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Lights work for television and for fun

LED lighting shows its good side on television and its fun side to fans attending games in person.

The lighting eliminates the “flicker” effect tied to metal halide lights, resulting in better-looking replays for super-slow-motion cameras, said Steve Hellmuth, NBA Entertainment’s executive vice president of operations and technology.

LED lighting at Bell Centre shows its color-changing capabilities during pregame festivities.
Photo by: Getty Images
Mike Davies, senior vice president of field operations for Fox Sports, said he was impressed by what he saw at University of Phoenix Stadium, where on Sept. 21 the Arizona Cardinals became the first NFL team to play a game under LED lights.

“The light at that stadium appeared bright and even, with good color temperature as well,” Davies said. “Our super- or hyper-motion replays look nice and solid from start to finish as they are unaffected by the LED light.”

Another advantage of LED is that the lights turn on and off quickly and are cool to the touch compared with metal halides that burn much hotter and can take several minutes to reach full glow.

As part of their game presentation, NBA and NHL teams have bought shutter systems to cover traditional lights while they are still burning during pregame introductions and other breaks in the action when arenas purposely go dark.

LED technology eliminates the need for shutter equipment that can run $300,000 to $400,000 in some cases, and provides the flexibility to create lighting scenes through dimming and sequencing as those images dance around the building.

University of Phoenix Stadium’s LED system, for example, has 13 features that can do all sorts of “theatrical stuff” with dimmers, strobes and color changes, said Fred Corsi, Global Spectrum’s executive director of operations at the stadium.

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