Five Quick Wins: Why Switch Sports Lighting to LED?

Cedric Collard - Schréder Sports Segment Manager
Cédric Collard
Business Segment Manager - Industry & Large area

Sport is a passion. People play for many reasons: to keep fit, have fun, meet new people, get outside, unwind from a stressful job, and sometimes just for the sheer pleasure of winning. Whatever the game, whatever the level, lighting matters. Whether it’s lighting the pitch of a World Cup stadium, or making sure a bowling green can also host a bouncy castle and bake sale on a winter afternoon, lighting changes lives. 

Here at Schréder, we share that passion. Our lighting experts will help your club select, install and maintain a lighting system that matches your needs - and your budget. Our commitment goes way beyond kick-off: we support customers as their needs change and grow, to ensure they have the right light in the right place and the right time, whether its game night or a fundraising barbecue. We believe now is the right time to switch your club’s sports lighting to LED. Here are our 5 top tips to make the right choice so you and your teams can perform, play and win! 
 

One: Know the Rules of the Game

Start with the basics: what sport, or sports do you want to use the venue for? Are there league regulations you need to comply with in terms of lighting? Getting professional expertise to support you from day one means you’ll get it right first time. We’ve got decades of experience lighting everything from ice rinks to baseball fields, so why not make that part of your line-up?

The other thing to comply with is national standards. Rules on lighting pollution, safety protocols and driving currents vary greatly between geographies. Schréder is active in over 70 countries, so we combine global scale with local knowledge - especially when it comes to sports. That’s one of the reasons we made the ECOBLAST and OMNIBLAST modular. Clubs can buy as many units as they need to comply with national lighting standards - and not waste money on more.


Two: What Does The Future Look Like?

What is your club’s mission? In five years you might have gone up two tiers in a national league, and your lighting requirements could change as part of that. On the other hand, perhaps you want to be able to host events at your facilities to help raise extra cash - and need lighting that is as flexible as you are.

ECOBLAST and OMNIBLAST LED floodlights are winning lighting solutions for all sports facilties

Whatever your needs are, switching to LED will save energy, maintenance time, and therefore money. But it’s also worth thinking about how things might evolve, and whether a modular system, such as the ECOBLAST or OMNIBLAST, would be right for you. It can grow with your needs, be re-aimed on-site and rotates on several axes, giving a lot more options than traditional HID lighting.
 

Three: Take Control of the Pitch

With LED lighting you can adjust each unit individually, and there’s no warm-up time. The Schréder ITERRA control unit can be controlled with a smartphone app, so you can change lighting settings with a flick of your phone, rather than risking your star striker climbing a ladder! Light levels can be adjusted for matches, training, junior training (where you don’t need the whole pitch) and establishing different zones. 

Schréder ITERRA enables sports clubs to easily adapt their lighting with a smartphone

With Schréder’s expertise and vast array of products, we can also install accent lighting, create features in team colours, light car parks, spectator areas and statues… we’re here to help show your club in its very best light. For those in, or aiming for, professional leagues we have experience of getting lighting ready to pass the UEFA stadium audit and similar checks.


Four: Imaging, Installing, Illuminating

We work with you to design lighting that meets, and grows with, your needs. Next comes installation, which has traditionally been an issue when switching to LEDs. Most HID (high-intensity discharge) floodlights are mounted on poles, so LED units have had to be retrofitted onto the existing structures. However, they have tended to be heavier, leading to risks of poles sinking or indeed snapping. Our sports floodlights are both light and aerodynamic, so wind load on poles is kept to a minimum. That makes installation easier: we can also re-aim lighting when we fit LEDs to account for poles moving or sinking over the years. That’s a big issue: 2cm of movement on the pole can completely change where light falls on the playing field, disrupting the game for everyone.

We also do extensive imaging to work out where light shouldn’t be. Many countries have strict national regulations on light pollution, sometimes with local restrictions as well. Switzerland, for example, is very strict when it comes to light pollution. With LEDs, precision aiming means we can get your light on your playing field - not shining into the gardens of the houses over the road. With a Schréder solution, you can delight your members and respect your neighbours.


Five: Winning on Price

While all of our sports lighting solutions generate savings on every level, the ECOBLAST was designed to be a game changer in many ways. Modular, adaptable, it’s also very affordable. We wanted sports clubs at every level to have access to top-flight lighting, and we’re proud of what we’ve created! The ECOBLAST is very competitively priced compared to similar solutions on the market: on top of that, it’s modular, so you only buy what you need.

The energy savings that come with LED solutions means projects usually pay for themselves in a couple of years. In addition, remote mounting of the Schréder ITERRA control unit saves on laying cables, often a big proportion of lighting expenses. All that means more money to spend on equipment, facilities, players and the passion of the game. Enjoy!
 

About the writer
Cédric joined Schréder in 2013 with a solid experience in marketing. With his expertise and industry knowledge, Cédric leads the Industry and Large Area Business segments including Sport Lighting and Breeam certification. He collaborates with our research, product development, sales teams worldwide and sport associations to deliver sustainable and energy efficient lighting solutions, tailored to each individual project using the latest in lighting calculation software, lighting management systems and BIM techniques.

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