Ice Rink Lighting

City of Chrudim

Lighting installations at ice rinks face specific conditions that are not typically found in standard industrial sectors.

Interior of a hockey arena featuring an empty ice rink and red grandstand seating, illuminated by a dense system of linear LED light fixtures mounted under the steel ceiling structure.

The primary requirements for the lighting are as follows:

  • Temperature Variations: During the season, the arena is covered in ice; off-season, it hosts cultural events or inline skating. Consequently, the ambient temperature fluctuations are significant.

  • Condensation: During winter operations, warm light fixtures are constantly exposed to condensing air humidity.

  • Uniformity: Even distribution of light is crucial; the ice surface must be perfectly illuminated both in the center and along the boards.

  • Light Scenes: Operations typically require various lighting presets for TV broadcasts, matches, training sessions, public skating, etc.

For the Chrudim stadium, we utilized doublepower ONE fixtures, featuring high luminous efficacy and an IP65 protection rating. Thanks to the unique body design, only a small area on the sides needs to be sealed to ensure long-term tightness. Furthermore, we select sealing materials with slowed degradation to withstand long-term stress.

With winter temperatures dropping below freezing and summer peaks exceeding 40°C, doublepower fixtures cope easily due to advanced thermal management. The aluminum body is separated from the electronics, allowing for highly efficient heat dissipation. The chosen beam characteristics of the doublepower fixtures ensure high uniformity across all light scenes and the entire ice surface.

Stadium staff have access to a comprehensive lighting management and control system. Switching between light scenes is simple and reliable. Additional energy savings are generated by setting up logical groups of fixtures; for example, youth training sessions often use only a portion of the ice, so only that specific area is illuminated.

In this project, we acted as a sub-contractor for the lighting design and fixture manufacturing for M&D Elektro, which provided the electrical materials and overall project implementation. The automated lighting control and management system was implemented in cooperation with Kybertec.