Over the past few years, the outdoor lighting market has grown fast. But right now, sports lighting is booming louder than anything else, especially in Europe and North America.
If you look at Europe, most outdoor sports fields are for soccer, tennis, and baseball. But in the United States, the sports landscape is huge. Along with soccer and tennis, you will find American football fields and basketball courts almost everywhere, from busy downtown cities to quiet suburban neighborhoods.
In today’s topic, we’ll look into the Sports Lighting for North America, and mainly the United States.
U.S. Market Leaders and the AGC Advantage
The North American sports lighting market is heavily consolidated, with the lion's share currently occupied by two industry giants: Musco and Cooper Lighting. Both companies possess exceptional strengths, offering not only high-quality sports lighting fixtures but also extensive turnkey capabilities in photometric design and field installation.
Despite operating under the shadow of these massive competitors, AGC continues to deliver outstanding performance. AGC has been receiving inquiries for sports lighting calculations on a daily basis. By working closely with our North American partners and customers, we successfully design and provide high-efficacy, highly competitive sports lighting solutions that consistently win projects across the region.
Want to see our past work or find out how we can help with your next project? Contact us at info@agcled.com and share your requirements.
North American Sports Lighting Standards
In the sports lighting standards for North America, there’s an institution/authority called The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). IES is the leading authority on lighting standards in North America. With a focus on quality, safety, and efficiency, IES guidelines serve as the go-to resource for anyone involved in sports facility management.
Key IES standards are as follows:
Illuminance Levels: Usually calculated as “foot-candles”(fc), which quantifies the amount of light falling onto a surface.
Uniformity Ratios: The ratios represent the maximum to minimum illuminance levels on the playing surface. For example, a uniformity ratio of 2:1 means that the brightest spot on the field is twice as bright as the dimmest spot. The smaller the Max/Min ratio is, the better the uniformity.
Glare Control: IES standards offer actionable insights on how to minimize glare through fixture placement and angling, which usually would require the fixtures to be used with visors.
Color Rendering Index (CRI): Higher CRI values are particularly important for professional-level sports, and CRI90 is often required for the sports fields where there’ll be live TV broadcasting or at least CRI80.
Energy Efficiency: LED fixtures are recommended for their energy savings and long lifespan. In today’s offerings, most LED fixtures will have a basic efficiency of 120lm/W or even higher, like 150lm/W or 160lm/W.
AGC supplies a wide range of sports lighting fixtures, from the outlook we have both round sports lights and modular sports lights, and they are used according to different sites and installation considerations.
For modular sports lights, which are most popular in the current market, the wattage can go up to 1200W or even 1800W, 2000W. But 1200W would cover most needs already because of today’s LED efficiency, combined with professional lighting design.
If you would like to know more about AGC’s sports lights portfolios and recommendations, please feel free to email us. We are glad to help you deliver the best lighting design and solution for your sports lighting project.
