The football field is one of the common sports venues in life, so how do you call the lighting of the football field? Football field lights, Soccer field lights, Football stadium lights, Soccer stadium lights, Football field lighting, Soccer field lighting , Football pitch light?
In fact, these football field lights are floodlights. Floodlight is a kind of illuminator, which is used to specify the illumination on the illuminated surface is higher than the surrounding environment. Also known as spotlight. Generally, it can point in any direction and has a structure that is not affected by climatic conditions.
2020 Football Field Light Buyer’s Guide
After knowing how to design the football field lighting, we also need to know how to choose a football field lamp. What is the best football stadium light? Why use LED instead of metal halide, halogen, HPS and mercury lamp? What factors should we consider before buying football field lights? This article will give you a brief introduction on how to use LED to illuminate the outdoor stadiums with FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, Premier League and UEFA standards.
It is exciting to start preparing documents and products for lighting tenders. In order to increase the chance of success, the first skill we need to consider is the requirements of lighting fixtures, including brightness, uniformity, glare.
1. Beam angle of the football field light
Football stadium lights are different from ordinary LED flood lights, which usually have a smaller light angle, less than 30 degrees. And sometimes an asymmetric light spot is needed to fill a specific area. HYH has developed more than ten different optical designs, which can provide precise light for various levels of stadiums.
2. Uniformity of the lighting
A key element of the stadium illumination system is the uniformity of illumination across the stadium in all UEFA reference planes.
The uniformity of illuminance can be defined as how light is uniformly distributed on a given reference plane.
UEFA requires football stadium lighting to have a uniformity of 0.5 to 0.7. This parameter is based on a ratio of 0 to 1, indicating the extent of uniform distribution of the luminance. This is an important consideration. Because uneven light can irritate the eyes of players and spectators. In fact, achieving high uniformity is not easy. We can imagine that the light spot is circular (or usually rectangular), and there will be overlapping and the areas that do not have overlap. One of the technologies HYH Lighting adopted is to use LED lights with smaller beam angles and lower power. Asymmetrical design can improve lighting distribution. HYH Lighting provide LED lights for international competitions such as the English Premier League, FIFA Women World Cup, and the Olympic Games.
3. Glare of the lighting
Glare is a brightness in the visual range that is much stronger than what the eyes are used to, causing a feeling of annoyance, discomfort, and/or impaired visibility and visual performance.
The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) has designed a practical evaluation system for outdoor sports applications based on extensive field testing. The CIE 112-1994 glare evaluation system for outdoor and area lighting defines the glare rating (GR) with an evaluation level of 10 to 90. The lower the glare rating, the better the glare situation. HYH lighting adopted special anti-glare shield design can reduce the glare efficiently. Please check the picture below. And welcome to contact us to know how it works.
4. High quality lighting without flickering
During broadcasting, we can often see that some illuminance systems cause images to flicker during slow playback. Blinking is distracting and damaging the viewer’s experience, so it should be eliminated where possible. HYH Lighting’s led football stadium lights use high-quality drivers that do not produce any visible strobe effects, so in a high-definition broadcast environment, you can clearly watch without flickering.
Flicker factor reference table
5. Colour rendering of the football field light
Color rendering, expressed as a color rendering index (CRI) score between 0 and 100 Ra, describes how the light source renders the color of an object to the human eye, and its subtlety shows changes in hue. The higher the CRI level, the better the color rendering.
LED football stadium light from HYH Lighting can be tuned to come closest to natural sunlight (Ra>90) without adding any glare or distorting ultraviolet or infrared lighting spectra; all lead to the best possible color appearance and contrast to following even the fastest action on sports playing field.
6. Colour temperature guide
In large-scale national competitions/large-scale international competitions of HDTV broadcasting, the color temperature is about 5500K, and the remaining five levels require a color temperature of about 4000K. Light emitted by a light source with a color temperature lower than 3500K is called warm white), light emitted by a light source between 3500K and 5500K is called natural white light, and light emitted by a light source higher than 5500K is called cold white light. The color temperature of HYH Lighting stadium special lamps can be customized between 4000K and 6500K.
7. Long life span
Long life span is very important for football stadium lights. Like football field lights, they are generally installed on high poles over 20m. If the life of the lamp cannot be guaranteed, it will bring you a huge loss of maintenance costs. The heat dissipation effect is the main factor that determines the life of the lamp. HYH adopted a 4D air convection heat dissipation system design, which greatly increases the speed of heat dissipation. The anti-corrosion treatment guarantees the sustainable and durable features ensuring a long term usage against harsh conditions. The lifespan of HYH football led stadium lights can reach to 100,000 hours.
8. Light Weight
For high pole LED football field lights, light weight can make installation easier and safer. HYH adopts sophisticated thermal management design, combined with advanced technology, so that the lamp has the characteristics of small size and light weight, which is conducive to reducing labor costs and does not affect the heat dissipation capacity.
9. Warranty
HYH provides 5-10 years warranty for football stadium lights. If you choose LEDLUCKY football stadium lights, you can get quick support at any time.
15 Tips For Soccer Field Lighting Design With LED Flood Light
When designing a new football pitch lighting system or making changes to an existing system, the following points should be considered and applied.
1. The football pitch lighting system should not hinder the player’s comfort and performance.
2. The stadium illumination system should not hinder the ability of the match officials to effectively execute the match.
3. The spectator should be able to watch the game and watch the game without discomfort due to the football stadium lighting system.
4. The pitch lighting system should provide illuminance levels to enable TV broadcasters to operate effectively and meet the requirements stipulated by the relevant UEFA illuminance levels.
5. When evaluating the needs of the stadium, the relevant level of the UEFA game must be considered.
6. A successful pitch illuminance system will produce illuminance levels and uniformity that meet the requirements of the relevant UEFA illuminance levels, and produce soft shadows where possible.
7. For a given position, the pitch illuminance system must be reliable and effective. The specific conditions related to the location of the stadium should be carefully evaluated.
8. The pitch illumination system should provide a long-term solution that is both effective and cost-effective.
9. The environmental impact of the pitch illuminance design solution should be carefully evaluated. The design team should be committed to implementing environmentally responsible solutions.
10. Each stadium is unique. Therefore, each stadium will require a design solution suitable for the relevant stadium and illumination level.
11. The infrastructure and design of the stadium will have a significant impact on the types of lighting systems that can be applied. The four-corner tower/column system usually does not meet the requirements of the UEFA control level A stadium.
12. Modern artificial lighting system can provide high-quality illumination conditions on the stadium, and may be integrated into the stadium’s architectural design.
13. The artificial lighting system can also be used to create lighting effects for stadium and pre-match/post-match lighting effects.
14. The football stadium lighting deign should always consider the latest technical requirements of broadcasting and television.
15. Football stadium lighting design should always evaluate the available lighting equipment and technology, and consider whether it is suitable for the required lighting solution.
UEFA Competitions Lighting standards
The requirements in terms of the artificial illuminance of a football pitch are split into five illuminance levels. The following table provides details of the recommended illuminance level for each competition round.
Overview of illuminance levels for UEFA competitions
Elite level A stadiums
Level A floodlighting illuminance
Level B floodlighting illuminance
Level C floodlighting illuminance
Level D floodlighting illuminance
Diagrams of design guidelines
1. Corners – column/tower floodlight array
If the pitch illuminance is provided by a corner post or a tower with multiple football field floodlights (usually seen in columns and towers), the floodlights should not be installed within 15° on both sides of the goal line (see picture below).
Large multiple arrays of football field floodlights provide greater levels of discomfort glare and should not, therefore, be positioned in these areas. A consecutive line of floodlights with more than two rows is considered, for this purpose, to be a ‘large multiple array’.
2. Corners – linear floodlight array
For players in the penalty area, if the focus of the fixture is on the player so that they can stand in the penalty area and look unobstructed towards the corner, the uncomfortable glare generated by the linearly operating fixture is considered to be within an acceptable range.
As shown in the picture above, lamps installed within 15° from the goal line should be far from the penalty box.
Multiple lamp arrays should not be placed within 15° from both sides of the goal line.
The array of linear football field floodlights used for this purpose should not comprise more than two rows.
3. Football field perimeter – lateral distance
In order to obtain the required vertical illuminance around the football field, the football field lights should have an installation position with a minimum lateral distance greater than 12m from the football field.
4. Football field perimeter – lighting installation area
The installation height of the lamp should not be higher than 25° or 45° above the center of the football field.
This usually ensures that the illuminance conditions comply with UEFA guidelines.
If possible, the football field lights should be installed at least 20-25m above the spacing surface. If this is not possible, it is important to develop a design solution that should consider and reduce the impact of height.
One way to ensure that the player’s discomfort glare is kept below 50 is to limit the tilt angle of the floodlight to 70°, as shown in the graph in Section 6.6. However, the structural design of some stadiums may make it impossible to achieve. In all glare rating assessments, evidence should be provided to keep the glare rating below 50.
5. Football field perimeter – second linear row
If the football stadium design or existing installation requires football field lights to be positioned within a lateral distance of 12m of the perimeter of the pitch, or if the vertical illuminance requires improvement, a second linear run of football field lights should be used to achieve the required vertical illuminance around the perimeter of the pitch.
6. Football field lights’ focus point angle
In order to avoid uncomfortable glare for players and officials, the general rule in the design process is to ensure that the angle between the focal point of the fixture and the line perpendicular to the pitch line does not exceed 70°, as shown in the figure above. This is a good general guide, but it is not always possible due to the limitations of stadium design.
As commonly seen in high-intensity discharge lamps, the above guidelines are particularly relevant to point-light illumination systems. However, when using LED football field floodlights, it may be necessary to reassess this guidance. LED luminaires will usually have large LED arrays that generate direct point light source luminous flux.
7. Football field sides – luminaire mounting position
The stadium structure should not interfere with the luminous flux of the football stadium lighting system, and it will not cast shadows on the surface of the stadium. Care should be taken to ensure that the beam projection line to the surface of the football field is completely clear.
8. Behind penalty area – floodlight mounting zone
In order to avoid discomfort glare being experienced by attacking players looking towards the goal, additional provision is made by increasing the installation angle of football field lights directly behind the penalty area (as the picture below).
9. Behind penalty area – floodlight mounting area
Football field floodlights positioned behind the goal and parallel to the penalty box as indicated in Section 8 should be mounted more than 60° from the goal line when in line with the penalty area, as indicated in the diagram below.
If only a single linear line of football field lights is used, the minimum lateral distance from the goal line should be 12m.
Football field lights that are not in line with the penalty box may be mounted at an angle of more than 45° from the goal line.
10. Behind goal line – second linear row
If the stadium design or existing installation requires that the football field light be placed within a lateral distance of 12m from the goal line (as shown in the blue luminaires in the above figure), or if the vertical illuminance needs to be improved, the second linear football field light should be used for Achieve the required vertical illumination within the goal line and the penalty area. The football field light directly behind the penalty area should be installed at an angle greater than 60° (as shown in the red luminaires below). Outside the area parallel to the penalty area, the football field lights can be installed at an angle greater than 45° (as shown by the green illuminators).
Where possible, all lamps located behind the goal line should be at least 30m above the surface of the court. If this is not possible, it is important to develop a design solution that should consider and reduce the impact of height.
Free DIALux Lighting Design
Lighting design is a very important aspect of construction projects, and the best performance is achieved when lighting is specified through detailed calculations and not “rules of thumb”. If you have a sports project on hand and need a company to assist you in initial projection and estimating the layout of the lights around the stadium, please feel free to contact us so that we can help you with calculations. Usually, you need to share some information like below, so that our estimation can be as accurate as possible.
1. Size of the field
2. Number of Poles
3.Poles’ position
4. Pole’s Height
5. Level at which the matches will be played (amateur, semi-professional, professional, or professional with broadcasting TV transmissions – this decides brightness requirement)
Conclusion
When it comes to led football fields lighting, it is important to keep up with the guidelines for specific standards. Our lighting experts are good at dealing with different types of football fields, whether it is a school football field or a National Games football field. We use different power and beam angles to achieve bright and uniform light through the field. The more professional the football field and the game, the higher the requirements for the illumination, quality and lux of the LED football stadium lights. To enjoy this service, please contact us via email i[email protected]
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