Sports Lighting for the Olympic Games - International Lighting Event ...

Sports Lighting for the Olympic Games
David Lewis*
*MIESANZ; Practicing Affiliate IALD; DLLD David Lewis Lighting Design, Nelson Bay, NSW
● ● ●
The principles of sports lighting
design at international level are
well known. Applying those
principles to an event like the
Olympic Games takes the task
to the ultimate level. This paper
summarises what is different
about the whole undertaking in
five different countries and
cultures compared to local or
national projects.
The paper examines the cultural
and practical differences
between the industries and
corporations involved; the
magnitude of the project in
terms of scope and timescale;
design elements; people and
politics; implementation and
experiences.
Television rights drive the
financial success of the Games
and the principle aim of the
sports lighting is to create a
superior lighted space for the
highest quality high definition
television pictures which are
then broadcast by the +200
television networks back to
their home countries.
The paper covers both the
summer and winter Games –
five in all – that David Lewis was
engaged as the television
lighting consultant.
● ● ●
The first event of an Olympic Games is a lighting one -
the lighting of the Olympic torch takes place, months
before the Opening Ceremony, amongst the ruins of the
Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. The torch lighting
follows the ancient Greek tradition of using the sun’s
rays and a parabolic mirror to ignite the Olympic
(today’s gas-fired) torch with which a celebrity athlete
starts the global relay to the Olympic Games host city.
Coincidentally the mirror is practically identical to the
one used in today’s sports floodlight luminaires.
Natural light in fact plays quite a significant part of the
lighting consultant/director’s role in the Olympic
Games - especially the indoor venues and keeping the
daylight out. Patches of sunlight streaming through a
window on to the
field of play creates
havoc with the
television camera
picture contrast.
Consequently the
Olympic lighting
specifications
include strict control
of daylight ingress.
Figure 1 Athens 2004 Olympic Velodrome
Today’s trend to harvesting daylight for a “green” venue
unfortunately conflicts with the broadcaster’s
requirements. And, as in commonly known, the
television dollars drive the Olympic Games viability.
An example is the Athens 2004 velodrome. The existing
1991 open air venue was extensively refurbished for the
2004 Olympic Games. An ingenious new roof by
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava ‘floated’ above the
venue suspended from two substantial arches anchored
at each end. It was architecturally stunning but unfortunately for television the late
afternoon sun pouring through the gap produced a huge sun stripe across the cycling
track.
A temporary 6m high sailcloth curtain, with overlapping sections to reduce the impact
of the high winds, was installed on the western side together with an emergency quick
release system.
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Similarly, strong shadows in outdoor daylight events create similar challenges.
Occasionally the problem can only be solved by shifting the start time of the event – a
major impact obviously and has to be identified and addressed well in advance.
A temporary curtain also had to be
installed within the 2008 Beijing
Aquatics Centre ‘Water Cube’
sandwiched between the outer and
inner western transparent bubbled
walls. The curtain was critical to
block the huge flare/glare
backdrop effect of the setting sun
and subsequent reflections off the
water towards the cameras
(picture 2).
Figure 3
Lighting for televised sport has Figure 2 Beijing 2008 'Water Cube' before the temporary curtain.
come a long way. Historically the
host broadcaster would just turn up with cameras and equipment hoping the lighting
would be sufficient. If not, they would open up the iris, push the gain and squeeze
whatever they could to get a decent picture.
Today and especially at international level the TV networks have far more of an
influence over the whole event including the lighting. Sponsorship dollars speak
volumes.
Televising the Olympic Games goes that one step further to the ultimate in sports
broadcasting. It is now exclusively in the hands of a dedicated group under the
umbrella of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This specialised television
production group is known as Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and is based in
Madrid. It is with OBS that I have been part of for the last 13 years over 5 Olympic
Games.
Olympic Games Lighting – Who is the Client?
Like any major lighting project, comprehending the ultimate objective is a major
starting – and finishing – point.
We have all hear the telephone number type dollar numbers that the TV revenue
generates. Equally the worldwide viewer figures. One broadcaster for example, NBC, at
the Vancouver winter Games had a nightly audience of 24 million!
In Athens 2004, over 300 TV channels broadcast the Olympic Games to 220 countries
and territories with 35,000 hours of dedicated coverage to a total of 3.9 billion people.
Beijing 2008 was even bigger!
Swamping the spectator numbers, clearly the real client is television. For Torino 2006
Olympic Winter Games for example, the OBS Production Objectives were defined as
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“uncompromisingly fair and equal coverage of each Olympic competitor, with insightful,
informed storytelling through appropriate shot selection and replay options; tight,
expressive coverage of each athletic performance, combined with multiple action
perspectives, both live and replay; and enhancement of the viewer's appreciation of the
athletes' efforts and the drama inherent in Olympic competition.”
In other words covering the competition as a big event, a show – the accent is not on
the sport but the human endeavour, the stories, the challenges and the drama. The
picture perfect images too are planned well in advance to almost become a series of
postcards.
Lighting Specifications for the Olympic Games
There is a notable difference between lighting the Olympic Games and lighting a
major sports stadium, say, like the MCG or the WACA.
Whereas the major stadiums are used year round year in ... year out, the Olympic
Games is, I suggest, a one-off event. That view may sound simplistic and insignificant
but there is a key difference.
Designing the lighting for the long term use requires a long
term philosophy – lamp life, maintenance, multi-purpose use
(AFL, ARL, FFA football, cricket, athletics etc) and
maintained illuminance versus initial values etc. – all the
usual good stuff. The Olympic Games are a two week event.
Maintenance factors are not an issue, long life is not an issue
... but a single-purpose optimised use is.
Carpet supplier bidders for
the 70,000m 2 temporary
broadcast studios complex
who were offering 5 year, 7
year and 10 year guarantees
were gently reminded the
carpets were needed for 2
weeks!
The Games should really be tackled as “an event” just like an AC/DC concert. The
lighting specifications for the Olympic Games are built around this fundamental
premise.
It may be that an existing major stadium is used as an Olympic venue but the lighting
for those two weeks has to meet the Olympic criteria. That might entail bulk lamp
changes, temporary overlay installations, re-aiming and other dedicated optimisation
techniques.
The result is to use an “optimal” philosophy as opposed to a “minimum” philosophy.
Take for a simple example illuminance levels. The long term use stadium may have a
maintained average horizontal illuminance of say 2,000 lux; perhaps maintained
average vertical illuminance of 1,200 lux. Depending on the maintenance regime, that
could translate to a range between the minimum and perhaps up to 25% higher. The
stadium may be capable of providing 1,500 lux (with new lamps) but on the day of the
event is down to the minimum.
Conversely the Olympic Games, driven by the TV dollar, concentrates on requiring
good lighting, for example, the 70 odd cameras alone used to cover the Olympic
athletics.
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Starting with what the camera needs, the Olympic lighting philosophy is
fundamentally based on a minimum (vertical) illuminance at a single point – that
value being 1,400 lux. The average is not specified.
The next and equally fundamentally important factor is uniformity. High uniformities
are necessary for smooth and natural looking scenes especially now with HDTV.
There are five uniformity factors in the Olympic specifications. Each has a direct
influence on the quality of the television picture images:
• E-minimum/E-average: whilst ensuring a minimum Ev of 1,400 lux at any single
point of the PPA 1 or FOP 2 , a high uniformity (0.8) ensures an overall quality of
luminance on the scene so that the camera can cope with the limitations of
dealing with compressed contrast.
• E-minimum/E-maximum: similarly this ensures no ‘hot spots’ or ‘spikes’ that
would ‘bloom’ in the camera shot.
• Uniformity gradient: vital for smooth camera panning – following the action
from one area to another.
• Ratio between horizontal and vertical: the key factor that illustrates the overall
modelling – the athletes versus their background (FOP).
• Ratio of vertical illuminances at a point over the 4 orthogonal planes: also a key
modelling factor ensuring the modelling of any individual athlete is as natural
as possible.
There is a sixth uniformity factor also of
importance and that is the ratio of the illuminance
on the athlete versus the illuminance on the
spectators in the background or just the backdrop
itself (if there are no spectators in that zone). This
too is essential for the camera to create that
‘separation’ between the foreground and the
background – natural modelling.
Incidentally, one Olympic sport requires this ratio
to be 1:0 – the background (to the main camera)
has to devoid of all light, completely black – and that is fencing. At lightning speed
and a very thin projected surface area, the epee or sabre needs maximum contrast for
the camera to be able to capture the action – so too for the judges and spectators.
Exclusive (to date) to the Olympic lighting specifications is a factor that directly
influences the television production philosophy. The end of show ‘highlights’ or
replays, the shots that are shown on the sports news programs – these are often the
focus of telling the story of the game or competition. The diving save (of a goal), the
almost dead heat touch on the swimming pool wall, crossing the finish line, clearing
the pole vault bar – these are all the principle focal point of a camera shot. Often
covered in slow-motion replays, the lighting quality of the shot is extremely
important. The Olympic specifications use the term Television Replay Zone, TRZ.
Each sport has a unique area or zone where these replay shots are likely to occur. For
football, it would be in the penalty area; basketball – the free-throw semi-circles;
1 PPA – principle playing area
2 FOP – field of play.
Figure 4 Fencing - subject/background
maximum contrast
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athletics – the vertical jump cross bar, the track finish line, the javelin runway, the
throwing cage etc. Having defined the zone, the requirement is defined as:
• the minimum vertical illuminance within TRZ
shall be ≥ average vertical illuminance of the FOP
(PPA).
In some sports, there is more than one TRZ. In
football for example the goal area is a TRZ-1 within
the (larger) penalty area TRZ-2 and the requirement
is that:
• the maximum vertical illuminance within TRZ-2
shall be within TRZ-1.
For a sport like gymnastics, there are many ‘focus’
points and the requirement is:
• the vertical illuminance towards the relevant
camera from the ‘focal point’ of each apparatus
shall be ≥ average vertical illuminance of the
podium (of that apparatus). In principle, the
maximum vertical illuminance should be at the
‘focal point’ of the apparatus e.g. between the
rings or centre of the parallel bars.
Similarly for athletics, the requirement is spelled out
for each discipline. Olympic television coverage
Figure 5 Olympic pole vault camera plan
always has a dedicated spot for a fixed camera (on a
tripod) with an operator close to the specific event.
Take pole vault for example - the TRZ requirement is for the minimum vertical
illuminance at the focal point of the cross bar towards the local stationary camera
must be greater than the average vertical illuminance of the FOP towards the main
camera (west stand/high/finish line).
The camera plan for Olympic pole vault shows 11 cameras of which number 2 is the
master shot. This, too, illustrates vividly the detailed planning that goes into the
lighting specification and design in conjunction with knowing where the
cameras/lenses are and knowing the sport.
Olympic Sport and Television Production
Understanding each of the 40 summer sports/disciplines and 15 winter
sports/disciplines is a major part of the Olympic Games lighting consultant/director’s
role. It is equally important to know the camera plan and the producer/director’s
intent – the so-called ‘philosophy of coverage’ detailed in the Production Guide. i
Hence the 18 month to two year involvement in the planning process.
An example of the close operation and understanding of the sport is speed skating –
where the record for 500m is an average of 54kmh around a 400m track on ice with
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semi-circular bends. The bend is where the athlete is really tested – whilst ‘running’ on
the ice, trying to keep balance, not let the skates slide away from under you and racing
against the clock – this is where the exciting shots occur. In Vancouver 2010 the
producers wanted to use the latest ultra slow motion camera (e.g. Antelope,
Superloupe etc) with speeds of 1,000 frames per second. Naturally this places a heavy
burden on the lighting. So together we ‘designed’ the shot. The producer wanted a
close-up of the skates showing in ultra slow speed the blade slicing through the thin
film of water on the surface, the tiny flakes of ice flipping up and so on.
The track has two lanes – we chose the inner one (obviously). The camera position was
fixed on the outside corner at the exit of the bend – the shot would see the athlete at
maximum lean. Working with the lighting designers/suppliers (Musco), we moved
and tweaked the lights to ensure we got the maximum illuminance in the sweet spot
whilst still maintaining the uniformities and modelling. By also ensuring the
cross-phase aiming was optimised in that zone, that one short replay picture seen by
millions of viewers was actually ‘designed’ about 12 months before the Games.
Of course this is a luxury that the Olympic Games can go to in terms of effort to get
the perfect ‘postcard’ shots.
Another speed skating example of the intricacies and interaction of the production
team and myself, was the head-on shot. Again knowing exactly where the camera is
located, the type of lens and shot, care was taken in ensuring the luminaires providing
backlight or even key light to other parts of the oval track did not reflect off the ‘wet’
ice towards the camera lens. You can see the reflection of the athlete in the ice but
there are no reflected hot spots from the lighting.
As mentioned, the television coverage of the Olympic Games is produced solely by the
host broadcaster (OBS). The entire broadcast is under the control of one organisation
– and that extends to what lighting is required.
The various international TV networks (e.g. Channel 9/FOXTEL in Australia, BBC,
NBC, NHK, etc) that have paid for the right to use the coverage then redistribute the
OBS broadcast to their home country; the TV images from Channels 7 & 9 etc are
produced by OBS. The networks add their own voice-over commentary plus
(sometimes) a few additional cameras’ coverage of their own.
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In other words the lighting of this global signal has to match the expectations of 150
international TV networks!
The host broadcaster is made up of a core of experienced international producers and
engineers mixed with some of the cream of local professionals. At Games time the host
broadcaster alone has a total staff of 3,500 people (summer Games) and 2,750 (winter
Games).
The host broadcaster TV coverage is mandated by the IOC to be unbiased and
favouring no country or athlete. No sport is more important than another and they all
need the same quality of sensational pictures. That equates to a need for an overall
homogenous lighting quality across the 40 different fields of play.
On the subject of across-the-board lighting quality, the question usually arises
“Which Olympic sport has the greatest number of people worldwide watching the
final on TV?” – the 1500m swimming? 100m athletics sprint final? ... No, it is the
table tennis final. The reason is fairly obvious.
The IOC/OBS lighting philosophy in a nutshell is about high quality lighting for high
quality pictures.
Olympic Television Lighting Design and Delivery
Although today adopted as a ‘standard’ for Olympic lighting, my initial task was to
develop a very detailed lighting performance specification. This was handed to the
bidding contractors/suppliers via the host city organising committee. There are four
types of lighting scenarios that can occur – 100% brand new stadium, existing stadium
and existing compliant lighting, existing stadium/lighting requiring an upgrade or
temporary overlay and finally a existing or temporary venue requiring 100% temporary
(overlay) lighting.
The resultant designs are assessed and an iterative process begins where, through
ongoing comment and revisions, the designs are changed until they meet the overall
initial design vision. The objective is to satisfy the requirements for the cameras for
each sport whilst creating an integrated Games-wide consistent quality.
The specification is so tight that the resultant designs have almost no option but to
eventually turn out as if one designer had produced them all – ‘design by proxy’.
As a result, every venue has the same minimum illuminance level, the same colour
temperature and colour rendering, the same high uniformities and finally the same
modelling quality. All have the complex balance between uniform horizontal
illuminance across the competition surface – the ‘field of play’ – and the vertical
illuminance towards each of the cameras, whilst satisfying the visual needs of the
athletes. Then there is glare control, reflections (skip light), shadowing, daylight
ingress control [indoor venues] and lens flare control etc.
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A major part of the job is juggling these separate designs in progress over time to
eventually arrive at a seamless ‘unified’ quality.
The Olympic Games lighting director is a unique and fortunate position and is
appointed for each Olympic Games. As the saying goes: “You are only as good as your
last gig!” Before each event, an open bidding process is carried out. Vancouver was my
fifth and last Games – before that there were Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Torino 2006,
and Beijing 2008. It follows that to not only
effectively light the arenas for the many
cameras but also to understand the
intricacies and nuances of 28 summer and 11
winter sports at the highest level of
competition requires considerable skill and
experience.
This unique job has taken me to Greece,
Finland, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, England,
China and Canada – living for over 3 years in
two of them.
Technology
A significant challenge is the technology – and its’ ever changing platform. Production
techniques and viewers’ sophistication are forever changing. The lighting has to stay
ahead of the game and provide the quality needed.
Planning so early (up to 3 years) requires a certain degree of forward thinking and
research into emerging trends and technology, too.
High Definition Television
The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games were the first true 100% high definition (HD)
televised winter Games; the first 100% HD summer Games were the 2008 Beijing
Games.
It might be assumed that higher lighting quality is needed to best create HD images.
This is true but not necessarily higher illuminance levels. Today the HD camera
optical and CCD/CMOS receptors require the same illuminance levels as the previous
generation ‘standard’ definition cameras. HD in its clarity is unforgiving – any slight
shadow or hot spot pop out. Contrast is also better handled with HD; overall the
image has more natural colour shading too - all the more reason why good colour
rendition is essential.
Importantly then for HD, I suggest the factors to concentrate on, in terms of ‘higher’
criteria, are higher uniformity and better modelling.
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New Cameras and Bigger Lenses
The typical zoom ratio of the lens of the 1,100 broadcast cameras used in the
2000 Games was 55x. In 2004 at Athens it was 70x, in Beijing 86x and last February in
Vancouver it was 100x. This allows the production teams to get ‘up close and personal
zooming in on the action. Longer lenses mean more light for the same quality of
picture compared to a wide shot and thus further add to the challenges of the lighting.
In Beijing 2008, the athletics stadium alone utilised 70 cameras including 7
super-slow-motion motion and 3 ultra ultra-slow motion cameras
of 7 XMO cameras. In Vancouver, a much smaller
the trend is evident.
3 The typical zoom ratio of the lens of the 1,100 broadcast cameras used in the Sydney
2000 Games was 55x. In 2004 at Athens it was 70x, in Beijing 86x and last February in
Vancouver it was 100x. This allows the production teams to get ‘up close and personal’
zooming in on the action. Longer lenses mean more light for the same quality of
picture compared to a wide shot and thus further add to the challenges of the lighting.
utilised 70 cameras including 7
(XMO); ; and a Games wide total
of 7 XMO cameras. In Vancouver, a much smaller Games, utilised 17 XMO cameras ...
Unlike HD, the increased use of XMO cameras does present a significant challen challenge to
lighting. Not only do the cameras require higher light levels, the equally critical factor
is for flicker-free free lighting. Typically sports
stadium lighting employ standard mains
frequency powered HID lamp luminaires. The
difference in frequency operat operation between the
cameras and the lighting become glaringly
obvious – currently limiting the true power of
these amazing cameras.
Some small FOP sports could and do use high
frequency controlled lamps – typically the HMI studio lamp based equipment (or
tungsten-halogen). Conversely, tthe
he larger stadiums use a large number of non-
electronic (control gear) luminaires. They are cross cross-aimed aimed and distributed across the
three phases. This tactic decreases the flicker effect but does not eliminate it. The
other ‘trick’ k’ is to match the speed of the XMO to a harmonic of the lamp frequency –
that is 100Hz, 150Hz or 200Hz. The higher the speed, though, the more the problem
cannot be overcome – and these cameras can operate at speeds of 1,500 frames per
second and higher.
As for illuminance levels, the SSM and XMO cameras typically do not create useable
pictures below 2,000 lux. This presents a headache of course.
As mentioned above the Olympic minimum vertical illuminance required is 1,400 lux
at any single point of the FOP FOP. . Of course in practise this may well be 1450, 1500 etc.
But let’s stick with 1400 for this discussion. Applying the uniformity ratios we land up
with a maximum of 2,000 lux. Whew! Now we have something to work with.
Locally in Australia the XMO is fast gaining popularity in outside broadcasts. The need
for high quality lighting is going to increase increase; and the flicker-free free issue is going to
become a real ‘hot potato’!
3
Ultra slow motion cameras -‘Antelope’, ‘Antelope’, ‘Superloupe’, ‘Hi ‘Hi-motion’, ‘Phantom’ etc
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Three-D
The jury is still out on 3D for TV, I think. It is all in infancy and whether it becomes a
major force I am yet to be convinced. There is an argument that 3D is ideal for sport.
Unlike a movie, sport has no remotely predictable ending – you are caught up in the
excitement of the action all the way down to the final whistle or the wire.
Wearing the glasses is one obvious drawback but the big problem is content and cost.
TV networks would have to invest in a large amount of technology to produce a
critical mass of content. For the noticeable but arguably comparatively minor increase
in the visual experience of 3D over HDTV, it may turn out to be a niche end of the
market yet.
As for the Olympic Games in London 2012, this is what OBS CEO and managing
director Manolo Romero says: “It is still very early days for 3D broadcasting to consider
covering the Olympics in 3D. For a FIFA World Cup 3D is more manageable since you
require two mobile units to cover multiple venues but the scale of an Olympics with
multi-venues and multi-events makes 3D stereo production a much more complex
operation. We might experiment with recording some events and perhaps the opening
ceremony in 3D. Right now though we are not receiving any requests from broadcasters
for 3D.” ii
However the Official Worldwide Olympic Partner and television technology provider
to 2012, Panasonic says: “We’ll be broadcasting in 3D, there will be 3D projections on
large displays. We’ll be all over the place with 3D in 2012.” iii
The BBC has stated that “... looking to video both the opening and closing ceremonies of
the London Olympics in the 3D format [and] ... emphasized that while it intends to
capture the Olympics in 3D, this is not committing to their transmission.” iv
Colour
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were the first time OBS had used a lighting
director/consultant from outside the traditional TV industry – recruiting from the
commercial sports stadium/developer/lighting engineering consultancy world.
Directly involved with the television production planning team for Sydney 2000, it
quickly became apparent that this televised sports broadcast network/channels world
was quite a different culture from a lighting standpoint when it came to methodology
in achieving their objectives. The two approaches couldn’t be more different.
One big difference was all about colour and lamps. In the TV production industry,
lighting colour quality was always set and judged on colour temperature alone. The
producers, directors, camera operators and television engineers all talk in Kelvin or
‘daylight’. Although now changing, traditionally there had been no widespread
understanding of colour rendering – or rather the difference created by differing lamp
technologies. TV people talked in terms of ‘daylight’ lamps or ‘tungsten’ where
‘Daylight’ was always assumed to be HMI - a full spectrum source of course. The
alternative, also a full spectrum lamp was ‘Tungsten(-halogen)’ usually accepted as
‘3000K’. Any other CCT like 4000K, 5000K or 6000K etc lamp was simply broad
brushed as ‘daylight’.
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No need to emphasise that two different ‘daylight’ technology/cocktail lamps of the
same CCT can have very different colour rendering properties.
In the Olympic Games, apart from the skin tones, the overwhelming colour palette is
that of saturated colours – colour rendering becomes a critical factor.
The requirement of high CRI lamps became a key element in the specifications
developed for Sydney 2000 and remains an important factor of the Olympic Games
lighting specifications.
The merits of CRI Ra8 with respect to television could be a subject on its own - it is
obvious that CRI Ra8 is not ideal for specifying colour for television. For now it is the
only recognised measure we have got! For sport, Ra12 might be better approach but
still way off from what is necessary. There have been several attempts to produce a
new measure but so far none have been agreed to internationally.
Let me quickly discuss the flavour of the month - LED. In short, LED technology
– also known as SSL - is currently not suitable for international televised sport for
several basic reasons. At the time of writing I believe that there does not seem to
be LED luminaires on the market that can at least match existing HID based
luminaires in terms of light output (when compared in size) and optical control.
Second, there are LEDs and there are LEDs – global standards are still in their
infancy. Most critical for television – and high definition (HD) being today’s
norm for international sport – is the issue of colour rendering and the spectrum
in general. Current LEDs create compatibility problems for film and video. “The
colour spectra of LED lighting primary colours does not match the expected colour
wavelength bandpasses of ... digital sensors. As a result, colour rendition can be
completely unpredictable in ... [television] video camera recordings” v
Early days.
You may believe as an industry we have always been specifying CRI for sports/TV
projects – and that is correct – but the end user’s understanding of the impact was
clearly not so apparent with respect to television production - the TV lighting world
assumed any ‘daylight’ lamp meant ‘full spectrum’. But times are changing fast and,
however we eventually define it, CRI is gaining ground as a key factor in television
lighting.
High Colour Rendering Lamps and the Olympic Games
There are two key objectives for specifying high colour rendering lamps for the Olympic
Games:
1. To obtain the best possible scene colours before the cameras have a chance of
faithfully reproducing natural colours.
2. To obtain a Games-wide consistent high quality image across all venues.
If the colour temperature (Tk) does not match OBS specifications, it can be electronically
compensated for by the technical production team in the outside broadcast (OB) facilities van.
This is not ideal but can be an acceptable compromise.
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However, if the colour rendering index (CRI) does not meet OBS specifications, it is not
possible for the camera to correct for the negative effects of low CRI – no software or physics
in the world is capable of doing that. vi
High CRI [high output] lamps in the TV industry were previously confined to the so-called
“HMI” type - a copyrighted acronym by OSRAM but has become to be known as the generic
type of high output, high colour quality lamp in TV production.
In the late 80s a direct derivative of the HMI technology was developed for sports stadiums
floodlights – with longer life lamps. The new lamp type had a [correlated] colour temperature
of 5600K (matching the needs of television) and a colour rendering index, CRI, of 92. In
essence the lamp was a “long life” HMI type. First used large scale use of this technology at
international sports series was for the 1990 World Cup (soccer) in Italy. The 1992 Barcelona
Olympic Games was the first to exclusively use the technology and its application has spread
to many new international stadiums.
The 2000 Sydney Games, 2004 Athens Games, 2006 Torino Games, 2008 Beijing Games (full
HD), Vancouver 2010 (full HD) all were high CRI lighting. There is no doubt that the
introduction of this key lighting parameter significantly contributed to the resultant high
quality rich colour images.
High Definition television has the capability of, besides extremely clear and sharp images,
producing vivid natural colours. It is imperative that the scene be illuminated using lamps of
the highest colour quality. Cameras and associated video acquisition equipment cannot
selectively correct the relative lack of natural colours.
Lights, Camera, Action!
One more issue to quickly discuss is the web and mobile broadcasts. These
technologies are rapidly gaining popular use and exponentially improving. But this is
at the distribution end of the story – how the signal is distributed to the consumer.
The acquisition end, gathering the content ... the pictures, still needs a camera, an
operator, a production crew and lights.
You can create a 100% CGI movie but not so a documentary! So too with live sport.
Sport Specifics
When it comes to vertical illuminance for athletics, the lighting specifications use a
generic four orthogonal direction philosophy. The higher television picture quality at
Olympic Games level demands a more extensive approach.
The athletics track and field events are a collection of individual events with their own
unique field of play (FOP). From a TV viewpoint, it is important, to ensure that the
lighting of each individual event is suitable for high quality broadcast pictures.
Developed in 1997/98 for Sydney 2000 and finetuned in subsequent Games, the
specification includes expansive design criteria to achieve this objective for all
Olympic sports.
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The athletics FOP is redefined into smaller zones for the specific disciplines with
tightly defined lighting criteria for these zones:
• 100m track and 110m hurdles (from 10m before start to 30m after finish, over 8
lanes).
• 400m track (from start to finish, over 8 lanes).
• long/triple jumps (runway and landing area/pit).
• high jump (approach quadrant, bar and landing area).
• hammer, discuss, shot-put (throwing circle/netted cage).
• javelin (runway).
• pole vault (runway, landing area/mat and two orthogonal vertical grids centred
on cross bar)
• marathon and race walks tunnel (into the stadium)
The lighting criteria for each of zones are coupled
to the camera for the specific competition
discipline. Referred to earlier, pole vault, for
example, may have ten or more cameras.
Depending on the wind direction, the
competition can be run east-west or west-east.
The camera plan is a mirror – thus the same 10
cameras – but the lighting design should examine
20 cameras ... in theory. In practise only two or
three would be the critical shots and studied in
the design.
Figure 6 Olympic cities are mostly one big
construction site followed by 2 weeks of sport
The least critical area of an athletic stadium (for lighting) is ironically the central
rectangle of the FOP (“the football field”) - the landing zone for throwing events’
apparatus! From a TV point-of-view the javelin, the shot, discus and hammer all travel
relatively slowly and along a predictable path. The picture frames the object (eg
javelin) centred in the picture against a moving background. The light on the object as
it travels through the air has to be uniform of course as well as the background.
Compared to the coverage of the athlete running up and hurtling the javelin into the
air, the coverage of the flight is not so challenging. The landing is where the drama
picks up again – did it beat the world record? Was it her PB? A gold medal? ... the
javelin in the grass is hardly a huge challenge to light!
All Olympic stadiums have the ‘mixed zone’ - a corralled area adjacent to the FOP
where athletes, broadcasters and media ‘mix’ to conduct post-event interviews.
Specifically lighting the athlete the preference is for luminaires to be mounted off the
stadium structure – as opposed to locally mounted luminaires on [tripod] stands
which adds to visual clutter, trip hazards etc 4 . Some mixed zones are located
back-of-house and require TV lighting temporarily installed.
There is also a specific area needing high quality lighting – the protocol flags (the IOC
flag, the country’s national flag and the international sporting federation e.g. IAAF)
4
TV networks are prohibited from using their own portable lighting in the Olympic Games. All lighting is
provided by the Games organisers to the OBS specification.
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plus the ±200 flags of all the competing nations. All too often the roof cavity of an
indoor stadium has a black hole!
Ceremonies
The protocol elements (athletes’ parade, speeches, Olympic Flag and torch etc) of the
opening and closing ceremonies are part of the official Olympic tradition and there are
strict guidelines surrounding them. The lighting of the formal elements is part of the
broadcast lighting brief but not the creative spectacular show itself - except for the
followspots. In cooperation with the show lighting designer, the protocol lighting is
integrated into the show.
Games Snapshots
Vancouver 2010 was the first winter Olympic Games to use full high definition
television and the lighting challenges were many.
Developing the television broadcast lighting specifications for 11 sports
at 8 venues to meet and exceed the demanding technical and creative
production requirements is a complex task.
The timescale for the 2010 Games consultancy was 3 years - from early
2007 to the end of February 2010 and involved travelling to Canada up
to 4 times per year. Particularly in February 2008 and 2009 allowing all
concerned to witness actual weather conditions and the ‘test events’ which are exactly
what they sound like. Everything is tested – from security, transport, camera positions
and of course lighting.
Cultural Differences
The host city will usually take advantage of the Olympic Games to build new
infrastructure including new stadiums.
The venue is designed for post-Olympic and for the Olympic period needs an ‘overlay’
– and not just lighting.
Sometimes a brand new venue will require a 100% Olympic lighting overlay – this
happened in Vancouver for three city venues [speed skating, hockey venue #2 and
curling] and the freestyle aerials and moguls in the mountains. A large additional
budgetary commitment is needed ... for brand new venues! It is predictably difficult
for the organisers to comprehend and execute.
The snowboard halfpipe in Cypress Mountain
was 100% temporary lighting installation –
lighting towers were winched in by helicopter,
placed on compacted snow foundations and
removed after the two-day event.
Except for one, the other Vancouver 2010 venues
were partial overlays – figure skating,
alternating with short track speed skating, and
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Figure 7 Snowboard halfpipe, Vancouver 2010

hockey venue #1 in the city; and the bobsleigh/luge/skeleton track in Whistler.
Working in different countries I also came across the “we’ve been doing it this way for
50 years and not about to change” syndrome. I sometimes think my job is 50% lighting
engineering and 50% diplomacy. How do you tell the owners of the historic holy
shrine of their National sport of ice hockey that their lighting is not quite good enough
for the Olympics?
The first time I experienced such local (and understandable) resistance was for 2000
Olympic football (soccer) at the hallowed turf of the MCG! Designed principally for
cricket with an emphasis on the central pitch, the uniformity was rather concentric.
Any superimposed rectangular playing field could have uniformity issues – and so it
was for the football (“soccer”, not AFL).
In Vancouver, we finally settled on a politically sensitive compromise at the “MCG” of
ice hockey, Canada Hockey Place, where the end zones were boosted by a temporary
installation, particularly accommodating the speciality cameras and the goals.
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
The summer Games are colossal with 28 Olympic sports (40 different disciplines) at 48
venues; broadcast in 220 countries to 4.7 billion
worldwide TV audiences.
China put in an enormous financial and logistical
effort to ensure the success of their Olympic
Games. In Beijing, there were 12 new venues
including the ‘Birds Nest’ and ‘Water Cube’; 11
existing venues and 8 temporary venues. Like all
summer Games, there were football venues outside
Beijing in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and
Qinhuangdao. Hong Kong was host to the
equestrian events including nigh time competition.
Qingdao hosted the sailing competition. So the
consultancy included several site surveys to these
other cities.
A particular challenge for the 2008 Olympic Games
was the road cycling race which takes place in Figure 8 Synchronised diving, Beijing 2008
daylight intimating ‘no lighting’. The start was at
Yongdingmen in central Beijing then through Tian'anmen Square and other famous
Beijing temples and squares ... the finish was at the historic Great Wall of China. Along
the 102km route the athletes raced on the main northwest Badaling expressway
through three road tunnels. Normally during international cycling events, e.g. the
Tour de France, and when the pack race through a tunnel, the TV director will switch
to the helicopter camera - the tunnel lighting is never of broadcast standard.
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Two of the 2008 longer tunnels had to be illuminated to broadcast standards. This was
a first worldwide and was a complex undertaking. The pictures came from cameras
operated by an operator sitting back to back with the driver on a motorbike.
Lighting a 2km tunnel to Olympic broadcast standards, as you would expect, would
take a very large number of floodlights. A road tunnel roof is typically not very high
and to avoid glare the higher wattage floodlights have to be avoided. It is the main
artery to the northwest and a midnight test was undertaken one year out. A partial
closure of one carriageway was organised; lights installed; elite athletes raced through;
a bike/camera following. You can imagine the logistics, security, politics involved!
The 400 metal halide floodlights were installed over two nights two weeks before the
Games. I took measurements along with a final test by bike/camera and this daylight
event was ready. The second shorter tunnel had 200 floodlights.
The race finished at the Great Wall of China, Badaling in the mountains around sunset
- the finish straight had to be illuminated to broadcast standards to properly cover the
dash for the line. The medal ceremonies took place after sunset and therefore had to
be illuminated ... and all this for a daytime event!
Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games
A two year consultancy contract which included living and working full time in Italy
(with my wife), the whole experience was a truly fulfilling - professionally and
personally.
Based in Torino (Turin), the capital of the
Piedmont region, the city venues hosted the speed
skating (Oval Lingotto), ice hockey (Palasport
Olimpico and Torino Esposizioni) and figure
skating alternating with short track speed skating
(Palavela). Curling was 50km away in Pinerolo and
the skiing and sliding events were in the Alps – a
two hour drive away.
Figure 9 Torino 2006 night ski jumping
I had designed lighting for a few minor winter
sports in the past but this was obviously a whole new ball game. Thrown in at the deep
end, the company flew me to Lapland in Finland for a two day freestyle World Cup
[night] event at Ruka/Kuusamo (90km from the Arctic Circle and 30km from Russia).
Freestyle skiing lighting on the World Cup circuit had been erratic and for the Games
there needed to be a fresh approach.
I met with the host TV broadcaster and the International Skiing Federation (FIS)
technical delegates. It was -15°C and the whole experience provided me with extremely
valuable knowledge to be able to formulate the broadcast lighting specification. At the
event, the Australian aerialist Lydia Ierodiaconou came 16 th but last year in Vancouver
won gold under her married name Lydia Lassila.
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The Ruka freestyle ski slope was floodlit for the event and the very uniform lighting
was on the snow...from start to finish. The problem is that the freestyle aerials athlete
performs the spectacular aerobatic twists and turns at 10m above the slope. What was
missing was the lighting of that zone above the 4m high kicker and the landing hill.
The solution was to define a lighting performance calculation grid as a vertical plane
through the kicker and up to 10m above the slope – the virtual path through the air.
During the commissioning of the 2006 Olympic aerials venue, 80km from Torino,
floodlights mounted on the judges’ tower roof (adjacent to the take off point) were
tweaked one by one following the virtual path through the night sky of the training
athletes.
Temperature is a huge issue in a winter Games. The bobsleigh
track lighting at Cesana Pariol in the Alps utilised a mixture of
1kW and 2kW metal halide floodlights. The start areas utilised
fluorescent lamps (with non electronic CuFe ballasts). All lamps
had matching colour temperatures ... on paper. Unfortunately
the ambient night time temperature dropped to well below -20°C
... the colour temperatures of all the lamps changed rather
randomly (as the mercury dropped) to various shades of green, blue, pink and
magenta!!
In 2010 Vancouver the specification was beefed up to electronic control gear for the
fluorescents plus a single wattage metal halide lamp and proof of freezer room tests
prior to installation.
Athens 2008 Olympic Games
Like Italy ... Greece was a fascinating experience in many ways. Steeped in history,
symbolism and tradition, and home of the Olympics these 2004 Games were destined
to be special. The 20 month consultancy contract, to the host broadcaster Athens
Olympic Broadcasting (AOB), was full time living in Athens.
My wife and I had been to Greece many times and always thoroughly enjoyed the rich
and vibrant Greek culture – the people are wonderful hosts.
Different to my first Olympic Games, Sydney 2000, was one very interesting lighting
challenge - the equestrian competition. This time the jumping and dressage was to be
held at night avoiding the high summer
daytime heat on the horses.
In the development of the lighting
specification I came across the some
startling new research work on ‘horse
vision’ by the neuroscientist, Dr Alison
Harman of the University of Western
Australia, who overturned all accepted
wisdom on how horses see. vii
The marathon is a classic event of the
Games and in 2004 Athens, the race began
Figure 10 Athens 2004 marathon finish
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at the very same historic site, the town of Marathonas northeast of Athens, and
followed the same route of the historic run. To avoid the intense heat of the day, the
race was staged late in the day and would finish in the cool of the evening.
Early in 2003, analysing the race records and the proposed start time, I realised the
race would finish after sunset! This meant one thing – lighting.
How do you light the last part of the highway route for television? And for how much
of the course?
My team and I took detailed measurements and observations 12 months before the
Games and to do it right (as per the Games wide specification), it became apparent
that we would need to illuminate around 5km to TV quality lighting!!! – a mammoth
logistical task to temporarily light a public highway and not to mention the cost.
Together with the production crew, we decided to “squeeze the toothpaste tube” as
hard as possible - using a wide-angle lens, pushing the ‘gain’ in the camera and
shooting the athletes from in front who were fortunately for the last part of the course
were facing west and the twilit sky.
In August of 2003 and using bike/camera, we filmed the actual route during
mimicking the 2004 marathon race to be run on 29 August 2004. Another run was
carried out in April 2004 (exploiting the solstice effect – the sun sky path is the same
on equal number of days either side of the solstice) to finalise and tweak the strategy.
The end result was to light the last 1.5km of the route with 11 temporarily imported US
truck-mounted TV lighting systems; before entering the historic Panathinaiko
Stadium used for Games since before 300BC and site of the first modern Olympic
Games in 1896.
Summary
The lighting of the Olympic Games is a unique and once in a lifetime experience. The
last 13 years have brought many challenges always both exciting and rewarding.
Today there is a set of lighting specifications for both summer and winter Olympic
Games; fundamentally based on what the requirements of the television production
philosophy of the Olympic host broadcaster, OBS.
The televising of sport is on the increase and certainly the Olympic Games go from
strength to strength. Technology moves ahead in both lighting and television –
currently lighting is lagging behind a little on one
important aspect.
There is a need to overcome the mains flicker
problem for the rapidly increasing usage of the
XMO cameras. Electronic control gear is the
answer but cost the barrier.
3D television is still in its infancy and may be part
of the next Games in London on a small
“experimental” basis.
Figure 11 Freestyle aerialist, Vancouver 2010
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High definition television (HDTV) demands a greater emphasis, not on illuminance
levels but, on higher uniformities and excellent colour rendering.
One adage reigns supreme – poor lighting ... poor pictures, excellent lighting ...
unforgettable pictures! Millions of dollars worth of camera acquisition and
transmission equipment plus operators, directors, producers, graphics et al make for
potentially sensational television. High quality lighting is a major and essential
ingredient to the Olympic Games worldwide success.
David Lewis
Further reading: “The Games of Olympic Lighting”, David Lewis, IESANZ “Lighting” magazine vol 30
issue 5 October/November 2010, publisher Rala Information Services.
i
OBS Production Guide is a +500 (summer) or +350 page (winter) page book including camera plans of every
venue and sport
ii
http://www.tvbeurope.com/main-content/full/uk-obs-line-up-for-2012
iii
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/06/28/bbc-3d-olympics-moves-closer-to-reality/
iv
http://www.hdguru3d.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=719:3d-coverage-confirmedfor-london-olympics-2012&catid=35:hdguru3d-news&Itemid=59
v
Solid State Lighting Project, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An unbiased investigation of
Solid State Lighting (SSL) technologies, including LED emitters, for motion picture production. Issues with
SSL have been identified regarding its ability to supplement and integrate with existing lighting technologies
such as tungsten, fluorescent, HMI, and Xenon that are currently used in the production of motion pictures.
http://www.oscars.org/science-technology/council/projects/ssl/technicalinfo.html
vi
Jan van Rooy, Senior Technology Officer, Grass Valley Thomson www.grassvalley.com
vii
Dr Alison M Harman, University of Western Australia, “How Horses See”.
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