The El Campín Stadium was put on the agenda with FIFA's lighting requirements; It also installed CCTV and giant screens to raise the quality of the stage and give it more security.
by Iván Darío Quintero
The Nemesio Camacho El Campín Stadium, in Bogotá, Colombia, has undergone significant improvements over the past year that resulted in greater comfort, enjoyment and safety for fans. The stadium was also on the agenda with the regulations and standards required by FIFA. The stage, which turns 70 years old in 2008, was founded on August 15, 1938 and in total improvements were made for a value of 6,935 million pesos.
Within the works carried out in the modernization of the stage, works were carried out such as change and reduction of the pumping system, planting of 12 thousand meters of grass, construction of bathrooms in the northern western sector, adaptation of the boxes of the third level, waterproofing of the roof, general painting to the stands of eastern and western among others.
In this article we will review two reforms that were carried out and that are related to what concerns us, audio, video and lighting. On the one hand, a CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) was implemented, connected to giant screens, for a value of 3,000 million pesos. And on the other hand, within these works, 700 million were invested in perfecting the lighting of the stage.
To clarify these issues, we spoke with José Jaime Tapias, director of the District Institute of Recreation and Sport, IDRD, of Bogotá; We also interviewed Jackeline Montoya Galeano, national product manager of Publik, a company that installed the screens and the Closed Circuit Television on stage.
Lighting
According to the technical recommendations and requirements stipulated by FIFA, stadiums must be illuminated in such a way that no players, referees, or spectators suffer any kind of glare. In the same way, this body also stipulates that lighting should not generate shadows and hard contours on the pitch, as these are not appropriate for high-resolution digital television broadcasts.
"We realized that we were not complying with the lighting requirements ordered by FIFA, as we were not on the agenda with these provisions, so we took on the task of implementing the lighting required for night matches and television broadcasting, that both the governing body of football and television demand, for this reason we made a complete refurbishment of the stadium's lighting system, "said José Jaime Tapias.
And he continues, "the lighting of the stadium was at 800 luxes and already today the stadium has 1200 luxes". You have to remember here, to get an idea of the power of this luminance, that on a clear day a little cloudy there can be up to 20 thousand luxes and that in an office with good lighting there can be 500 luxes.
To achieve this repowering in the lighting of the stadium, the administration made a change of the lighting chests, regulated the photometry, built four power substations and changed 276 luminaires.
"The FIFA 1200 luxes requires 1200 luxes for evening events; within the interventions to the lighting of the stadium, there is no increase in bulbs, but a replacement of the luminaires and a repowering that helped us to achieve the number of luxes required to play at night. Previously it was played, but the lighting only reached almost 800 luxes and during the game there were shadows and things, today not, today the court is completely illuminated and homogeneous, "said the idrd manager.
Video and CCTV
With the desire to modernize and put the Campín at the height of the largest stages in the world, as well as to liven up the show, facilitate the obtaining of resources, in addition to reducing the outbreaks of violence in the stands of the stadium, two giant screens were also installed and a Closed Circuit Television was adapted.
Thanks to Jackeline Montoya we have the description of the installed objects. According to her, in the internal part of the stadium was located a screen of 6 x 10 meters, which also contains a special area for markers of 6 x 3 meters.
In the same way, another screen was arranged outside the stadium, this one was located in the elevator tower on carrera 30, measures 10 x 5 meters and is in the form of a tower. The IDRD also bought another screen, but this one is mobile, since it is intended that it can be moved throughout the recreational area next to the stadium. The screens of the EspectaColor brand were manufactured with high brightness LED technology, which makes them suitable for outdoors, have a visibility angle of 170 degrees, pitch 25mmv RGB that guarantees visibility from anywhere on stage.
"Each Screen has a control PC capable of processing the information that will be published. The control PC has control and administration cards; communication between control PCs and displays can be done via physical cable or via the Internet. Currently, the two alternatives are installed to have contingency," said Jackeline.
In addition to viewing, seeing advertising and being aware of the match score, fans also have the possibility to send text messages and photos from their cell phone, to later view them on the screen; in the control booth they filter them, to prevent possible obscene messages or considered not relevant to publish, in accordance with the provisions of the stadium administration.
As if that were not enough, within the appropriate improvements to the stadium an intervention to the sound was also carried out, in the words of José Jaime Tapias "There was essentially a repowering of the sound, previously it was not heard, there was no sharpness, what was done was fundamentally to clarify and expand the wattage", with this and the sound output that the screens bring, it is possible to show videos with audio in the stadium, which undoubtedly augurs entertaining part-time shows.
The bars can be viewed on screen thanks to the complete closed circuit television that was installed, mainly to reduce outbreaks of violence. According to the representative of Publik, "8 video cameras were installed that cover all areas of the stands of the Stadium, these have a recording capacity of 720 hours and allow panning over the public and transmission of information in real time to the screen".
"The connection of each of the cameras and the control rack of the same is done through an FTP cable category 6, of which two pairs are used (Blue / White, blue and Brown / White, Coffee), where the blue pair is used to transmit the video from the cameras and the brown pair is used for the movement control of them," Montoya explained.
"These cables reach the communications rack that is located in the control cabin located in the western grandstand, third floor. In this rack are all the other control devices that make up the CCTV system of the Estadio el Campín, however this system can also be controlled remotely through the Internet, "added Jackeline.
"Thanks to these new measures, the levels of confrontations between the barras bravas have decreased by a large percentage, taking into account that these bars always feel monitored, and before any confrontation the cameras focus on them and publish them on the screens," said Jackeline Montoya.
