Russ Simons and Tom Williams, Venue Solutions Group, flank Jim Seabury, Tenzing Energy Solutions, on the opening day of the Venue Operations Summit. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM NASHVILLE — From lighting as a system, not a utility, to inspection reports in real time, the conversation centered around ‘The Internet of Things’ at the annual Venue Operations Summit here May 8-10.
Produced by Venue Solutions Group and Venues Today, VOS drew more than 130 attendees in its second year, with kickoff topics centering around automated maintenance and lighting systems. David Dean and Jim Seabury of Tenzing Energy Solutions updated attendees on the state of LED lighting today. Like everything in the venue business, change is clocking in at lightning speed. Lighting systems are admittedly outdated in less than a year. Think about that when a manufacturer starts talking about 25-year warranties, Dean suggested.
“Technology is very dynamic right now,” Dean said. “Think about the best application for what you want to achieve.” Is it lower energy costs, less maintenance or better light dispersement, he asked? That should precede the purchase decision.
“Stop talking about light fixtures and start talking about light as a system,” Seabury advised. In today’s world, it is easy to track hours of hours of operation and consumption.
LED lighting is directed, not reflected light. It eliminates the spill. But that can also be a problem, because LED lighting on the ice or floor can result in darkness in the seating area, which historically benefits from the spill of reflected light.
Cost containment is a major reason venues switch to LED lighting, Dean said. It can mean 50-70 percent savings in energy. The payback is two to three years not including maintenance costs, which are also less than other forms of lighting.
Additional advantages include the size and form factor, breakage resistance, instant on and off, dimming and tenability, Seabury added. As to shelf life, Seabury said LED is determined to have failed when it reached 70 percent of its initial output, which in general is 30,000-50,000 hours of use. To that end, he noted, a five-10 year warranty is sufficient.
He also recommended caution in buying a 25-year warranty from a company that has been in business three years. “There are a lot of fly-by-night people in this world.”
Jim Seabury and David Dean talk LED. (VT Photo)
There is a lot of talk, particularly in the major sports leagues among broadcasters about glare, but Seabury debunked that myth. “Glare and glare shield have been around a long time,” Seabury said. “So it really gets into layout more than glare.” Positioning the light standards may not be the traditional four-corners to two tier approach the industry is used to. It may not be practical to merely change out bulbs when switching to LED.
But the march to switch is definitely accelerating, especially since studies predict worldwide energy consumption could be reduced by half by 2030 with LED lighting.
“Think about lighting the same way you think about information technology,” Seabury said of the smart controls now available. In some states, like California, operators are required to install active controls if they do a lighting retrofit. “It is the Internet of Things (IOT), transferring energy from a utility company to a technology company.”
“You are introducing another system into your ecosystem,” Seabury said, just like security, closed circuit TV and access control. These are either web enabled or cloud hosted systems and, in purchasing decisions, it’s important to decide where to locate that data.
Cost is negotiable, they added. They consulted on a project where $1.8-million competing bids were just $7,000 apart and were based just on the number of fixtures, not the controls. They introduced competition into the process and were able to save the customer $700,000, all the while lighting the space on the same level because the number of fixtures was based on the technology.
“Normally, we want to be disruptive to the supply chain, eliminating things that don’t add value, but in this space, you need additional expertise,” Dean said.
The sports leagues all have minimum to maximum ratio requirements, but those vary greatly depending upon the use. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, for example, has a Division 1 national broadcast requirement and a Division 1 regional broacast requirement. “It’s all converted to lumen output (footcandles),” Dean said.
Last summer the National Basketball Association set its new standards at Prudential Center, Newark, N.J., with lots of talk about glare. All NBA buildings will have to comply. The National Hockey League is already there with its requirements, the main concern being shadows on the ice surface.
“You have to tune the space maximum to minimum,” Seabury said. “That’s very important with direct lighting.” And you can’t have a stark difference in lighting. Players become disoriented when transitioning from 180-220 footcandles on the playing surface to 30 footcandles in the hall to the locker room. “Tuning and control are becoming more important,” Seabury said.
Questioned about the issue of flickering when dimming LED lighting, they responded that that can be a problem with the “old” LEDs that dim to 10 percent. Today’s version dims to zero. What is older versus newer? “Ten months.”
Interviewed for this story: David Dean and Jim Seabury, (844) 836-9464