International. Table tennis is a serious matter. When the 2018 World Table Tennis Championships were held in Halmstad, Sweden, a few weeks ago, the tournament attracted a worldwide audience of 400 million viewers. When a world championship is at stake, all aspects of production must be in order, not least the lighting of the courts and tables, which must work for television cameras, live audiences and players alike.
Lighting and sound company Tylösound AB was the official technical supplier of the 2018 World Table Tennis Championships and used Elation Professional's Cool-white PAR Fuze Wash 575 LED moving head luminaires to meet strict lighting requirements.
Carefully monitored light levels
Held at Halmstad Arena, with approximately 3000 live viewers each day, the event featured 8 days of live TV and was streamed. Light levels were carefully monitored on three central courts and in each area of each court.
"We needed a measurement of at least 1600 lux at each 9 x 20 meter cut," said Paul Aladin, owner of Tylösound AB, a supplier of lighting, sound, smoke and LED displays for the event. Working with Elation, Aladin initially based his calculations on the use of 48 Fuze Wash 575 accessories per cut. "However, we found that we got measurements of 1600-2000 lux using only 32 accessories per cut, so we were able to use fewer accessories than originally planned. It worked very well."
High quality light
Thirty-two Fuze Wash 575 artifacts were installed on each of the three table tennis courts at a cutting height of 12 to 13 meters, 96 accessories in total with 8 spare parts. Uniform and uniform light quality was essential, something that stands out in the Fuze Wash 575 with an extremely precise color temperature and a high CRI of 95.
Before the first matches at the World Championships, players were consulted about the quality of the light and the response was positive. Aladin said only small adjustments were made to directional positioning after the first few games were played until everyone was satisfied, an easy repositioning with the moving head luminaire.
The Fuze Wash 575 was also tested for use with the super slow motion used at the event and the result was extremely good, according to Aladin. "I can say that even the Japanese and Chinese staff were very impressed with the lighting!" he said.
However, the Fuze accessory was not used for court lighting. The daytime white moving heads functioned with moving heads that change color during player performances and music breaks, as well as a pre-event ceremony. On the last day of the tournament, while the center court was lit up for the final match, special seats were brought in on the other two courts and highlighted with Fuze accessories.
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