Stadium Lighting: Ten Decisions Beyond Lux and Uniformity

Recently, together with Justinas from LUCIDUS TECHNO UAB, Gilles and Jurie from AAA-LUX, I visited the National Stadium construction site on Ozo Street in Vilnius, Lithuania.

We met the main contractor, Naresta, to discuss the pitch-lighting solution included in the technical project. The conversation was practical: roof loads, luminaire positions, aiming, access, electrical architecture, controls and what happens after the stadium has been operating for five, ten or fifteen years.

This is exactly the stage when these questions must be answered.

A lighting calculation can look excellent on a screen. On the screen, however, every luminaire weighs zero, there is no wind, access is unlimited and replacement parts remain available forever.

The construction site is where the real discussion begins.

Almost four decades in the making

The National Stadium has a history that is difficult to summarise without making the history itself the main topic.

The first designs were prepared in the mid-1980s, and construction began in 1987. Work stopped in 1991, leaving part of the concrete structure unfinished. Construction was restarted in 2008 and stopped again in the same year.

More tenders, legal disputes, financing models and redesigns followed. The old concrete skeleton was finally demolished in 2022, and construction of the new project started in 2023. That work was later paused while the investment and concession structure was reorganised.

Following approval of the revised arrangements and Hanner’s takeover of the project company, construction formally resumed in July 2025.

Today, Hanner controls the development, and Naresta is the main contractor. The architectural team includes Cloud Architektai and Populous.

According to Naresta’s July 2026 progress report, the foundations have been completed, approximately 90% of the precast concrete structure has been installed and assembly of the steel roof structure has begun. The first matches are expected in autumn 2027.

After so many restarts, it is good to see the stadium becoming a building rather than another announcement.

Our history in the project

Our involvement with the pitch-lighting package started before this site visit.

Through its earlier work on the project, LUCIDUS TECHNO introduced and developed the AAA-LUX solution for the technical project. The meeting with Naresta was the next step: reviewing how the proposed system fits the actual structure and how it will be installed, operated and maintained.

Getting a product into a technical project is not the end of the work. It creates a responsibility to prove that the solution is buildable, compliant, maintainable and economically sensible for the owner.

That brought us to the main subject of the meeting.

Compliance is only the entry point

The UEFA Stadium Lighting Guide and FIFA requirements define horizontal and vertical illuminance, uniformity, glare, flicker, colour quality, power continuity and testing procedures. These requirements are not optional.

But reaching the required lux and uniformity does not automatically make a good stadium-lighting system.

In my view, pitch lighting is the single most important lighting system in a football venue.

Indoor spaces must comply with the relevant EN requirements. They must be safe, functional and comfortable. However, after watching a match on a pitch illuminated to around 2,000 lux, nobody walking inside for a beer and a hot dog will decide that the venue is successful because of a decorative downlight.

The pitch creates the image of the stadium. It affects the players, spectators, television production and every photograph or video leaving the venue.

That is where the design effort and long-term thinking must be strongest.

These are the ten practical decisions I consider most important.

1. Luminaire weight becomes part of the building

The luminaire does not end at the product price.

Its weight is transferred into mounting rails, roof steelwork, maintenance structures, mast headframes and foundations. The bracket, driver, cabling and secondary steelwork must also be included.

A few additional kilograms may look irrelevant when comparing two products. Repeat that difference across a complete stadium installation, place it at the edge of a long-span roof and it can influence the complete supporting structure.

Weight also affects installation. It determines how many people are needed, what lifting equipment must be used and how safely a luminaire can be handled from a service bridge or mast platform.

The structural engineer therefore needs more than a line in a catalogue. The design should provide the complete installed mass, centre of gravity, mounting reactions and exact quantity at each location.

Sometimes a more compact system reduces the number of luminaires, steelwork and installation hours. That saving will not appear in the floodlight price, but it is still a saving created by the lighting decision.

2. Windage may cost more than weight

Weight is static. Wind is not.

Floodlights positioned on a roof edge or at the top of a mast are exposed to significant wind pressure. The consequences depend on the projected area, product shape, mounting angle, drag coefficient and local wind conditions.

For a roof-mounted installation, windage affects the mounting rail and the primary roof structure. On lighting masts, it affects the mast diameter, wall thickness, headframe, foundation and fatigue calculation.

The front dimensions shown on a product drawing are not enough. A luminaire tilted during final aiming can present a different area to the wind. Brackets, remote drivers, cable trays and nearby units can also change the complete assembly.

This must be evaluated using verified product data and the actual intended mounting angles.

A low-cost luminaire with a large windage area can create a more expensive mast or roof structure. Once again, the cheapest line in the lighting offer may not produce the cheapest construction.

3. Aiming flexibility determines what the system can achieve

Stadium lighting is not one horizontal calculation.

The pitch must be illuminated vertically from the directions used by the main cameras, reverse cameras, goal cameras and mobile camera positions. Players’ faces and bodies must be visible, while goalkeepers and other players must still be able to follow the ball without excessive glare.

This requires light from several directions.

The relevant question is not only how many LED modules a luminaire contains. It is how many light sources can be independently aimed, which optical distributions are available and how precisely the selected position can be restored after maintenance.

Several modules fixed into one housing and pointing in one direction remain one aiming point. A system with more independently controlled optical directions gives the designer more resolution to balance horizontal illuminance, the four vertical viewing planes, face modelling, shadows and glare.

Mounting geometry is equally important. UEFA guidance normally places the main floodlighting positions within a defined elevation range—generally 25 and 45 degrees towards the observer. The lateral distance from the playing area also affects modelling and glare. If the roof geometry forces all luminaires into the wrong zone, better optics cannot completely repair the problem.

More aiming flexibility does not mean pointing narrow beams everywhere. It means having enough optical tools to put light where it is useful and keep it away from players’ eyes, spectator sightlines, neighbouring properties and roads.

The lighting calculation should therefore use the real roof geometry, final camera plan and actual observer positions. A generic pitch grid is not enough.

4. Design maintained performance, not opening-day lux

The stadium owner does not buy the illuminance measured on the first evening after commissioning.

LED output changes with operating hours, temperature and drive current. Optics collect dirt. Seals, drivers and control components age. Coastal, industrial or polluted environments can accelerate the process.

The maintenance factor is intended to account for this. The UEFA guide generally permits a maintenance factor of 0.90 for LED systems under normal conditions, but that number still needs justification. A harsher environment or weak cleaning plan may require a more conservative value.

A headline lifetime such as 100,000 hours says very little by itself.

It should be accompanied by the lumen-maintenance value, failure distribution, ambient temperature, drive current and expected driver life. We need to know what output remains after ten or fifteen years and how many components are statistically expected to fall below that level.

Constant-light-output control can compensate for lumen depreciation, but it requires power and thermal headroom. If a luminaire begins its life close to maximum current, there may be little reserve available later.

The correct comparison is maintained useful light over the stadium’s operating life—not the highest lumen figure in a new-product datasheet.

5. Broadcasting exposes the quality of the complete system

Two luminaires can have similar power, lumen output and beam data while producing very different results on camera.

For broadcasting, the quality of the driver, dimming method, optical system and thermal management matters as much as the LEDs.

Flicker is a clear example. A system can look stable to the human eye and still produce bands or changes in exposure during slow-motion recording. For elite high-speed television production, flicker values around or below 3% become important, and performance must be checked at the actual dimming levels—not only at 100% output.

Colour rendering and colour consistency affect skin tones, team colours and the appearance of the grass. Light arriving from only a few hard directions can create deep facial shadows. A greater number of well-positioned sources normally produces softer shadows and better player modelling.

Surge protection, temperature management, corrosion resistance, sealing and control compatibility may not be visible in a calculation, but they decide whether the original performance remains stable.

Broadcast requirements will continue to develop during the life of the stadium. Designing only for the least demanding camera specification accepted today creates a predictable future replacement project.

6. Maintenance access must be designed before the roof is closed

A stadium floodlight is not a lamp that can be replaced from a stepladder.

If the roof includes a safe service bridge, access may be relatively straightforward. If it does not, maintenance can require rope access, a crane or a mobile elevating platform.

On lighting masts, a properly designed platform can make inspection and replacement manageable. Without one, every intervention becomes a specialist operation.

The natural pitch makes this more complicated. It is not an industrial floor. Heavy equipment can damage the surface, compact the soil, interfere with irrigation or drainage and require expensive temporary protection. Access may also be limited by weather, the playing calendar and stadium events.

A small component failure can therefore create a large maintenance cost.

Before selecting equipment, the project team should answer several basic questions:

• Can the luminaire and driver be reached safely?

• Can the driver be replaced separately?

• How heavy are the replaceable components?

• Are special tools or manufacturer technicians required?

• Can a unit be removed without disturbing neighbouring luminaires?

• Can its original aiming position be restored without repeating a large part of the commissioning process?

• Can access equipment reach the mounting position without entering or damaging the pitch?

Maintenance bridges, platforms and access routes are part of the lighting design. They should not be discovered as missing infrastructure after handover.

7. Driver architecture determines the size of a failure

Driver architecture is often treated as a secondary product detail. Operationally, it can decide whether one light point fails or an entire section becomes dark.

With one driver per luminaire, an individual driver failure normally removes one light point. The system contains more drivers, but the failure is localised.

If one driver or driver assembly supplies several luminaires or optical units, the component count may be reduced. However, one failure can remove several light points at once and produce a much larger dark area.

There is no universal answer. The correct architecture depends on access, driver quality, redundancy, circuit distribution and the size of the affected lighting group. What matters is that the failure modes are calculated rather than assumed.

The same exercise should be completed for electrical circuits, control gateways, communication lines and distribution boards:

• What becomes dark when one component fails?

• Does the remaining installation still provide a usable match-continuity level?

• How quickly is output restored?

• Does recovery happen automatically?

• Does a technician need to reset the system?

For the highest UEFA lighting level, independent power sources and defined automatic recovery are part of the match-continuity strategy. That architecture must be tested under real failure conditions. A diagram showing two supplies is not proof that the system will transfer correctly during a match.

8. Lumens per watt and purchase price must be converted into lifetime value

System efficacy matters, but a catalogue lm/W value can be misleading.

The stadium does not use all emitted lumens equally. Useful efficiency depends on the optical distribution, aiming losses, quantity of luminaires, spill control and how much power is required to achieve the maintained horizontal and vertical criteria.

A solution with a slightly lower luminaire efficacy may still require less total connected load if its optics place light more effectively. The opposite can also be true.

The financial comparison should include:

• purchase price;

• number of luminaires and drivers;

• supporting structure;

• electrical capacity and cabling;

• installation and aiming;

• energy use in every operating mode;

• expected lumen depreciation;

• cleaning and inspection;

• access equipment;

• replacement components;

• software or control licences;

• and the risk of major renewal before the end of the stadium concession.

Annual operating hours must also be realistic. The stadium will not run every hour in full broadcast mode, but it may operate frequently for training, community use, cleaning and maintenance.

A cheaper offer with higher power consumption, faster output depreciation or difficult maintenance can cost more within the first years of operation. Tender price and lifetime value are not the same number.

9. Controls should follow how the stadium is actually used

A national stadium needs more than an on/off switch.

The system may require a full televised-match mode, national or local competition modes, training, youth football, public use, cleaning, maintenance and emergency operation.

The UEFA guide identifies a 500-lux training mode and a 250-lux maintenance mode. The owner may also create additional levels—for example, around 200 lux for public or youth training—when those levels suit the activity and applicable requirements.

Good controls turn those possibilities into actual energy savings.

If the U14 team trains every Wednesday at 17:00, the system can automatically activate the correct area and lighting level before the session and switch it off afterwards. There is no reason to depend on somebody remembering to turn off a stadium-scale load.

Calendar integration, zoning and scheduled scenes can reduce unnecessary operating hours. Remote diagnostics can identify a failed driver or communication problem before the next event.

However, automation must remain understandable. The stadium operator needs a clear local interface, sensible user permissions and an independent manual override for critical match operation.

A complicated control system that only the original programmer understands is not an operational advantage.

10. Specify what happens after handover

Warranty duration is important, but the warranty headline is not enough.

The project must establish what is covered, who pays for access and labour, whether drivers and control components have the same warranty period, and which operating or environmental conditions can invalidate the coverage.

Spare-part availability is equally important.

Can the same driver, optic and connector be supplied after eight or ten years? If the LED generation changes, can a replacement luminaire match the original output, colour and optical distribution? Can new components communicate with the existing control system?

One visibly different replacement unit may appear minor. Several incompatible replacements can gradually destroy the original uniformity and turn a repair programme into a complete system-renewal project.

The manufacturer should provide a credible long-term support policy, component traceability, repair procedures and an agreed spare-parts package. Service response in the relevant market matters as much as the manufacturer’s global size.

Finally, the completed installation must be properly commissioned.

The UEFA measurement grid contains 96 pitch points. With one horizontal and four vertical illuminance readings at every point, that already means 480 illuminance measurements before flicker, glare, colour, power and environmental-spill tests are added.

The final handover should include:

• measured results for every operating mode;

• the final aiming schedule;

• luminaire, optic and bracket identification;

• control addresses and scene settings;

• driver and circuit mapping;

• primary- and backup-power test results;

• flicker and glare results;

• environmental-spill measurements;

• maintenance procedures;

• recommended cleaning intervals;

• the spare-parts list;

• contact details for technical support.

  
  

This documentation becomes the baseline for every future inspection. Without it, the operator cannot prove that performance has changed or correctly restore the system after maintenance.

The calculation is only the beginning

UEFA and FIFA compliance is mandatory. Lux, uniformity, vertical illuminance, glare and flicker must be achieved and measured.

But those figures alone do not tell us whether the roof structure has been used efficiently, whether the luminaires can be aimed correctly, whether on

e failed driver will remove one light point or six, or whether a replacement can be completed without driving heavy equipment onto a valuable natural pitch.

They also do not tell the owner what the system will cost to operate for the next fifteen years.

That is why the pitch-lighting discussion at the National Stadium is not limited to selecting a floodlight and accepting a calculation. The technical project must become a complete, buildable and maintainable system.

For a stadium that has already waited almost four decades to open, the installed lighting should not require replacement before the venue has had time to establish its own history.