Guiding light

Not before time, the Society of Light and Lighting has issued a revised lighting guide that updates the previous version, published in 1990. Lighting Guide 4: Sports Lighting, written by a group chaired by Kelvin Austin of Abacus Lighting is now pretty comprehensive, so should be of use from readers ranging from local authorities updating a leisure centre, to contractors involved in building a stadium for the 2012 London Olympics.

As before, the guide’s aim is to help create design flexibility while achieving basic lighting requirements. The main objective of the rewrite was to align the recommendations within the guide to the British Standard and European Norm BSEN 12193: 1999. Numerous sports that were not included in either the 1990 guide or BSEN 12193: 1999 have been taken into account in the updated LG4. Proposed amendments to BSEN 12193 have also been discussed.

Almost all sports played in Europe, including many minority ones, are now covered, as is the full spectrum of playing standards, from school and amateur level to top international competitions. The full list of sports included is long, but among them are the obvious ones, such as football, keep fit and dry ski slopes, and more unusual choices, such as hurling and wrestling.

Whatever sports field you’re dealing with, you can expect it to be in there. To make the guide easier to use, the requirements and recommendations within it have now been changed to give specific lighting information for each sport. This includes tables containing lighting parameters that relate to the new system of lighting classes. There is also information on colour television group categories and colour rendering index recommendations.

The information is divided into four sections:

• Principles of lighting with respect to sport
• Specific lighting needs for individual sports
• Maintenance and operation of sports lighting
• Specification of equipment for sports lighting

The first part discusses requirements with regard to brightness and contrast over the playing area, the distribution of light and the control of glare. There are also sections on systems that cater for the visually impaired, the best use of daylight in a sports building, the lighting of ancillary areas, emergency lighting and surveillance lighting.

As well as covering requirements for each sport, the second part covers sports halls, large and small sports stadia, and lighting for television, film, display screens, non-broadcast-quality video and high-definition television.

It discusses colour temperature, correlated colour temperature and colour rendering index.

If you want to know how best to prevent the rapid depreciation of sports lighting systems, take a look at the third section. It explores the important equipment construction factors plus the main operating and management parameters. It also contains data on seasonal lighting needs, plus the approximate annual hours of usage of the different types of sports facilities.

Factors that should be considered when selecting lamps and luminaires for a particular system are considered in the final part, especially correlated colour temperature and colour rendering, protection and electrical classification, impact resistance and performance data.

The appendices provide details on the calculation of average illuminance and uniformity ratio, lighting depreciation factors and the commissioning of floodlighting installations. You will also find a list of sports governing bodies, and typical playing area dimensions for many sports.

The guide costs £26.50 for members of the Society of Light and Lighting and CIBSE, and £53.00 for others (plus £5.30 p&p). Go to www.cibse.org or call Charmaine on 020 8772 3618