How to do sports lighting design?

Lighting standard of sports lighting design

Lighting standards usually follow the standards of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), the International Football Association Federation (FIFA) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). These standards are designed to ensure that the lighting of football fields meets specific requirements, including high color rendering, high illuminance (horizontal illuminance and vertical illuminance), high illuminance uniformity and low glare, etc., to ensure good visual conditions during the game. Taking football field lighting as an example, the lighting standards of football fields are divided into multiple levels according to their use functions, which can be roughly divided into six different levels.

• Training and recreational activities: illuminance is 200 Lx, suitable for training and recreational activities.
• Amateur competitions and professional training: illuminance is 300 Lx, suitable for amateur competitions and professional training.
• Professional competitions: illuminance is 500 Lx, suitable for professional competitions.
• TV broadcast national and international competitions: illuminance is 1000 Lx, suitable for national or international competitions broadcast on TV.
• Major and international competitions: illuminance is 1400 Lx, suitable for major or international competitions.
• HDTV broadcasts major or international matches: illuminance is 2000 Lx, suitable for major or international matches broadcast on HDTV. In addition, there is a TV emergency illuminance of 750 Lx, suitable for emergency situations in TV broadcasts.

The lighting standards for indoor football fields are also different, such as 300 Lx for training and recreational activities, 500 Lx for amateur competitions and professional training, and 750 Lx for professional competitions. These standards are designed to ensure that football fields can provide suitable lighting conditions in different usage scenarios to meet the needs of competition, training and viewing. Other common sports fields include basketball courts, volleyball courts, badminton courts, table tennis courts, and football fields. If you need them, please contact ZGSM.

Brief introduction to the concepts in lighting standards.

• Illuminance: Illuminance refers to the amount of light energy received per unit area, and can also be understood as the distribution of light intensity per unit area. It is usually expressed in lux, where 1 lux equals 1 lumen of light intensity per square meter. The average illuminance refers to the value obtained by averaging the illuminance values ​​of all points in an area. It can reflect the overall light intensity level of the area and is one of the important indicators for evaluating lighting effects. Through the average illuminance value, we can understand the distribution of light in an area and then evaluate its applicability.
• lluminance uniformity: Illuminance uniformity = minimum illuminance value / average illuminance value: The more uniform the light distribution, the better the consistency of illumination and the more comfortable the visual experience. The closer the illuminance uniformity is to 1, the better, and vice versa, the smaller it is, the more visual fatigue it increases.
• Color rendering index: Simply put, the color rendering index (CRI) measures the ability of a light source to accurately reproduce the color of the object it illuminates. Usually, event-level lighting requires a color rendering index of 80 or above.
• Color temperature: This is the color of the light source, measured in Kelvin (K). The lower the value, the warmer the color looks. For example, 2700K looks warmer than 4000K. The higher the value, the cooler the color looks. This color temperature can make players concentrate, so stadium lighting generally chooses a high color temperature, such as 5700K.
• Glare: Glare is caused by the reflection of strong outdoor light on lenses and other surfaces. It has a certain impact on the eyes and causes eye discomfort. Glare generated while driving or outdoor sports may cause certain dangers. Uncomfortable glare on the court is caused by a certain point (lamp) being too bright, so we should pay more attention to the layout of the stadium lighting.

Layout of football field

The football field must be rectangular, 90-120 meters long and 45-90 meters wide. The international football field area standard specifications are: 105 meters long and 68 meters wide; but because of the different lighting positions and considering the surrounding lighting of the football field, many customers will require 111 meters long and 72 meters wide, or 114 meters long and 72 meters wide, which are slightly different.

Choose the right lighting fixtures for sports lighting design

This will be different according to the customer’s requirements, the number of light poles, the power and quantity of lamps. Generally, we most often recommend the following two lamps to customers: ZOOM series lamps, with a power range of 30-400w, are generally suitable for regular sports field training and regular competitions, and GLOMAX series stadium lights, with a power range of 250-2000w. This lamp is developed by us in 2023 specifically for various professional sports competitions. It can meet the needs of most professional sports competitions and the lamp can be equipped with an intelligent control system to achieve the lighting requirements of a variety of professional competitions with one set of lamps. While completing customer projects, we are also further improving our lighting solutions. The lamps can have multiple different lens options to achieve better lighting effects.

Choose the right lens for sports lighting design

For professional sports games, the choice of lamp lenses is crucial, and different lenses can achieve different lighting effects. Our GLOMAX series stadium lights are available in 15°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 30*50°. Generally, we use 15° and 30° for professional sports fields ( Please review the video of LED Sports Field Lights ), because small angles can better achieve professional lighting effects, especially in terms of uniformity, while 45° and 60° are mostly used for competitions with smaller venues, fewer lamps, and not very high pole heights. We can perform lighting simulations according to customer requirements to ensure that our solutions can meet customer lighting requirements.

ZGSM sports lighting solution – football field lighting

ZGSM Technology Co., Ltd. has more than 19 years of production and sales experience in the LED lighting industry. We have gained more experience by participating in lighting projects in various countries. We are also growing in the field of LED stadium lights. We even provide the most suitable stadium lights for a project, and we also help customers in sports lighting design, lighting and lighting installation. Therefore, we can provide customers with lighting simulation, lighting recommendations, lighting installation, and intelligent control solutions as soon as we receive customer project requirements, so that customers only need to organize the information we provide and can directly participate in the project. The following are several lighting projects we have participated in:

Footaball lighting project 1 in Kazakhstan

Requirement	Product	Model	CCT/ Optics	Quantity
Dimension of field: 111*72 meter, 3 lighting level 1400lux, 800lux, 500lux	1200w LED flood lights	ZGSM-TGD1200M with smart lighting control	5000K/15°	120

Footaball lighting project 2 in Kazakhstan

Requirement	Product	Model	CCT/ Optics	Quantity
Dimension of field: 111*72 meter, 3 lighting level 1600lux, 1400lux, 800lux	1800w LED high mast lights	ZGSM-FL09-1800 with smart lighting control	5000K/15°	100

Summary

Lighting simulation plays a very important role in football field lighting projects. Customers can be shown the effects of their own projects before they start, so that they can better understand their needs in lamp selection and solutions. ZGSM is committed to solving project problems for customers, so that customers can carry out their own lighting projects more conveniently and with confidence. ZGSM's professional technical team ( Please review videos of ZGSM street light factory. ) is ready to help customers with their projects. For other sports field or sports complex lighting, please refers to How to find right sports lighting fixtures for your sports complex.