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Horticutral Lighting
Billboard means the billing board, a large advertising structure located in outdoor, aims to build brands or promote the products. Billboards are typically placed on busy-traffic areas or along the road side to maximize attentions of pedestrians and drivers. That means the billboard should be attractive. Once pedestrians or drivers notice and read the advertisements on billboard, the investment is valuable. However, as saying goes, safety first. Too attractive billboards will cause distraction and it is dangerous for drivers and pedestrian. Additionally, improper illumination of billboard tangle their identification for traffic. Therefore, right illumination of billboard plays an important role in ensuring safety as well as gaining attraction.
Billboard classification
There are two kinds of billboard, traditional billboard and digital billboard. The main difference between them is the way they provide lighting which enable drivers or pedestrian to read the message.
Traditional billboard is printed with characters and/or picture on a paper or vinyl sheeting and attached to the facades of a building or a sign surface. Paper and vinyl sheeting are definitely unable to generate light. Traditional billboard can be seen by the light shining onto or reflecting off their surface. Sun and sky shine onto the billboard and reflect the light off the surface during daytime, making billboard being visible. When it come to night, billboard requires external light source for illumination. As billboard is commonly installed on high pole, powerful LED flood lights are equipped on the top and/or bottom of board to provide sufficient lighting.
Advanced technology makes billboard being able to illuminate by itself. This type of billboard is called digital billboard. Digital billboard is visible because of the light emitted within the board. In contrast to traditional billboard, digital billboard must be adjusted to higher light level for clear visibility under the bright sunlight during daytime. But at night, higher light level may cause glare and it will be too bright to read. Many drivers have complained about the over brightness of billboard. The excessive light made them difficult to distinguish direction and traffic condition, putting them into danger.
Requirements of billboard illumination
Since digital billboard can emit their own light, we would like to talk about the traditional billboard lighting and how to illuminate it in a right way.
The primary point for right billboard illumination is the impacts on humans and environment. In other words, we should prevent lighting pollution when illuminating billboard.
It goes without saying that unnecessary greater wattage and higher light level is completely a waste of energy, and it is harmful to environment and humans. Carefully simulation of lighting design will not only save energy but also help you save cost. Though it sounds difficult, consulting professional lighting manufacturer helps you get the job in half of time. AGC provides FREE lighting design and tailored fixtures, contact us and get your own lighting solution.
Illumination of billboard is aimed to lit up the advertisement, making it visible and readable by drivers and pedestrians. Redundant light will cause trespass and glare. Fixtures spread the light from billboard to dark sky, nearby residences, or plants, disturbing humans and animals. Furthermore, glare is dangerous as it is discomfort, disability, and excessive light, which will lead to temporary lack of recognition and respond in the busy traffic.
Lighting contrast is another critical factor for right billboard illumination. Contrast is the difference of the brightness between 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. As a result, light level should be adjusted according to the ambient brightness. For example, illuminance of billboard is supposed to be lower at night at the open field, like highway. But for the business areas, billboard illuminance value should be slightly higher than ambient environment for more competitive attraction.
Every area has standards or regulations that is applicable to billboards illumination, and we should take the relevant regulations and standards into account. As regulations and standards of billboard lighting are varied from areas, we will show the common recommendations of it.
Recommendations of illumination of billboard are as followed:
- IES (Illumination Engineering Society) recommends the illuminance levels should be 20 to 100 footcandles for billboards.
- Uniformity (the ratio of maximum to minimum light level) should be 4.0 or less for billboards.
- Billboard should not be illuminated within 300 feet of residences.
- Billboard should not be illuminated before opening and after closing for business advertisement.
- Light sources should not be seen by drivers or pedestrians directly.
- Lighting fixture with CRI higher than 80 would be optimal.
Common formulas for billboard illumination
Traditional billboard is generally mounted on pole or building above the ground at a certain height. They are also of various sizes. There are some simple formulas for billboard illumination associated with the size or height of them. However, please note that these formulas are only for reference, specific illumination design for billboard shall be made according to concrete circumstance.
- If the height of billboard is less than 8 meters and it is wide, lighting fixture can be installed on single side with a distance about 1 to 2 meters. Wide beam angle lighting fixture will be more suitable for this type of billboard.
- For the wide billboard in the height between 8 to 12 meters, it should be illuminated from double direction, top and bottom. This type of billboard also fits lighting fixture with wide beam angle. Distance of lighting fixture should be 1.5 to 2.6 meters.
- Another type of billboard is tall and thin, lighting fixture with narrow or medium beam angle is applied applicable to it. Location of lighting fixture depends on the height of billboard light. For the billboard that is very tall, two sides installation of lighting fixture will be optimal.
