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LIGHT STUDIO

Sport & Stadia Earth Night View - ©PIO3

MINIGUIDE 10

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

SPORT FOR EVERYONE Sport weaves communities together. From casual pétanque to the buzz of elite arenas, it brings people into shared spaces where they can learn, grow and belong. Grassroots football and rugby offer more than a starting point — they offer a home, a team, and a chance to contribute to traditions built over generations. Sport is the great equaliser, providing opportunities for people regardless of their background, race, economic situation or ability. Many green spaces are open and accessible 24/7 with a large number providing more than just open space. In the most basic open spaces, jumpers for goalposts transforms a park in to a stadium of the mind, where a kickabout becomes more than just exercise, but an opportunity to interact with others, make friends. As we plan new communities, access to sport isn’t a luxury; it’s essential infrastructure. Multi‑use games areas and inclusive facilities ensure that every development supports healthier, more connected lives. But providing pitches and courts is only the start. In a 24‑hour world, people need safe, welcoming and well‑lit places to be active long after the sun goes down. True access means ensuring sport is available whenever life allows. Life doesn’t stop at 5pm, neither should sport.

Kimberly Bartlett, Head of Lighting Design Introba Consulting UK

Our Services We deliver fully integrated lighting design, assessment and technical advisory services tailored specifically for sporting environments. Working closely with our electrical, mechanical, sustainability and building‑performance teams, we create lighting that elevates every level of sport — from grassroots pitches to elite training facilities and major stadia. We’re driven by more than efficiency. High‑performance sport deserves high‑performance lighting. A pitch may meet every technical standard, but it only comes alive when athletes can see clearly, spectators feel engaged and the space inspires people to play. Great lighting design blends precision with atmosphere, pairing robust engineering with a deep understanding of how sport is experienced. Clear concepts, rigorous documentation and flawless execution underpin everything we do. Our goal is simple: to make sporting spaces not only compliant and efficient, but places where performance thrives and communities want to gather.

Working FC Club Masterplan

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre © Ema Peter Photography

Arena and Stadia Lighting

Pool and diving centres

Indoor and Outdoor sports lighting

Equestrian centres

Football, rugby and hockey pitches

Play areas

Cricket grounds

Winter sports complexes

Skateparks, pump tracks and velodromes

Lighting for televised sporting events and competitions

Track and field/ Athletics

Sports lighting assessments

Racquet, volleyball and basketball courts Multi-use games areas (MUGAs) and community halls

UC Los Angeles Mo Ostin Basketball Center

Outdoor Arena Stages and Amphiteatres Outdoor stage and amphitheater lighting is a specialised field that blends technical precision with artistic design, all while adapting to the unpredictability of open-air environments. Unlike indoor venues, outdoor spaces lack controlled ceilings and walls, so the lighting design must work with natural surroundings: sky, landscape, and ambient light, in order to create a compelling visual experience. Natural light plays an important role in outdoor productions. Events that begin before sunset require lighting systems that can gradually adapt as daylight fades. This transition must be smooth, so the audience barely notices the shift from natural to artificial illumination.

Stage Lighting

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

LED screen / video wall bac

A key challenge in outdoor stage lighting is scale. Amphitheaters are often large, with wide stages and expansive seating areas, so the lighting system must deliver sufficient intensity to reach performers clearly without washing out detail. Powerful fixtures such as LED floodlights, spotlights, and moving head lights are typically mounted on trusses, towers, or rigging structures positioned around and above the stage. These systems must be weather-resistant, capable of withstanding rain, wind, and temperature fluctuations.

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Projection

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Frozen Lake Lighting Design Strategy Sport lighting plays a crucial role in enabling winter activities on frozen lakes, particularly for skating and hockey. These environments present unique challenges compared to standard indoor arenas or outdoor fields, as lighting must contend with extreme cold and the reflective ice surfaces. The lighting design prioritizes wide, even coverage across the large open area. The goal is to minimize shadows and glare while ensuring skaters can clearly see the ice surface, puck, and other participants. Additionally, televised events often incorporate multiple camera angles, which means lighting must be balanced from all directions to avoid harsh contrasts or dark zones. The reflective nature of ice can enhance brightness on camera when managed correctly. In all cases, safety is a primary concern. Proper lighting helps prevent accidents by improving depth perception and surface visibility, especially as natural light fades. Whether for a casual evening skate or a professionally broadcast hockey game, well-designed lighting transforms the space into functional, enjoyable sporting venues.

Temporary lighting rigs for winter sports Approximate lake area to be frozen

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Lighting for All Levels of Play: Ice Rinks Lighting requirements change dramatically across training, competition and community use — but safe, flexible and well-designed environments depend on consistent principles and control, not just higher light levels

Competition At higher levels of competition, Class I and II lighting demands precise control of illuminance, glare, colour rendering and reflections.

Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre © Ema Peter Photography

These environments must support fast‑paced play, spectator comfort and broadcast requirements, with clear visibility from every position on and off the field.

Training Where training or lower‑league play is the primary use, lighting can be designed to Class II or III. These classes allow greater flexibility in colour rendering and glare control, while uniformity requirements remain unchanged to ensure safe, consistent play. Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre © Ema Peter Photography

Play

Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre © Ema Peter Photography

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Beyond sport, access to and use of rinks for socialising, general play/exercise and events allows a control system to come in to its own. What was bright and clear can in seconds become an underwater world of blues and greens, or an exciting red race simulation and then back again ready for the Zamboni and teams to come out on to the ice.

Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre © Ema Peter Photography

Indoor & Outdoor Courts Court lighting has to work as hard as the players who use them. The standards set clear performance standards for illuminance, uniformity and glare, ensuring that every pass, drive and jump shot can be seen clearly. When courts meet these benchmarks, they become true community assets: places where people gather, stay active and build connections. At elite level, the demands intensify. Fast‑paced play, televised coverage and high‑speed action require lighting that delivers exceptional clarity, consistency and colour rendering. The standards provide the framework, but great design goes further — eliminating shadows, enhancing depth perception and ensuring athletes can track the ball at full speed. When lighting is engineered to this standard, it elevates performance, enhances the spectator experience and transforms a court into a professional‑grade arena.

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Clayton Community Centre © Catherine Chan

UC Los Angeles Mo Ostin Basketball Center © Eric Staidemaier

City of Noblesville, The Arena at Innovation Mile and Parking Garage © Ratio Architects

Diablo Valley College Athletics and Kinesiology Complex © Introba

UC Los Angeles Mo Ostin Basketball Center © Eric Staidemaier 16

Field and Pitch Lighting Few playing surfaces are as varied as pitches or fields. They cover all shapes and sizes (football pitches do not have a specific size rather must fit within a specified range for example) and are usually outdoors. Pitches can be standalone or within a larger complex of athletics or track and field stadia – the possibilities are endless.

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Woking FC Club Masterplan © Introba

Kardinia Park Stadium © Introba, Brenden McGrath

Football, Hockey and Rugby These sports are often played year-round, with fixtures regularly scheduled after dark. Lighting must deliver consistent horizontal and vertical illuminance, good glare control and colour quality to support fast play, spectator comfort and high-definition camera coverage. 18

American Football & Athletics

Diablo Valley College, Athletics © HMC Architects

Often Football pitches and American Football fields are combined with running tracks and athletic fields. This is particularly important in school and university settings where efficient use of space is key. These very different sports require different lighting installations that are also flexible to ensure that the correct levels are present regardless of the sport being played at that time.

Baseball and Softball Long game durations frequently extend beyond daylight hours. Lighting systems must achieve high vertical illuminance for ball tracking, with excellent uniformity and colour rendering. Glare control is critical in areas where on‑field illuminance can exceed 1,000 lux.

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Cricket Cricket lighting focuses on a relatively small central playing area within a large outfield. High visual acuity is essential for bowlers targeting the bails and for players tracking a fast‑moving, dark ball. Carefully aimed floodlighting provides strong vertical illuminance while controlling glare when the ball is airborne. The Rose Bowl, Southampton © Kimberly Barlett

Multi-Use Games Areas (MUGAs) MUGAs support multiple sports within a single space, from football, basketball and netball to tennis, athletics and general training. Lighting must be flexible, uniform and well‑controlled, enabling safe use after dark while limiting spill light, energy consumption and impact on surrounding areas.

Lighting Impact Assessment Comparison

Aquatics Lighting for aquatic environments must balance safety, visual comfort and architectural quality within one of the most challenging reflective settings in sport and leisure.

Indoor Indoor pools offer a lot of flexibility in terms of how to light them. Daylight is always a positive, supplemented with additional artificial lighting to maintain the right light levels for safe and effective use of the pool. Lighting can be direct, angled down on to the water, indirect, reflected off of the walls or ceiling, or a mixture of both, depending on the needs of the space and users. The important element to remember with indoor pools is protection against glare for users and lifeguards/spectators.

Northcote Aq

Direct vs Indirecting Lighting

Outdoor Outdoor pools rarely benefit from overhead structures to mount lighting to, so lighting is typically provided by column mounted floodlights. Reflection and refraction from the water surface demand careful consideration to protect both pool users and neighbouring receptors. In many cases, underwater lighting plays a dual role — supporting safe use after dark while contributing to the pool’s identity and visual presence within the wider landscape. When thoughtfully engineered, outdoor aquatic lighting transforms pools into safe, functional facilities by night and striking civic features after hours.

C LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Wider Complexes Sport is rarely experienced in isolation. Fields, pitches and courts are supported by a wider network of spaces that enable people to arrive, prepare, recover, socialise and stay longer. As sports facilities evolve into multi‑use complexes combining health, wellbeing and community functions, lighting plays a critical role — supporting safe movement, clear wayfinding, visual comfort and strong identity, while enabling flexible use and extended hours across the entire site.

Athletic add-ons These sprawling complexes offer opportunities for users to take advantage of multiple sports and exercise options, supplemented with after care, trainers and gymnasiums. A complex allows athletes to look after every part of their training and sport needs in one place, supporting elite and amateur athletes alike to reach their full potential. Typical elements aimed at athletes include: • Physiotherapy • Hydrotherapy • Steam and saunas • Gymnasiums and personal training areas • Specialist sport indoor practice areas • Rest areas

Community provisions A sport complex does not just provide sport. Most provide additional services that can stand alone from their sporting connections and are often important community hubs or gathering places as well as spaces to spectate and support the athletes. Lighting here must balance identity, comfort and legibility while supporting extended hours of use for all types of users. Typical areas outside of sport provisions include: • Spectator areas • Waiting and rest areas • Equipment rental and shopping areas • Cafes and restaurants • Community spaces • Teaching and learning spaces

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Active Together From everyday activity to extraordinary performance, lighting plays a vital role in how people experience sport and movement. it shapes experiences, builds confidence and enables people to move, play and connect. Through thoughtful design, assessment and advice, we help create places that inspire participation, support wellbeing and bring communities together.

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Our Team We have every type of light and lighting covered and we thrive in collaborative environments. Kimberly Bartlett HEAD OF LIGHTING DESIGN

With nearly 20 years experience in light and lighting, I provide the backbone of technical expertise underpinning our designs, supporting our team in doing what they do best.

Aliz Sanduj ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER

The team’s creative powerhouse in lighting design, I oversee the transition of beautiful thoughts to incredible reality.

Christopher Harrison INTERMEDIATE LIGHTING CONSULTANT

A specialist in external lighting, I bridge the gap between inside and out, creating seamless movement.

Pablo Temboury INTERMEDIATE ENGINEER

Combining creative experience in the arts with technical lighting and electrical expertise, I transform conceptual ideas into realised environments.

LIGHT STUDIO MINIGUIDE 10 | SPORT & STADIA

Transforming the Built Environment with Curiosity, Ingenuity, and Accountability Introba is a global engineering and consulting firm with more than 1,000 specialists across the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. We help clients improve the performance, reliability, and sustainability of the built environment through mechanical, electrical, technology, security, and fire systems engineering, supported by digital advisory, systems integration, and sustainability consulting services. Guided by curiosity, ingenuity, and accountability, we work with the public and private organisations across healthcare, aviation, education, science and technology, transportation, and commercial development to deliver solutions that meet today's needs and adapt to tomorrow's demands.

Contact hello@introba.com

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020 3697 9300

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