The purpose of lighting design in sports facilities is to allow sports to take place properly and provide good viewing conditions for both athletes and spectators. Lighting can be classified into key lighting and fill lighting to reduce shadows. Several factors are important in sports lighting design including eliminating stroboscopic effects, meeting uniformity requirements, and using high efficiency lighting to keep energy costs low. Standards like EN 12193 define lighting levels for different sports classes based on factors like competition level and sport.

2. Purpose
The purpose of Light Design in sports facility
is to provide lighting that allows a sport to take
place perfectly (i.e. designed to allow the speed
of play and objects handling used in the sport)
and provide good viewing conditions to both the
sports persons action and comfort of the audience

3. Classification
The Light as per modeling can classified in to
two segments
– First, Primary or main directional light can be
referred as key light,
– Secondly the fill light – which reduces the
shadowing effect caused by key light.
Referred Std - EN 12193

4. Some Important Points
• If there is insufficient key or main light and most of the lighting is
secondary fill light objects view become flat with little perceptible
detail. If there is insufficient fill light severe shadowing will occur,
overshadowing areas in the field of view
• For high-speed sports such as table tennis, soccer and hockey the
elimination of any stroboscopic effects from high intensity light
sources is important. Stroboscopic effects may make a moving object
appear stationary, or make the object seem to jump from one position
to another.
• Some sports (notably FIFA regulations for football) also define
requirements for uniformity gradient (UG). This is measure of the rate
of change of illuminance across an area, and is expressed as the ratio
between the illuminance levels of two adjacent measurement points.
Lighting requirements are defined by EN 12193.

5. Some Important Points
• EN 12193 defines requirements based on the lighting class (I, II,
or III). This is defined in term of std of sport such international level,
national level and regional or training level.
• At the lower standard of sport there is possibility with the light
source options (i.e. high pressure sodium, metal halide) but at class II
and III metal halide light sources with high colour rendering abilities
were used. Now with LEDs we can meet in any type of lighting
requirement of different classes such as I,II or III.
• Lighting levels for a sports is generally defined as the minimum
average horizontal illuminance on a reference or playing plane, and a
uniformity of illuminance. In some instances the plane of illuminance
will be relevant to the sport and the spectator viewing distance, or TV
camera-viewing plane.

6. • As some sporting areas are large, have the need for high levels
of illuminance or are used for a long period in the day, highly efficient
lighting systems are required to keep energy consumption low.
Maintenance is also important to ensure system efficiency and
functionality and therefore all lighting equipment should be safely
accessible and maintainable throughout life.
• When lighting exterior sports facilities to achieve good
uniformity lighting equipment must be mounted on masts of sufficient
height to ensure floodlight aiming angles are no greater than 70°. This
will ensure a high utilization of lamp flux, minimum electrical load, and
lower installed costs.

7. Sport / Activity CLASS I CLASS II CLASS III CLASS IV
BASEBALL 1500/1000
LUX
1000/700 LUX 500/300 LUX 300/200 LUX
BASKETBALL 300 LUX 200 LUX
FOOTBALL 1000 LUX 500 LUX 300 LUX 200 LUX
ICE HOCKEY 500 LUX 300 LUX 200 LUX
RODEO 500 LUX 300 LUX
ROLLER HOCKEY 500 LUX 300 LUX 200 LUX
SOCCER (OUTDOOR) 500 LUX 300 LUX 200 LUX
SOFTBALL 1500/1000
LUX
1000/700 LUX 500/300 LUX 300/200
SWIMMING
POOL (at water level) 300 LUX 300 LUX 100 LUX
DECK (at deck level) 200 LUX 100 LUX 100 LUX
TENNIS 1250 LUX 750 LUX 500 LUX 300 LUX
VOLLEYBALL 300 LUX 200 LUX
Light Level for Different Sports