Light allows us to see, light helps us to work, light allows us to appreciate beauty. The planning of light serves the construction. In addition to the building materials, the construction plan also contains the light element, and the light expresses data, colors, spatial depth and emotion.
Experience informs us: really good lighting planning is completely integrated with the building and emits its own glory.
In the US, the most popular pastime is baseball. Baseball has a history of 150 years in the US. Speaking of the history of baseball, we can go back to the 19th century and beyond.
Night racing began in 1879 after Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb. But the first baseball game of the night was not a professional game, but a friendly game between two Boston department store employees.
The first night football match was held in 1892, but stopped at halftime due to low visibility of incandescent lamps.
In the early 1900s, Irving Langmuir improved Edison’s bulbs by manufacturing tungsten white paper bulbs. The light is brighter and has a longer life than carbon fiber bulbs, which is feasible for professional teams at night games. Soon after the tungsten filament bulbs came out, professional sports teams began implementing artificial lighting in their stadiums.
On November 3, 1929, the NFL incorporated flood lights into the game. However , because the lights were not bright enough to fully illuminate the brown football, the ball was painted white.
By 1930, the Great Depression had hit the baseball pair hard, and many were close to bankruptcy. Because the game is played during the day, it is difficult or impossible for working Americans to participate in the game. To save his team, JL Wikerson, owner of the Kansas City monarchs, decided to save his team by playing games at night so that fans could come after work. Wilkson made his idea a reality by using 50-foot-tall floodlights with six charged tungsten light bulbs. Wilkerson managed to triple the attendance of the Monarch’s game that season, although his efforts made him unpopular with local police.
In 1935, the Major League was closely followed, with Cincinnati Redsman manager Leland McFill investing $50,000 (equivalent to $850,000 today) in a huge floodlight. Previously, the Red Army could only attract 3,000 spectators per game. The team’s first night game attracted 20,000 fans.
For decades, metal halide lamps have been known for their high lumen output and have been the number one choice for lighting a baseball stadium.
Less than a decade later, more than half of the Major League Baseball (MLB) teams have installed led lights in the stadium, because despite the large light output of metal halide lamps, there are some disadvantages. The average baseball game lasts about two to three hours, so energy costs can rise rapidly. Therefore, led lighting will be the first choice. As the initial cost of leds decreases, the benefits of energy-efficient leds are increasing.
When you sit back and watch tonight’s open day game, you may not consider the large amount of lights that illuminate the game. But the dazzling artificial sunlight used to be a sign.
In the mid-19th century, night games were a radical idea, but thanks to some charismatic engineers and innovative lighting technologies, the world is now used to spending the night on the court. With the continuous development of lighting technology, people are moving towards more energy-efficient stadiums. When led lighting debuted, it had already entered many stadiums and led the playoffs on deck.
Stadium Lighting Outlook
Stadium venue lighting mostly uses traditional high-intensity gas discharge lamps-metal halide lamps, lighting power up to 1000W / 2000W, the lamp installation height can reach 50-60m. With the rapid development of LED lighting applications, the application of LEDs in stadium lighting has also attracted more and more attention. The training stadiums of Michigan State University in the United States have adopted LED lighting, and the competition venues have also begun to use LED lighting. For example, the NRG stadium in the United States, the PNC stadium, the Chelsea football stadium in the United Kingdom, and the Ekinox stadium in France have adopted LED lighting. It is expected that by the 2022 Winter Olympics, more stadiums will use LED lighting.
LED lighting is more suitable for sports lighting due to its unique features such as low power consumption, adjustable color quality, flexible control, and instant ignition. As the stadiums have to take into account both games and TV broadcasts, the lighting requirements are very high. A series of issues such as the stability, glare, and flicker of LED lighting need to be further explored.
The use of LEDs in stadium lighting must meet the corresponding requirements in product performance and application technology, as follows:
1) LED product performance requirements
a) LED lamp power and luminous efficiency: the lighting intensity of the stadium lighting venues is as high as 2000lx. Although the LED light source has high luminous efficiency, to achieve such a high illuminance, the single lamp power must reach several hundred watts (sports hall) or even kilowatts. (Stadium), the heat dissipation of such high-power lamps is a big problem, and companies are also working to solve this problem. At present, such products have been introduced to the market at home and abroad, forming a series of single-lamp 1000W products, and used for stadiums and port terminals.
b) LED color performance index: The color rendering index CRI is an important index for evaluating color. The newly developed CQS internationally is a new color rendering index evaluation system, which is suitable for traditional light sources and SSL light sources. Compared with the current dominant market position The CRI evaluation method can still be adopted for LEDs that excite phosphors to produce white light. The emission spectrum of yellow phosphors excited by blue light is mainly yellow-green light, and the red light component R9 is missing. Therefore, the R9 requirement should be added in relevant standards. In addition, the evaluation of LED color performance indicators also includes color temperature, color tolerance of similar light sources, color deviations during the lifetime, and deviations of lamps in different directions. Because the stadium has a TV broadcast, color performance is undoubtedly very important.
c) Light distribution of LED lamps: The installation height of stadium lamps is usually between a dozen meters to tens of meters, and the requirements for contrast uniformity are extremely high (referring to high-level matches), and the projection distance of light can reach 100 For tens of meters, the beam angle is only a few degrees. Different projection distances require different light distribution. Often a stadium needs multiple light distributions. Medium, narrow and ultra-narrow distributions are suitable for stadiums light.
d) Weight requirements for LED lamps: Because the installation height of the lamps is relatively high, controlling the weight of the lamps can reduce the load on the building structure and greatly reduce the construction cost. Due to the problem of heat dissipation of LED lamps, the weight of the lamps is often increased, so the weight of the lamps should be limited.
2) Technical requirements for LED lighting applications
a) Glare problem of LED lighting: In stadiums, glare will not only affect the game, but also affect the mood of the athlete. If the emitted light directly hits the camera lens, camera glare will be generated, which will affect the shooting. In order to solve the glare caused by LED lighting, in addition to the glare prevention in the design of the lamp, the installation height and projection angle of the lamp are also important factors to control the glare.
b) The stroboscopic effect of LED lighting: There are two indexes to evaluate the stroboscopic effect: stroboscopic ratio and stroboscopic index. The strobe effect of LED lights is more prominent than other types of light sources. At the same frequency, the strobe ratio of LED lights is higher than that of metal halide lamps. In practical applications, strobe is especially important for stadium lighting. When the broadcast game requires slow-motion or super slow-motion playback, the broadcast image is prone to jitter. Therefore, the London Olympics put forward requirements for sports TV broadcast strobe, and some stadiums set the strobe ratio to less than 3%.
3) LED lighting control system
LED for stadium lighting has absolute advantages in intelligent control systems. First, stadium lighting needs to meet a variety of lighting modes. Second, TV emergency lighting requires the light source to ignite instantaneously, etc. It takes about 40 minutes for the metal halide lamp to reach the rated luminous flux from the time the lamp is turned on. It seems impossible to go back to the competition again. The Olympic venues have also been added with an uninterruptible power supply before they are put into use. This will not only greatly increase investment, but will also cause a lot of inconvenience to use. In the past, halogen lighting was used for safety lighting and evacuation lighting, which has a short life, low luminous efficiency, and does not save energy. In addition, many games now, such as tennis games, during the break, sometimes the lights are turned off, leaving only the lights on the athlete’s seat. Previously, the opening and closing devices were installed on the lights. If LEDs are used, they can be flexibly controlled. Also in sports training venues, athletes can adjust the light on demand and feel good. It shows that the LED intelligent control system can give full play to the application in stadiums.
LED sports lighting provides optimal lighting for every sport from baseball, golf to football and football. LED lights are rapidly occupying professional sports venues. As more organizations in multiple sports leagues adopt more energy-efficient practices, not only can it improve the player and fan experience, but it can also help save money and energy. It’s bright.
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