What Standards Should

Football Field Lighting Design Follow?

1. The importance of stadium lighting design

With the start of the first football match on July 19, the 2022 EAFF(East Asian Cup) football match has officially entered the fierce championship competition. The holding of this football match has attracted the attention of the whole Asia and even the whole world, and it means that people have begun to pay attention to the indispensable and important role of the football field in addition to the players – the stadium lighting equipment. An exciting football game cannot be without a set of good lighting. Football field lighting is a design with strong functionality, high technology and relatively high degree of difficulty. Not only must it meet the standards of various levels of football events, but also pay great attention to the actual effect of real-time color TV broadcast.

In order to ensure that the broadcast images are vivid and clear, and the colors are true, there are corresponding regulations on the vertical illuminance, uniformity of light intensity, spatial 3D, color temperature and color rendering index of the light source, and the lighting standards of different levels of football fields are different.

In addition to being more beneficial to high-definition TV broadcasting, the LED sports lighting system also has high standards for football players, referees, and spectators. The green and suitable sports light environment also enhances the viewing of the event and the participation of the audience. The LED sports lighting system has an instant-on function, which can be adjusted immediately at half-time or between games.

With professional light distribution technology, stable lighting performance and other advantages, the continuous development of LED sports lighting technology has also led to more attractive operating costs for stadiums than in the past, and is greener and more environmentally friendly than traditional metal halide lamps and other lighting equipment. . Stadiums that install LED sports lighting systems can save 75% to 85% of their total energy bills, saving a lot of excess costs for stadiums in future treatment and maintenance of sports fields.

The LED sports lighting system of modern stadiums not only needs to meet the professional sports lighting requirements of various events, but also must meet the diversified requirements of entertainment performances and atmosphere creation, and has high flexibility. More importantly, the user experience is good and the system is easy to operate.

2. Types of lights

First, let’s take a look at the requirements for football field lighting:

Due to the influence of sports space, sports direction, sports range, sports speed and other aspects, the lighting of football field has higher requirements than general lighting. Generally, high color rendering, high illuminance (horizontal illuminance, vertical illuminance), high illuminance uniformity, low glare, etc. are all necessary for sports lighting; sports venues are relatively large, and to meet the above requirements, special special Lamps, and special lighting treatment methods.

The lighting of the football field is an important part of the stadium design. And it is more complicated. It not only needs to meet the requirements of athletes for games and audience viewing, but also to meet the color temperature, illumination, illumination uniformity, etc. of the lighting for filming and live TV broadcasts. Requirements, this requirement is much higher than that of athletes and spectators. In addition, the way of lighting lamps and lanterns needs to be closely coordinated with the overall planning of the stadium and the structure of the stands. In particular, the maintenance of lighting equipment is closely related to architectural design and should be considered comprehensively.

With the advent of LED light source, although the cost of LED light source is higher than that of metal halide lamp products, it is advocated by all walks of life to replace metal halide light source due to its relatively low environmental pollution in terms of production process or raw materials used in production. Now all venues use LED as light source, most of them use 200W-1000W lamps, which have high luminous efficiency (about 100~110 lm/W), high color rendering, and color temperature between 5000-6400, which can meet high-definition Color television (HDTV) requirements for outdoor lighting. Generally, the life of the light source is more than 5000h, the efficiency of the lamp can reach 80%, the dustproof and waterproof grade of the lamp is not less than IP55, and the protection grade of the commonly used high-power floodlight can reach IP65.

The lighting design of the football field is characterized by large lighting space and long distance, so the field lighting generally uses high-efficiency flood lights. There are four types of lighting layouts for football fields: quadrangular, multi-tower on both sides, light strips on both sides and hybrid layout. The final lighting design should be selected according to the specific conditions of the stadium.

3. Quantity&power of lights

The lighting design scheme of the football field adopts the lamps and lanterns which are generally high pole stadium lamps or flood light stadium lamps. The installation position of the lamps can be installed on the edge of the ceiling of the stands or above the poles, and the number of lamps and power size. According to the positioning standard of the football field, it can be divided into the following levels: 200Lx for training and recreational activities, 300Lx for amateur competitions, 500Lx for professional competitions, 1000Lx for regular TV broadcasts, and 1400Lx for large-scale international competitions.

For example, for a 5-a-side football field, according to the actual area of the field, 6 special light poles of 8 meters can be used. Each light pole is installed with 2 LED 200W floodlights, totaling 12 LED lamps. The illuminance value achieved by this configuration scheme Just over 200Lx. Of course, we can further increase the illuminance value by increasing the number or power of lamps.

4. Height&effect of lights

Then, for different stadiums, how high the stadium light poles need to be selected and how wide the lighting range needs to be are also critical factors.

The total length of the outdoor 5-a-side football field is 38-42 meters, and the total width is 18-22 meters. According to the practical experience of most outdoor football field lighting fixtures, it is more appropriate to choose a light pole with a height of 6-8 meters for the futsal field. This height can not only ensure the uniform distribution of the LED floodlights of the mainstream football fields in the market, but also The light efficiency is high, and it is not easy to cause dizziness to interfere with the visual judgment of football players.

The total length of the outdoor 7-a-side football field is 65-68 meters, and the total width is 45-48 meters. With the increase in the area of the venue, from the actual effect, the 12-15m light pole can completely support the lighting needs of the seven-a-side football field.

The total length of the outdoor 11-a-side football field is 100-110 meters and the total width is 64-75 meters. According to the two different ways of installing light poles on both sides of the football field and installing light poles in the four corners, the height of the light poles is 20-25 meters, of which the 20-meter light pole is suitable for the installation of lights on both sides, and the 25-meter high pole light pole Applicable to the four-corner lighting method.

Reasonable pole height and high-quality lamps can produce high-quality lighting effects. LED professional sports lighting fixtures, LedsMaster’s unique lighting technology for stadium lighting, to avoid glare, outstanding color rendering and color temperature, combined with uniform lighting effects, to ensure a clear vision for athletes in the field. The material used is dense in structure, light in weight and waterproof, the surface is not easy to rust, the material has low thermal resistance, fast heat conduction, and is durable.

5. Conclusion

Nowadays, “smart lighting” is the general trend, and LedsMaster also keep up with the pace of the times and launch the “smart sports lighting control system, which integrates information technology and management to improve operational efficiency, so as to achieve real smart sports lighting.” With the control system, stadium managers can more easily monitor the operation status of lighting systems in different areas such as stadiums and auditoriums to ensure the best lighting effects in the stadium and lighting performances, while optimizing energy efficiency and reducing operation and maintenance costs. The administrator only needs to set the time in the mobile APP, and the designated light will automatically turn on and off the light. At the same time, the intelligent control system can also predict the failure of lamps to ensure the safe use of lamps and remote control. The administrator can remotely manage the lighting through the mobile computer and monitor the lighting status in real time. Even if a stadium has multiple different sports venues, it can be centrally managed through the APP, making the lighting management of various sports venues easier.

The application of football field lighting will be more commercialized in the future, which requires the standards for the diversity of lighting fixtures and lighting implementations have become higher.