December 15, 2025 • 9 mins
In this episode, we take a deeper dive into LED sports lighting and stadium light technology. Building on our earlier sports lighting discussion, we explore when true stadium lights are actually required, the most common applications, and where these fixtures are used outside of sports environments. We also break down the differences between optic types such as degree lenses and 3H3V (BUG) distributions, the pros and cons of internal vs external drivers, and how DMX control systems power advanced RGBW stadium lighting effects. Whether you're lighting a school field, an industrial yard, or a full stadium, this episode will help you understand the key design decisions behind modern sports lighting systems.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:00:00):
Welcome back to the LED Lighting Podcastby CommercialLEDLights.com.
This is Kevin along with Charlie, the owner at CLLand Peter, our in-house lighting engineer.
How are you guys doing?
Doing well.
Doing well.
Fine, thank you.
Good, good.
Today we're doing a deep dive on LEDSport and Stadium lights.
This includes various applications, optic types,internal versus external drivers, and
(01:00:26):
even DMX controls for RGBW lighting systems.
So let's take it right off the top.
When do you actually need stadium lights?
What is a stadium light and when do you actually need it?
Stadium lights often also called sports lights.
While they're definitely used for sporting lightapplications, it's really a light designed
(01:00:52):
to throw a somewhat narrow angled beamof light a very far distance.
So they're often very high powered and they usuallyhave a relatively narrow beam angle.
So if you can picture a sports or stadiumlights, they're mounted very high.
So they have to direct the light in a relativelynarrow area and you use many of them, often
(01:01:15):
right next to each other, to illuminatea field or whatever it is.
And we'll dive into it a little bit, but thesesports and stadium lights have many
applications just outside of stadiums, whichwe encounter pretty frequently.
Right.
Thank you.
And that's different from a typicalrun of the mill floodlight.
I suppose it's a type of floodlight maybe, butthese fixtures are often much different
(01:01:39):
from just a typical floodlight.
Sure.
The flood and the area lights are pretty typicalfor a parking lot often mounted on
the side of a building.
They have a very wide throw of light meant tocover a broad area 10 to maybe 30 or 40
(01:02:00):
feet up at most in typical applications.
Whereas the stadium and sports lights are mountedmuch higher than you need to go a
much further distance.
Okay.
On that note, let's talk about typical sports lightingapplications or applications for
these stadium lights.
Sports fields, of course.
Yeah.
Sports fields.
We can do all kinds of sports fields, whether it'srugby or football, soccer, large tennis
(01:02:27):
court complexes, even on pickleball courts, butgenerally speaking, pickleball courts
are smaller.
They can take area lights, but if it's a largefacility outdoors specifically, they
can use sports lights.
Other non-sports lighting applications.
Not only are these used for sports stadiums and sportsfields, but there's a lot of non-applications.
(01:02:53):
Peter, I think you actually did a lighting designfor a municipality, a government agency
looking for water towers.
Yeah.
Illuminate water towers.
In fact, we've done a number of them and acouple of them have been implemented.
And any monument, there's another one where theguy built a 120 foot cross for a church
(01:03:17):
and he's doing that around the country and theywanted to illuminate that with the sports
light because it has a long throw.
So again, this was a 120 foot church cross.
So there's a lot of applications.
Wow.
Yeah.
And I think shipyard and port lighting is anotherone where sports lights can be used.
(01:03:40):
And then a really unique application actually,RGBW, which is growing in popularity.
You want to talk a little bit about RGBWStadium Lights, Charlie or Peter?
Well, we're getting a lot of requests, especiallyfor the outdoor illumination of the water
towers or some other monument type of application.
(01:04:02):
They are requesting RGBW option.
And so when you do that, then you get into the DMXcontrols, which are required for controlling
the multicolor functions of a sports light.
And then when you get into your DMX controls,typically the simplest one that you need
(01:04:25):
is a three pin and that's for your RGBW controls.
They do have other multi pins, but reallyyou only need the three.
And also you have indoor DMX connectors versus outdoor.
If you do have, if you're illuminating a water tower,then you need outdoor DMX connection.
(01:04:48):
And then you have the wireless functionversus the cable function.
And that gets into a whole area.
There where you really need a specialist to designthe system if you want to get into
wireless.
And there are specialists out there.
In fact, we have a relationship with a facility outin Ann Arbor where it's a stage lighting
(01:05:09):
company, but they do the outdoor stuff too.
So that's a whole other specialty that you'llneed to bring in a specialist on.
Yeah, I can see that with the DMX controls.
I can see that would be useful for stage lighting.
You want to be able to control it and everything, butof course stage lighting is a whole different
topic.
(01:05:30):
And then there's, let's go a littledeeper with stadium lights.
There's different optics.
There's degree optics versus 3H3V.
Yep.
Those, the 3H3V and then you, that's a narrowbeam and the 4H4V is the wider beam.
And that's typically used in the United States.
(01:05:52):
That applies to the sports light, but also to floodlights.
I've done some lighting designs with floodlights.
Whereas in internationally or the EU,they use the degree optics.
They have the basic optics for a degreeis your 15°, 30°, 45° and 60°.
And to compare like the 3H3V is your narrow beam.
(01:06:16):
So that's like your 15°/30° and then the4H4V is more like a 45°/60°.
So we do have suppliers that use the, the US rating lenses.
And then we also have some suppliers thatuse the international degree optics.
(01:06:37):
It's interesting.
Thanks for the information, Peter.
And another topic is internal versus external drivers.
That's another important component of when itcomes to sports and stadium lighting.
Can we just talk a little bit on that?
Sure.
Yeah.
There's like Kevin mentioned, internaland external drivers.
(01:06:58):
So an internal driver means that the driver is goingto be inside the housing of the light.
It's not very serviceable.
It's not accessible, easily accessible.
However, the pros of that, which people, whicha lot of people like is since it's all in
one, you just plug the light in for all intentsand purposes and away you go.
(01:07:22):
The light turns on and you've mountedposition and you're all set.
When you start getting into the larger Watts, the1000W plus sports and sports lights
and stadium lights, they typically onlycome in an external driver.
And that's for a couple of reasons.
One is the serviceability.
(01:07:43):
If the driver were to fail, you can't get to it easily.
It is usually mounted on the bracket of the lightin a enclosure that is weatherproof.
So if it were to go out, you can change it.
Additionally, when you're talking about those high wattages of a 1000W plus, you're generating a lot of heat.
(01:08:04):
And you really, it's very important to keep the heat away
from the drivers for the life of tohave a long lasting product.
So when it's away from the LED and out in the open, essentially, it can shed heat much more efficiently.
So you tend to get a lot longer in life.
(01:08:25):
So we really recommend 1000W plus even 800.
It's kind of on the bubble in terms of internal/external, but that you go with the external in those cases.
Well, that makes sense. Thank you, Charlie.
And thank you, Peter.
You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me.
Yeah, it's nice to get together again.
Been a while since we did an episode.
(01:08:47):
So figured we would do a deep dive here on Stadiumand sports lighting since the RGBW.
It's growing in popularity and we're gettinga lot more inquiries for these now.
So figured we would shed some light on this.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, Kevin. Thank you.
Welcome back to the LED Lighting Podcastby CommercialLEDLights.com.
This is Kevin along with Charlie, the owner at CLLand Peter, our in-house lighting engineer.
How are you guys doing?
Doing well.
Doing well.
Fine, thank you.
Good, good.
Today we're doing a deep dive on LEDSport and Stadium lights.
This includes various applications, optic types,internal versus external drivers, and
(01:00:26):
even DMX controls for RGBW lighting systems.
So let's take it right off the top.
When do you actually need stadium lights?
What is a stadium light and when do you actually need it?
Stadium lights often also called sports lights.
While they're definitely used for sporting lightapplications, it's really a light designed
(01:00:52):
to throw a somewhat narrow angled beamof light a very far distance.
So they're often very high powered and they usuallyhave a relatively narrow beam angle.
So if you can picture a sports or stadiumlights, they're mounted very high.
So they have to direct the light in a relativelynarrow area and you use many of them, often
(01:01:15):
right next to each other, to illuminatea field or whatever it is.
And we'll dive into it a little bit, but thesesports and stadium lights have many
applications just outside of stadiums, whichwe encounter pretty frequently.
Right.
Thank you.
And that's different from a typicalrun of the mill floodlight.
I suppose it's a type of floodlight maybe, butthese fixtures are often much different
(01:01:39):
from just a typical floodlight.
Sure.
The flood and the area lights are pretty typicalfor a parking lot often mounted on
the side of a building.
They have a very wide throw of light meant tocover a broad area 10 to maybe 30 or 40
(01:02:00):
feet up at most in typical applications.
Whereas the stadium and sports lights are mountedmuch higher than you need to go a
much further distance.
Okay.
On that note, let's talk about typical sports lightingapplications or applications for
these stadium lights.
Sports fields, of course.
Yeah.
Sports fields.
We can do all kinds of sports fields, whether it'srugby or football, soccer, large tennis
(01:02:27):
court complexes, even on pickleball courts, butgenerally speaking, pickleball courts
are smaller.
They can take area lights, but if it's a largefacility outdoors specifically, they
can use sports lights.
Other non-sports lighting applications.
Not only are these used for sports stadiums and sportsfields, but there's a lot of non-applications.
(01:02:53):
Peter, I think you actually did a lighting designfor a municipality, a government agency
looking for water towers.
Yeah.
Illuminate water towers.
In fact, we've done a number of them and acouple of them have been implemented.
And any monument, there's another one where theguy built a 120 foot cross for a church
(01:03:17):
and he's doing that around the country and theywanted to illuminate that with the sports
light because it has a long throw.
So again, this was a 120 foot church cross.
So there's a lot of applications.
Wow.
Yeah.
And I think shipyard and port lighting is anotherone where sports lights can be used.
(01:03:40):
And then a really unique application actually,RGBW, which is growing in popularity.
You want to talk a little bit about RGBWStadium Lights, Charlie or Peter?
Well, we're getting a lot of requests, especiallyfor the outdoor illumination of the water
towers or some other monument type of application.
(01:04:02):
They are requesting RGBW option.
And so when you do that, then you get into the DMXcontrols, which are required for controlling
the multicolor functions of a sports light.
And then when you get into your DMX controls,typically the simplest one that you need
(01:04:25):
is a three pin and that's for your RGBW controls.
They do have other multi pins, but reallyyou only need the three.
And also you have indoor DMX connectors versus outdoor.
If you do have, if you're illuminating a water tower,then you need outdoor DMX connection.
(01:04:48):
And then you have the wireless functionversus the cable function.
And that gets into a whole area.
There where you really need a specialist to designthe system if you want to get into
wireless.
And there are specialists out there.
In fact, we have a relationship with a facility outin Ann Arbor where it's a stage lighting
(01:05:09):
company, but they do the outdoor stuff too.
So that's a whole other specialty that you'llneed to bring in a specialist on.
Yeah, I can see that with the DMX controls.
I can see that would be useful for stage lighting.
You want to be able to control it and everything, butof course stage lighting is a whole different
topic.
(01:05:30):
And then there's, let's go a littledeeper with stadium lights.
There's different optics.
There's degree optics versus 3H3V.
Yep.
Those, the 3H3V and then you, that's a narrowbeam and the 4H4V is the wider beam.
And that's typically used in the United States.
(01:05:52):
That applies to the sports light, but also to floodlights.
I've done some lighting designs with floodlights.
Whereas in internationally or the EU,they use the degree optics.
They have the basic optics for a degreeis your 15°, 30°, 45° and 60°.
And to compare like the 3H3V is your narrow beam.
(01:06:16):
So that's like your 15°/30° and then the4H4V is more like a 45°/60°.
So we do have suppliers that use the, the US rating lenses.
And then we also have some suppliers thatuse the international degree optics.
(01:06:37):
It's interesting.
Thanks for the information, Peter.
And another topic is internal versus external drivers.
That's another important component of when itcomes to sports and stadium lighting.
Can we just talk a little bit on that?
Sure.
Yeah.
There's like Kevin mentioned, internaland external drivers.
(01:06:58):
So an internal driver means that the driver is goingto be inside the housing of the light.
It's not very serviceable.
It's not accessible, easily accessible.
However, the pros of that, which people, whicha lot of people like is since it's all in
one, you just plug the light in for all intentsand purposes and away you go.
(01:07:22):
The light turns on and you've mountedposition and you're all set.
When you start getting into the larger Watts, the1000W plus sports and sports lights
and stadium lights, they typically onlycome in an external driver.
And that's for a couple of reasons.
One is the serviceability.
(01:07:43):
If the driver were to fail, you can't get to it easily.
It is usually mounted on the bracket of the lightin a enclosure that is weatherproof.
So if it were to go out, you can change it.
Additionally, when you're talking about those high wattages of a 1000W plus, you're generating a lot of heat.
(01:08:04):
And you really, it's very important to keep the heat away
from the drivers for the life of tohave a long lasting product.
So when it's away from the LED and out in the open, essentially, it can shed heat much more efficiently.
So you tend to get a lot longer in life.
(01:08:25):
So we really recommend 1000W plus even 800.
It's kind of on the bubble in terms of internal/external, but that you go with the external in those cases.
Well, that makes sense. Thank you, Charlie.
And thank you, Peter.
You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me.
Yeah, it's nice to get together again.
Been a while since we did an episode.
(01:08:47):
So figured we would do a deep dive here on Stadiumand sports lighting since the RGBW.
It's growing in popularity and we're gettinga lot more inquiries for these now.
So figured we would shed some light on this.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, Kevin. Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.