Aside from increasing the visual playing conditions for both players and spectators, as well as minimising shadows, stadium lighting is also under strict guidelines enforced by associations such as Union of European Football Associations. This guarantees that experiences of those watching a match on television have the same viewing experience as those watching inside the stadium. If football is truly seen as the “beautiful game”, then the necessity to provide audiences consistent and true-to-life visual experiences is crucial.
Stadiums are required to ensure that lighting meets demands for a high efficiency and intensity, flicker-free light, and is compliant with stringent broadcasting regulations. The necessity to provide these qualities, has meant that high intensity discharge lamps (HID) – most commonly used in stadium lighting – are being replaced by more innovative and flexible lighting in the form of LEDs. A key reason for this change is also the cost reduction as a colour editing of the television recording, which was often needed with former lighting solutions, is no longer necessary.
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| LED lighting on a soccer field. (Osram/LEDinside) |
Osram Opto Semiconductors used the company’s longstanding experience to provide solution development partners specially optimised LED lighting solutions to satisfy the demands on lighting used in stadiums. Osram’s OSLON Square has been expertly developed to meet upper grading of the Television Light Consistency Index (TLCI). These are guidelines to ensure the optimisation of spectra sensitivity of the TV camera to avoid the need for post-production colour editing - often a result of poor lighting. By offering a phosphore mixture, the OSLON square ensures extremely high-quality light and a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of a near-perfect 90 at 5700°K. An advantage of the German market-leader is the in-house development, which ensures the exact demands required by partners to provide lighting solutions is of the highest standards, such as this phosphore mixture.
Osram’s OSLON Square is also built to be both reliable and flexible. The LED has been engineering for long-term use, even in harsh conditions.
As for size, due to Osram’s commitment to continuously better LED technology, OSLON Square LED has been developed to be compact, helping stadiums save considerable financial expenses by minimising structure cost. Flexibility is achieved by enabling optimal optical design with a variety of distribution options, as well as an innovative product concept offering both a modular approach and adjustable orientation – a perfect match in meeting customer demands.
With spectacles such as the European Championships, and indeed any sporting event taking place in a stadium, performance of the LED is vital. The 2W OSLON Square is able to provide different colour temperatures in different versions to adjust to specific application for luminaires used in stadiums.
The LEDs can be clustered to achieve incredible 130,000lm (at 4,000K, CRI 80) and up to ~100,000lm (at 5700K, CRI90). The OSLON Square also meets consumer demands and the strictest TLCI requirements for comprehensive high-definition (HD) broadcasting, which dictates that the lights must be flicker-free to guarantee high-quality visuals – especially important for slow-motion replays.
With the level of visual clarity offered, there is an undoubted opportunity for Osram Opto Semiconductors LEDs to shine the light for many more sporting events to come.