical spaces with length, width and height. When we design lighting system for the sporting places, it is necessary to measure the size of them. Only have clear awareness of the size of the places, can we decide the layout of LED light. But there are still a large number of factors should be considered when selecting the light for your application. Moreover, the requirements differ from different people in sport halls. For example, spectators need comfortable lighting environment that allow them enjoy the game. While the stadium operator need a cost-effective and energy-saving lighting system to earn more profit. This post will show you the lighting requirements of different people and places. Hope to support your choice.

Outdoor Sport Lighting

The LED light used for outdoor should withstand the harsh environment, such as long term sun exposure, wind, rain, extreme high or low temperature, etc., as well as human factors. What’ s more, there is natural light in daytime in outdoor, the effect of natural light should be taken into account when designing lighting system. The requirements of outdoor sport are as follows.

Waterproof & dust-proof

To indicate the degree of protection of electrical equipment enclosures against intrusion of foreign objects, IP (Ingress Protection) is generated as the scale. The LED light rated with high IP value means it is not only dust-proof, but also able to withstand high pressure and steam cleaning. The higher IP rate of the fixtures, the better the effect of dust and water resistance. The light with high IP rate can avoid the original closed structure of the LED lamp suffered damage. Water and dust seepage will cause internal circuit damaged and the corrosion of copper foil, resulting rust of moisture on the resistance and LED lead.

Impact resistance

It is critical to ensure that the lights can work properly even if they are damaged or broken because of a certain degree of impact by balls and other objects. Otherwise, people will be hurt or plugged in darkness. Thus, when we choose the fixtures for outdoor environment, pay attention to the IK code of them. IK Code applies to the level of protection from external mechanical impact for enclosures of electrical equipment. Therefore, IK code of the light for outdoor is important to avoid unpredictable dangerous. The IK code rated from IK00 to IK10. The higher the rating, the better impact resistance.

Minimize light pollution

With the raised awareness of environment protection, people has a higher demand for light quality. Thus, more attentions are paid on lighting pollution. Most of outdoor sport places are located near the residential area, so strict requirements of lighting angles and coverage are presented to protect people around from disturbing as over brightness that would be harmful to eyes. In addition, light pollution may cause people to feel anxiety, lack of concentration and bad sleeping experience. It would cause serious insomnia and headaches even worse. Narrow beam and medium beam angle fixtures are more suitable for outdoor sports. Without redundant lights, it can protect people from bearing glare and light pollution.

Indoor Sport Lighting

There is limited natural light in indoor sport places, therefore, the appropriate lighting system is significant. Illumination, CRI, visual comfort, lighting uniformity and glare should be considered for a qualified lighting system. The lighting quality should remain high in terms of uniformity, visual comfort and limitation of obtrusive light. Clear visibility and comfortable environment are important. Base on the size of indoor sporting places, medium beam angle and wide beam angle are more applicable. The requirements of indoor sport are as follows.

Proper Illumination

With proper illumination, audience will has a more pleasant experience as they are clear about how wonderful the game is. Players can judge the height and landing point of the ball more accurately to improve their game performance. Referees are able to make more accurate judgments and improve the fairness and impartiality of the game. Generally speaking, the vertical illumination should be greater than half of the horizontal illumination. It is the most ideal environment for sporting when the vertical illumination is equal to the horizontal illumination. Moreover, the illuminations for practice and match are different. Professional competitions often have higher requirements for illumination.

High CRI

CRI (Color Rendering Index) is the ability to reflect the true color of the item. The closer the color rendering index is to 100, the more natural the colors of product will appear. The LED lights with the ability to reveal the exact color of the objects are important in sport areas. It can not only promote accuracy for player to judge the track of flying ball, the location of themselves and the surrounding environment , but also offer a clearer vision for audience.

Visual comfort

Visual comfort is relevant to glare and flicker. Glare is one of the important factor in evaluating the quality of lighting, which is related to the installation method of the lamps, the installation height, the number and density of the lamps, and the light distribution of the lamps, etc. Flicker can lead to hazy vision in athletes. To reduce flicker, we have to know the how it generated. Flicker is caused by the periodic changes in current of AC power supply, while the luminous flux will also change periodically. Make people create illusion when observing objects. The periodic changes in current cause instability of the light source, resulting in obvious stroboscopic flicker during lighting. When observing the movement of the sphere, you may see a relatively blurred shadow in low resolution.

Lighting uniformity

In the stadium, over large power of a single lamp, unreasonable emission of the lampshade and incorrect installation height and spacing will lead to uneven light distribution. But the human visual field space will be converted with the conversion of the viewing angle, and the uneven distribution of light will cause the blurred vision as sudden too bright or too dark lighting. For television broadcasting, when the camera shoots a panoramic view of the playing area, the greatly vary illumination will cause camera exposure. The lighting should remind uniformity and limitation of obtrusive light on track area, both sides of the pole, cross projection, as well as eliminate shadows, to meet the requirement of HD camera shooting.

Brightness ratio

Brightness ratio is the difference of the color of the object and the background. Our eyes can discriminate objects on the background with two conditions, the background and object color is different, or the background and object have a certain brightness contrast. The brighter object and the slightly darker background will be great for better vision. Conversely, if the background is brighter than the objects, visibility will be significantly reduced. In the poor lighting condition, especially the lack of luminance difference, it may cause false visual phenomena, then distort the perceived object and have an impact on the judgment.

In order to increase the color difference between the object and the background, lighting manufacturer will use opaque lamp shade to block the shadow of the lamp and projected onto the wall, the rest of light will flash on the ground, then luminance of the background wall is reduced. 

Lighting Requirement

Athletes, broadcasting personnel, spectator and sporting place operators are involved in the sporting areas. But their lighting requirements are not the same as each other. To meet the needs of them, let’ s talk about the lighting needs of different people in the same sporting place.

Athletes

Athletes has the highest requirements of lighting quality as it will deeply affect their competitiveness. The basic requirement is allow them to has a clear vision and then they can judge the track of balls and the environment precisely. Then, the lighting quality should remain high in terms of uniformity, visual comfort and limitation of obtrusive light. High quality lighting can help athletes concentrate on the game and strengthen their performance.

Spectator

Nevertheless the speed of athletes action and the viewing distance, spectator want a pleasant environment to enjoy the game. Therefore, the fixture should be selected with high color rendering index without glare. High color rendering index lighting can reflect the natural appearance of objects. Glare will affect viewers visibility and do harm to eyes and cause discomfort experience. Without glare, spectator can clearly know the gaming process about which player is scored and how the players perform to win or lose the game.

Broadcasting personnel

Broadcast personnel would like the proper illumination without flicker to offer the broadcasting as vivid as possible on screen of TV or other electronics of viewers. For slow motion, the lighting should support 1,500 fps broadcasting requirement . They also hope the lighting can ensure the colorful image without flicker of the game, the broadcast can therefore deliver the optimal slow motion of the scene of the game performed by the inspiring athletes.

Operators

Operators of stadium or sporting halls pay more attention on the energy consumption and cost of LED fixture. The energy saving and cost-effective fixtures create greater profitability. Lower installation cost and maintenance are also considered when selecting the fixtures. Operators also need the lighting is appropriate and provide attractive game to spectators, then they are able to manage the game easier. In addition, the benefits of sufficiently safe fixtures for operator are obvious. The more spectator join the game, the more they earn.

Lighting Solution

The sport venues are diverse, to meet specific standard of each field, carefully consideration is necessary. For example, it is particularly important to allow staff to be able to detect swimmers in difficult in swimming pool. For badminton, basketball, volleyball, baseball, rugby, etc., the ball, regardless of its location and speed, should always be clearly visible. LED high bay light and flood light are generally used for sport lighting. AGC always focus on offering a better lighting solution to our clients, the benefits of our solution are as follows.

Tennis court

• Lighter weight heat sink compared with traditional lamps.
• PC optic lens up to 93% lighting transparency.
• Backlight control achieves superior lighting quality.
• Quick mounting by reading the graduated scale, installation easier.

Football field

• 1200W high power.
• No backlight, no up-light, and no spill light. 
• Asymmetric lighting distribution 25*100° and 30*90° optional.
• High brightness also high uniformity lighting performance.
• Good heat dissipation, lifetime up to L90B10 100,000hrs.
• Driver box as a separate part, flexible installation.

 

Basketball court

• All into one, cold-forging technology heat sink with good heat dissipation.
• High system efficiency 140lm/W, lumen package up to 84000lm.
• Precise lighting distribution 10°/30° to offer excellent light pollution control.
• Bracket with universal angle adjustment by horizontally and vertically.
• Strong anti-corrosion, fixture body handed by electrophoresis and powder coating.
• Quick install and efficient maintenance, driver box can be fixed together with the body or put aside.

Baseball field

• Modular design from 200W to 1200W.
• Efficiency up to 135lm/W, more energy saving.
• Provided with 10kV build-in surge protection devices.
• Multiple optics lens optional 10°/ 15°/30°/45°/60° and asymmetric. 
• This convenient and humanized design enables it to fit for different requests in outdoor lighting applications.