Adelaide Oval leaping ahead as LED-led tower lighting adds colour, flash, animation and consistent sports white
Adelaide Oval's switch to LED (light-emitting diode) lighting alllowed its tower globe banks to add colour (left) and animation (right), as well as flash, to the stadium's lightshow and audio-visiual capablities. It also brought a focused consistent level of white light across the field of play,
Adelaide Oval’s 2023 $5 million LED upgrade to its tower lighting made it the only major stadium in Australia equipped with both immaculate white sports lighting and full-colour lightshow capabilities.
The LED (light-emitting diode) system replaced the high intensity discharge lighting that was last updated in 2014 as part of the Adelaide Oval redevelopment. LED allowed for instant switching on and off of a focused consistent lighting level across the field of play, as well as new capabilities including colour, flash and animation. The new lights also would use about 40% less power than their predecessors, contributing to Adelaide Oval’s sustainability goals.
Adelaide Oval chief executive Nick Addison said the upgrade would deliver significant benefits for patrons, the venue and the South Australian events calendar: “Adelaide Oval has a well-earned reputation as a world-class events and entertainment destination and this upgrade goes a long way to keeping us at the forefront of stadia globally.” Addison said LED had evolved to become the gold standard: “The opportunities this opens up are really exciting – both in terms of giving fans an electric event day experience and helping us attract new and different events to South Australia.”
The oval’s new tower lighting was installed in just 11 weeks by a project team of 30 full-time experts, led by South Australian electrical solutions company CME and long-time Adelaide Oval project management partner Mott MacDonald, with lighting supplied by Signify Australia. Abseiling up and down each tower, the team manually switched over the globes and support system while retaining the existing light towers.
Sports lighting specialist KOJO would programme and operate the new lights as an extension of Adelaide Oval’s existing audio-visual capabilities.
