Stadium Lights: An Incomplete Analysis

by **smusic 00** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:49 pm

Yeah, I was thinking that SMU was following the height restrictions imposed by UP. Pick your battles. Apparently, now we have to pick this one.

by **couch 'em** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:08 pm

Maybe tomorrow I'll whip out the IES stadium lighting recommendations and see what they say

by **kull** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:28 pm

This was mentioned at a luncheon a few years ago.

by **RyanSMU98** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:53 pm

Can we perhaps simulate the lighting configuration of Miami Gardens? Tom Brady just lit up the Dolphins to the tune of 517 yards and 4 TD's.

by **Deep Purple** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:31 pm

Is this a serious thread? "The lights got in my eyes"??? Didn't both teams play under the same lights?

Surely this is satire.

by **Stallion** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:41 pm

You'll get yours Frog (unless the Lights at Amon get in our Receivers eyes).

by **Deep Purple** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:45 pm

Stallion wrote:You'll get yours Frog (unless the Lights at Amon get in our Receivers eyes).

Okay, I admit, that's funny.

by **Dukster** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:56 pm

Deep Purple wrote:
Stallion wrote:You'll get yours Frog (unless the Lights at Amon get in our Receivers eyes).

Okay, I admit, that's funny.

Thank Gawd (no, not Gary P) that our game is an afternoon game. No lights to worry about. Hopefully, it's cloudy to break the glare.

by PK » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:37 pm

couch 'em wrote:Let's Look at how the angle of our stadium lights compares to others. The red "X"'s represent the QB on the goal line throwing a bomb to a WR on the 40. Red line is where the ball is headed/where the WR could look, and the blue line is the line from the WR to the stadium lights. The closer the angle, the more blinding it would be.

SMU:

Based upon this diagram the ball would never be between the receiver and the lights unless he was on the 5 or 10 yard line. With the receiver on the east side of the field, the lights would be off to the left side of the receiver's line of sight assuming he is looking at the ball. Now whether or not there is enough light to allow the receiver to see the ball against the dark sky is a different question to consider. However, as has been pointed out, UTEP receivers didn't seem to have a problem seeing the ball.

by **Big Hoss** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:53 pm

Not sure the lights are a great complaint or not. But the reason why the UTEP receivers had no issues is because their passes were short dinks and dunks, and then the receivers turned them into something. They didn't really try to throw a lot of long passes. Also, we were so generous and gave them great field position most of the night, so the angles may have been different.

by **cutter** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:03 am

Big Hoss wrote:Not sure the lights are a great complaint or not. But the reason why the UTEP receivers had no issues is because their passes were short dinks and dunks, and then the receivers turned them into something. They didn't really try to throw a lot of long passes. Also, we were so generous and gave them great field position most of the night, so the angles may have been different.

agreed. the issue is the 2 deep balls that had high trajectories in order to drop over the db. shorter passes were all thrown more directly, with lower trajectories, not subject to being 'lost in the lights'.
could be wrong, but I don't recall UTEP throwing any deep, high-trajectory balls.

also, as some have noted, this diagram only accounts for 2 dimensional analysis (still helpful), and not for the effect of the height, or lack thereof, of the lighting position. supposedly, that creates additional problems/considerations, per the documentation someone provided above.

by PK » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:05 am

Big Hoss wrote:Not sure the lights are a great complaint or not. But the reason why the UTEP receivers had no issues is because their passes were short dinks and dunks, and then the receivers turned them into something. They didn't really try to throw a lot of long passes. Also, we were so generous and gave them great field position most of the night, so the angles may have been different.

I probably shouldn't have limited just to the UTEP game. Other teams in other night games seem to have done alright. Perhaps we should have some practices at night under the stadium lights...or maybe we should try some deep crossing routes like we did against Nevada instead of all these down the sideline routes with the DB between our QB and the receiver. We don't seem to be too successful with those sideline routes even in sun light.

by **Big Hoss** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:11 am

For sure on the night practice, if that's even a possibility.

The one thing I notice at our night games is all the long shadows on the field. I need to pay closer attention to night games at other stadiumes, but it's hard to compare in person to on TV. Maybe that is an indicator of placement and/or the fewer number of lights our stadium seems to have vs. others.

Either way, we have what we have for now, so they have to figure out a way to play with it as is.

by **RGV Pony** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:53 am

Again, okla st at SMU was a 6pm start in 03 or whenever

by **couch 'em** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:55 am

Big Hoss wrote:For sure on the night practice, if that's even a possibility.

The one thing I notice at our night games is all the long shadows on the field. I need to pay closer attention to night games at other stadiumes, but it's hard to compare in person to on TV. Maybe that is an indicator of placement and/or the fewer number of lights our stadium seems to have vs. others.

Either way, we have what we have for now, so they have to figure out a way to play with it as is.

Long shadows are due to only having 4 light poles instead of many along the sidelines. If you look at the Illuminating Engineer's Society guidelines, the poles appear to be far enough away from the field to meet their recommendations for when you have only 4 poles. It does seem unusual, however, to have them in the corners instead of along the sideline. Ours are far beyond the endzones. I'm not sure if this is really a problem though.

It seems like the actual height of the lights would be the real issue, and I don't have a good way to judge how high our lights actually are vs field level.

Why doesn't a student go down on field level at night when the lights happen to be on sometime and see if there is a problem or not.