Eye-friendly Sports Stadium Lights

Eye-friendly Sports Stadium Lights

We know that it is very important to choose an eye-friendly stadium light, which determines the visual state of the athletes.The glare and flicker caused by eye-unfriendly stadium lights will seriously affect the athletes' condition and event broadcasts.

Strong direct or reflected light can cause athletes to have momentary blurred vision (such as a football goalkeeper not being able to see the ball clearly), delayed judgment, and even cause headaches. The stroboscopic light (rapid changes in light intensity) of low-quality lamps can cause visual fatigue and distraction, especially in high-speed sports (such as basketball and badminton), which increases the risk of mistakes.

Therefore, it is very important to choose an eye-friendly stadium light that is anti-glare and anti-strobe.

1. Glare: The invisible killer of athletes

1) What is glare?

Glare refers to the phenomenon that the human eye cannot adapt to excessive light or uneven distribution, resulting in dazzling and blurred vision. On the court, glare may come from:

• Direct glare: Light from lamps directly shines into the eyes of athletes (such as low-angle floodlights).

• Reflected glare: Strong light reflected from the ground, billboards or spheres.

%1) The impact of glare on athletes

• Temporary visual blind spots: Strong light may cause athletes to lose sight of the ball or teammates for a moment, increasing the error rate.

• Visual fatigue: Long-term exposure to glare will accelerate eye muscle fatigue and affect concentration in the second half of the game.

• Safety hazards: For example, a football goalkeeper misses a high-speed ball due to glare, or a basketball player loses balance due to light interference when jumping.

%1) How to prevent glare of stadium lights?

• Scientific lighting design:

Use asymmetric lenses or reflectors to control the light projection angle and avoid direct exposure to human eyes.

• Optimize the installation height of lamps:

Raise the lamps (such as the light poles of football fields are usually ≥15 meters) to reduce low-angle light interference.

• Application of diffuse reflective materials:

Use matte coated floors or low-reflectivity billboards to reduce secondary glare.

Romanso’s efforts in anti-glare of stadium lights:

1. Low-end plastics tend to age and turn yellow, increasing scattered light; lenses with rough surfaces diffuse stray light. Romanso stadium lights using high transmittance PC lens, light transmittance more than 90%

2. Optics of 15º/30º/60º/60º×120º available on request.

Romanso stadium lights have different beam angle of lens for choose. By selecting the right lens, the light can be irradiated on the court to the greatest extent, avoiding direct view of the light source and reducing direct glare.

3. Visor design

Visor design direct light primarily toward the court, reducing spillover toward the stands and sky. The material uses a matte aluminum surface with a black light-absorbing coating to reduce stray light reflections.

2. Strobe: The invisible “rhythm destroyer”

1) What is strobe?

Strobe refers to the rapid change of light and dark of the light source due to current fluctuations or driving problems. Although the human eye may not be able to directly detect it (especially high-frequency stroboscopic), long-term exposure can lead to:

• Visual fatigue: long-term exposure to stroboscopic environment will cause continuous adjustment of eye muscles, accelerating fatigue

• Dynamic vision loss: in high-speed sports such as tennis/table tennis, stroboscopic will cause the illusion of "broken track"

• Video broadcasting problems: may cause stripes or shaking of the camera shooting

2) Common causes of flicker

Poor quality driver power supply: Traditional metal halide lamps or low-end LED lamps are prone to flicker due to unstable power supply.

Grid voltage fluctuation: Especially when using a dimming system, unstable voltage will aggravate flicker.

3) How to prevent stadium lights from flickering?

High-quality LED driver power supply: Use constant current drive technology to ensure current stability (such as flicker rate <1%).

High-frequency dimming design: The dimming frequency of professional stadium lights is usually ≥1000Hz, far exceeding the sensitive range of the human eye (usually <200Hz).

Intelligent voltage stabilization system: Offset grid fluctuations through circuit design, such as adding a PFC (power factor correction) module.

Romanso’s efforts in anti-strobe of stadium lights:

1. High reliable LED driver

Romanso using Meanwell/Inventronics driver for our sports stadium light, which use PWM (pulse width modulation) constant current drive technology to maintain current stability.