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Sports Applications Technology

HiViz Field, Stadium Believes its 'Green' Lighting Solution Could've Prevented Super Bowl Power Outage

February 04, 2013

(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)

If you were one of the millions of viewers that watched the Super Bowl XLVII between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, you were unceremoniously treated to a 34-minute delay due to a power outage at the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, LA.

Just over a minute and a half into the second half, the lights at the Superdome went out and caused a delay of over half an hour, while crews all over scrambled to reboot the lighting system. Officials have said the power outage was caused by an “abnormal” feed coming from outside the stadium, but have yet to figure out exactly what caused it.

One North Carolina-based company believes they could have prevented the power outage.

The New Orleans Saints, like many teams across the NFL, uses Metal Halide lighting which causes a gas build-up inside the lamp that burns in the hundreds of degrees. When the lights are turned off, in order for the lamps to properly heat back up, they must first cool down and allow for the gas pressure to subside.

HiViz Field and Stadium lighting believes its stadium lights could have prevented the outage.

“Our LED stadium light solutions change the game completely compared to traditional metal halide lighting as is installed at the Super Dome. Using LED lights from VisionX, which are based on CREE diodes made in the USA, we provide the same amount of light, using 1/10th the power,” said Sam Massa, owner of HiViz Field and Stadium.

HiViz F&S currently powers local fields throughout North Carolina and because its lights use energy efficient high output LED scene lights as opposed to the traditional Metal Halide lights, the cost of purchase, installation, operation and maintenance is far less than other companies. 



HiViz’s lights turn on instantly after being turned off, as evidenced by a video they made (above) demonstrating its capabilities after the power outage at the Super Bowl.

“It is just a completely different technology,” said Massa. “Our LED lighting solutions could be turned on and left on for 6 years without having to replace a bulb or diode. If there were power outages during that time, the lights would come on instantly when the power was restored and be shining at their full luminescence.”




Edited by Braden Becker