A client in McQueeny, TX went online and found on the Internet. He contacted us for a very sophisticated sport lighting system for an indoor facility he owned. This was one of the most challenging, and ultimately rewarding, projects that we have worked on to date.
It involved the development of very complex photometric designs and very special equipment made only in the USA.
The facility itself housed an indoor single tennis court and double racquetball court. For the tennis court, the client wanted tournament level lighting, which calls for a minimum 100 foot candles. For the racquetball court, he wanted general sport court lighting.
There were some special considerations to take into account on this project. To begin with, the roof was built at a pitched angle. In order to install suspended indirect sport lights, the lighting design and equipment company had to provide a special junction box that allowed them to hang perfectly true and straight from the ceiling.
They also had to install extension stems at different lengths to ensure that all fixtures were suspended at the same height.
The racquetball court lighting system was different. It required that all fixtures be mounted flush with the ceiling. It also called for a sturdy impact resistant glass that would withstand direct strikes for high speed balls.
The racquetball court lighting system also had to be fitted with emergency quartz back-up lights in the event of a power failure. This would also the system to instantly come on prior to the metal halide lights re-strike time and allow players to find their way to the door.
Such complex sport lighting systems obviously require advanced photometric design planning. It was necessary for the lighting designers to develop a full three-dimensional model of the building interior. Because they involved indirect lighting, calculations had to be made to determine the reflectance of walls, ceiling, and the floor.
We then rendered a complete installation diagram for both sport lighting systems. This diagram was intended for the contracted that the client had chosen to handle putting in the actual equipment. Support was provided to this contractor by the design staff of the lighting design and supply company.
By rendering the system as a model first, the designers were able to actually exceed the expectations of the client. By calculating reflectance as well as luminance, they ended up with a system that exceeded, on the average, 150 foot candles on the tennis court. The racquetball court was lit at 80 foot candles with near perfect uniformity.
Once the model was constructed in our software, designers knew exactly what type of sport lighting fixtures to supply the client with. For the tennis court, designers provided the client with indirect court lighting fixtures. These fixtures operate off remote ballasts, are designed to tru-hang from sloped ceilings, and house 1000W metal halide lamps.
They also supplied him with SPT series racquetball court lights. These fixtures house 320W Pulse-Start Metal Halide lamps and feature high impact resistant glass. They also have an emergency backup quartz lighting system to compensate in the event of a power outage.