Sports Lighting

Sports Lighting is a science, done correctly it will provide a greatly enhanced enjoyment and return on any sports court or field investment.
It would be hard to imagine a major club popping down to a chain store and buying a handful of floodlights to mount themselves. All to often however we see just that in clubs and domestic courts. Sure any light is better than no light but the overall cost and risks associated with a poor system just aren’t worth it.

The design basics that follow are principally aimed at sports courts but the concepts are equally valid in field lighting as well. A good design is the foundation to a great system.

Sports Lighting – design basics

When installing or upgrading any tennis court lighting or sports court lighting system there are a few key design concepts that separate a professional quality installation from a basic flood light system.
Tennis court lighting and sports lighting systems work in 3 dimensions; think of this almost as a “cone or prism of light” bounded by the distance between the lights along the court, across the court and above the court. The volume of this cone or prism is critical.
Key factors in tennis and sports lighting are the performance, running costs, product longevity and ongoing maintenance costs.  Performance includes light levels, uniformity and positioning of light fittings for optimal sighting of the ball.  Product longevity and maintenance costs can vary considerably between different lighting systems and therefore needs to be considered for long term benefits.

What games are we playing?

Tennis for example is primarily a diagonal game, the lights must be situated so that they do not impact the players whilst serving or playing into the opponent’s corner. Tennis is also played predominately in the “on court area” and less so at the extremes of the safe run off areas. These “demands” are major factors in pole location for tennis court lighting.
Other sports lighting systems such as those used in Netball, Basketball or Futsal are played more heavily toward the extreme ends of the court thereby demanding more light in those areas.

Pole Height

Using the “cone / prism” analogy, raising the poles, obviously increases the size of the cone / prism of light but at a cost. The larger the pole the more the cost of construction and materials and the more the light is diluted for any given assembly. Tall poles also add to maintenance costs in the future. Please see our terminology page.

Safety

In a perfect world all Sports Lighting system would be designed from scratch, in reality we must work with what we’ve got. On many courts it is simply impossible to place the lights in the optimum position because of “safe run off” implications. In such cases the poles are located towards the ends of the play area or a double court lighting system is used. The latter normally involves higher wattage lights and much higher poles.

Light levels

This is the amount of light each lamp array produces. It is important to select a system that produces the required amount of light for your situation, too dark and play is impossible, too bright and money is wasted. Please see LUX on our terminology page.

Uniformity

This is one of the single most important measurements of any sports lighting system. Poor uniformity can result in “dark patches” which will severely impact on a player’s impression of the balls speed and position. No matter what application your lighting system is for, demand a Lux design chart – at Multisport Concepts this is free of charge with all designs. Please see our terminology page for more.

Lux design Chart

The Lux chart is a plan view of your tennis court lighting or sports court lighting system with a grid of “dots”. The minimum spacing should be 4m at Multisport Concepts we use 2m grids for our Tennis Court Lighting systems. The dots will show the indicative Lux level at that point. The chart will show the maximum and minimum Lux points and also calculate uniformity and average light levels. Again please see the terminology page for more information. Don’t buy a system without a LUX design chart.

Spill Control

Light spill into neighbouring properties is a very hot topic and correct design is critical. It is essential that you get a design that meets the “standards” requirements to avoid potential disputes in years to come. General purpose floodlights or lack of design can lead to very high costs in future years – tennis court lighting systems and sports lighting systems are specialist installations only.

Maintenance and warranty

Key factors here are how often do I use the system?  – This will determine whether electricity cost is important. Pulse start are cheaper to run but at a slightly higher initial cost.
How easy is it to change the lamp? – This can become a major expense on poorly designed systems
Warranty – again the pulse start have a significantly longer warranty but at a slightly higher initial cost.
We offer the longest warranty’s in the industry.

Call Multisport Concepts on 1800 222 090 or use our web form for free advice on all Sport Lighting, Sports Court Lighting, Tennis lighting or tennis court lighting systems.

Please see our other sports lighting pages for more information.

• Terminology
• Systems available
• Field Lighting