Location: Russia | Year: 2020 | Product Model: MS1 Stadium Light | Quantity: 368 pcs | Lux Level: 2,000 lux JGJ 153-2016 Class VI — HDTV broadcast | Ev main 2,000 lx / aux 1,400 lx | Ra ≥ 90 | R9 ≥ 20 | 5,500 K | GR ≤ 30 |
This indoor ice and snow sports centre in Russia is Sense's benchmark installation for televised short track and speed skating. Delivered in 2020, 368 units of the MS1 Stadium Light serve the ice at a maintained 2,000 lux — the JGJ 153-2016 Class VI level for HDTV broadcast, where the main camera sees 2,000 lux of vertical illuminance and the auxiliary cameras 1,400 lux, with glare held to GR ≤ 30.
Lighting a sheet of ice for HDTV is a different problem from lighting a field. Ice behaves as a partial mirror: the brighter the installation, the more aggressively it throws specular images back at athletes, judges and lenses. Skaters travel at around 50 km/h with the body banked hard into the turn and the head low, so their sightline skims the ice where reflections collect — as does a camera on the straight. The MS1 array was therefore aimed along the direction of travel, every luminaire placed outside the mirrored zone for the principal camera positions and the racing line, with low-luminance optics and louvres keeping the emitting surface below the glare threshold. Four-direction vertical illuminance was balanced so that the minimum-to-maximum ratio at any calculation point stays at 0.6 or better.
At Class VI the specification tightens on colour and temporal stability as well. Ra ≥ 90 with R9 ≥ 20 keeps skin tones, team colours and the white of the ice true; a correlated colour temperature of 5,500 K matches daylight-balanced HD cameras. Speed skating is the fastest human-powered sport there is, and super slow-motion and photo-finish coverage expose any instability in the light — the driver platform holds the flicker ratio below 6% and sustains at least 1,800 lux towards the ultra-high-speed camera positions. TV emergency lighting was engineered to 50% of the class level, with main-camera vertical illuminance never dropping below 750 lux.
The environment is as demanding as the optics. Air above the sheet is cold, humidity peaks during ice making, and condensation dripping onto the ice leaves bumps felt at racing speed. IP66 sealing, anti-condensation protection and low-temperature-rated electronics that start instantly at full output address all three, while DMX and DALI control switch training, competition, broadcast, resurfacing and ceremony scenes centrally. Verified at every camera position in 2020, the installation has held its photometric performance through successive seasons.
