When we watch live football games broadcasts in front of the TV, have we ever thought about what conditions the lighting of an outdoor football field should have to meet the needs of players, referees, live audiences, and broadcast lenses at the same time? The most important goal of the football stadium lighting system is to illuminate the playing field, provide high-quality digital video signals to the media. And no disgusting glare for athletes and referees, no overflow light for spectators and the surrounding environment. Based on our experience, we can consider using permanent lighting, temporary lighting, or a combination of supplementary lighting in a professional football stadium lighting design.
How tall are football stadium lights?
The installation height of the lamps determines the success of the lighting system. The height of the football stadium floodlights or light poles should meet the angle of 25° from the center of the stadium to the auditorium on the horizontal plane. The minimum angle can exceed 25°, but should not exceed 45°.
Consider the camera angle
The lighting system is usually divided into five levels (I level to V level). For a FIFA standard size football pitch, the TV relay is required. To ensure that each camera receives enough light and records high-quality video, the actual location of the camera should be considered. The primary goal of the football stadium lighting design is to ensure the symmetry of the sideline and bottom line in the stadium. When fixed cameras and onsite cameras are needed, the quality of the digital video will not be affected.
Audience and broadcast perspective
Providing a glare-free environment for athletes, referees and media is the most important design requirement. The following two areas are defined as glare areas, and no lamps can be placed in the glare areas.
(1) Corner kick area
In order to maintain a good view of the goalkeeper and offensive players in the corner kick area, lighting equipment like football stadium floodlights should not be placed in the 15° area on both sides of the goal line.
(2) The area behind the goal line
In order to maintain a good view of the offensive players and goalkeeper in front of the goal, and the TV station staff on the other side of the field, the floodlights for football pitches should not be placed within 20° behind the goal line, and in the area above the level of the goal line at 45°.
(3) Shadow control (multifunctional area aiming)
Controlling the inconsistent shadows on the field has become the biggest problem for high-definition, high-quality digital video. In a professional football stadium lighting design, repeated aiming from different positions can limit the generation of shadows for athletes. For international football matches, each area is covered by at least 4 overlapping football floodlights. For domestic competitions, there must be at least 3 overlapping rays. When there is no uncoordinated shadow on the football field, a game environment without shadow is realized, and there is no shadow line on the field.
Lighting design standards and technical requirements
(1) Horizontal uniformity
Horizontal illuminance is the value measured when the illuminance meter is placed 1m horizontally above the field. Usually when measuring and calculating the maximum, minimum, and average illuminance of the site, a 10mx10m grid is established on the site.
(2) Coefficient of variation
Football is a high-speed sport. Maintaining a good uniformity of illumination on the field helps to improve the athletes’ on-the-spot performance and create high-definition video recordings. The following methods can be used to measure the uniformity, whether CV or UG can be used to measure the uniformity.
(3) Vertical illuminance
The vertical illuminance refers to the vertical illuminance of the athlete. The vertical illumination helps to capture the movement and instant close-up shots during the game, especially facial expressions. These images are captured by the site cameras. Too large changes in vertical illumination will result in poor digital video quality. The lighting designer must consider the illuminance balance in all directions to reduce the unevenness of the illuminance when the site camera shoots.
(4) Color temperature
Color temperature describes the feeling of warmth (red) or cold (blue) displayed by illuminance. The unit is Kelvin (Tk). With the current digital camera technology, the camera can be adjusted according to the actual color temperature and contrast to obtain the desired ideal color quality. For outdoor stadiums of all competition levels, CCT 4000K can meet the demands.
(5) Color rendering index
Color rendering index is the ability of artificial lighting sources to imitate natural light. In fact, the color rendering index is required to range from Ra20 to Ra100. The higher the color rendering index, the better the light color.
Environmental impact
Light pollution and light waste are divided into two categories: overflow light and glare. Spilled light refers to the light that can be measured around the stadium, and glare refers to the perception that the stadium is too bright for pedestrians and passengers outside the stadium. These effects on local residents endanger safety, affect night activities and the peace of citizens. Ways need to be taken to limit the spilled light and glare, and the new lighting regulations for television broadcast sports events should include cut-off reflectors and high-efficiency reflectors. The spilled light outside the stadium can be calculated and measured. Including the horizontal illuminance value and the maximum vertical illuminance.
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