Wimbledon goes LED – just in time for finals

THE All England Lawn Tennis Club has ditched the metal halide lighting in Centre Court for LED in time for the 2017 championships.

An American sports lighting specialist has installed LED lighting in the retractable roof that covers Wimbledon Centre Court. The move improves the quality of TV broadcasts and, unlike the metal halides, allows instant striking.

‘The purpose of the project was to improve the quality of lighting for broadcasters, whilst simultaneously improving the functionality of the lighting as part of the roof operation,’ AELTC estate director Robert Deatker told Lux.

‘Specifically, this involves reducing the amount of time required by the lights to warm up or cool down, thus making it quicker to resume play,’

The LEDs are a cool 5700K with a CRI of 90. Depending on camera position, the vertical illuminance is 1300–1700 lx and horizontal illuminance is 3000 lx.

The installation is part of growing switch to LED in top-level sports. Many Premier League teams – including Chelsea, Arsenal, Southampton, Bournemouth and Hull City – have already made the switch as have Juventus in Italy and Seville in Spain.

In the US major league baseball teams using solid state lighting including the New York Yankees, the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, and Houston Astros.

The lighting firm, working with consultants ME Engineers, created a mockup of the Wimbledon visual setting at its US manufacturing facility to test different CCT and CRI combinations to achieve the optimal combination of direct and indirect light. It also consulted with a UK-based TV crew and professional tennis players to fine-tune the specifications.

The metal halide lighting was installed with the retractable roof in 2009.