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Phone(613) 9898 5319
admin 24 Mar 2026
For sports clubs looking to cut down costs and improve playability, upgrading to LED sports lighting is the ideal solution.
Modern LED lighting has made traditional metal halide bulbs irrelevant by delivering brighter output while consuming much less energy in 2026. Upgrading your lighting system will allow you to comply with standards and improve player and spectator experiences at both a local netball court and by way of community-based football ovals. At SES Lighting, we specialise in transitioning to energy-efficient LED systems that will keep providing value for years.
Before starting an LED upgrade project, you must evaluate your current electrical supply/voltage and pole structure. Many clubs think they need new poles when they transition from traditional metal halide bulbs to LED; however, the vast majority of new fixtures available today may be capable of retrofitting onto an existing pole structure.
Therefore, if you can keep your current poles, you will significantly reduce the upfront cost of your upgrade. You should have an engineer or lighting consultant inspect your current pole structure to ensure it can support the additional weight and wind resistance from the new LED fixtures.
In sports like netball or tennis, the quality of light is just as important as the quantity of light (lux levels).
Badly designed sports lighting systems make some areas much brighter than others, which makes it hard for players because of \"dark spots\" and \"hot spots\". In fast-paced sports, bad lighting can make players lose their way and hurt themselves. In a club competition, the best uniformity ratio is at least 0.6 or higher. This makes sure that the whole playing surface gets the same amount of light. When choosing fixtures, look for ones with advanced optics and shields that keep glare to a minimum and only direct light to the court, not the players\' eyes.
Upgrading to LED lights can save your club between 50% and 70% on electricity costs almost immediately. There is no warm-up time for HID lights, and the amount of power a bulb draws before it is fully warmed is very high, while LEDs light immediately and are energy efficient.
Therefore, the retrofit benefits of using LED lighting for sports will result in not only lower monthly utility costs but also reduced maintenance costs since LEDs last up to five times longer than standard bulbs. For most community sporting clubs, these savings will potentially pay for the entire lighting upgrade in a few years and free up additional revenue to improve the facilities.
Smart lighting lets you control your lights so that you only pay for what you use while lighting your field. With today\'s modern systems, a coach can turn on or off lights in different areas or dim them from a smartphone app. For instance, if you are hosting a regional match, you could turn the lights on to full power for the match and then turn them down to 30% for a regular practice or security lighting.
Adding smart controls to your new lighting system will also help you avoid the problem of lights staying on at full power when the field isn\'t being used, which is another way to make facilities more environmentally friendly.
When upgrading your current lighting system, it would be wise to design or “future-proof” your installation to accommodate higher levels of competition in the future.
A facility that is currently used for junior training (usually 100-250 LUX) may one day be used to play regional night games, which will require 500 LUX. If you do your “future-proofing” when installing your infrastructure, you will not need to do expensive secondary upgrades. A specialist such as SES Lighting can help you make sure your design will be up-to-date for current AS 2560 lighting standards yet flexible for changing community needs.
SES Lighting are renowned for providing innovative LED solutions for clubs involved with netball, tennis, lawn bowls and multi-purpose sports venues across Australia.
With 40 years of experience behind us, SES Lighting understands both the technical requirements of sport lighting and also the financial constraints typically faced by any average community sports club. SES Lighting provides a full range of services, from initial design and lux mapping through to installation, plus ongoing maintenance.
Upgrading to LED sports lighting systems is a definitive step towards sustainability and professionalism for your local club. Community sports clubs can lower costs and make venues safer and easier to see by using a complete lighting plan for field sports. You can also give your community much-needed equipment. Your club and community will see an immediate and real benefit from switching from regular lights to LED lights, whether your local club manages nets or a regional oval.
SES Lighting takes pride in offering high-quality, long-lasting, and high-performance lighting solutions for all of your sports venue lighting needs. So if you are ready to improve visibility, safety or energy efficiency of your sporting venue, then call on our skilled team of professionals to discuss your specific lighting requirements.