Helsinki Ice Hall is the first LED-lit major league arena in the world

In September 2013, the development cooperation of more than four years between Easy LED Oy and the Helsinki Ice Hall Foundation led to a major league hockey game being played on ice lit entirely by LEDs. The new maintenance-free luminaires will help achieve significant energy savings and to improve comfort in the hall, safety on the rink and ice durability. They will also provide totally new opportunities for tv-broadcasting. With fewer and lighter fixtures installed than before, the weight load of the arena structure was reduced by over two tonnes.

Energy savings of 75 %

Helsinki Ice Hall, completed in 1966 as the world's first multipurpose arena, was formerly lit by lamps of mercury vapour, halogen, and metal halide. Now both the main and practice arenas are illuminated by HD-FF (high-definition, flicker-free) luminaires from Easy LED PRO Series, produced from top quality components. Installation hight in the arena is 12 meters. With regard to energy consumption, savings calculations foresee a 75 % reduction compared to former levels of consumption. For the arena as a whole, this means energy savings of 140 MWh. The utilisation of dimmers alongside will bring further saving by reducing the need for cooling.

Luminaires at the main hall:

Luminaires at the practice hall:

World´s first flicker-free illumination

Easy LED´s totally flicker-free HD-FF light enables shooting Ultra-slow motion footage at indoor sports events for the first time in the world. Footage can be shot up to 100 000 FPS (Frames Per Second). For the sake of comparison, it bears mentioning that a normal TV broadcast (PAL video image) is shot at a speed of 25 FPS. Thus, new possibilities have been opened for the utilisation of high-speed imaging, especially for TV broadcasts and as tools for coaching.

At the request of Helsinki Ice Hall, the luminaires have been divided into five groups, each of which can be dimmed by using a 1–10 V control line. This improves energy efficiency, since luminaire efficacy can be reduced down to 30 percent during practice sessions, for instance. LED luminaires also save on cooling costs as they yield less heat into their surroundings. This helps maintain the quality of the ice smooth and hard, so that it is both faster for the puck and safer for the players. Rink safety is further enhanced by the shadow-free lighting achieved by the new lighting fixtures.

The new lighting also meets the international requirements for multipurpose arena sports, such as basketball and volleyball.