We supplied the interior and exterior luminaires for redevelopment of sporting and entertainment venue in Birmingham formerly known as the National Indoor Arena, or NIA. Lighting designers LAPD worked closely with our design team to come up with a scheme to provide illumination throughout the venue now known as The Barclaycard Arena.
All areas of the NIA will be touched by the redevelopment – from front of house through to backstage. The most dramatic element will be a new glass-fronted façade and front of house showcase which creates a dynamic arrival point for visitors, whilst iconic 20m high ‘Sky Needles’ on top of the building will add to the skyline of Birmingham and light up at night. The redevelopment also includes enhanced hospitality/food and beverage offers and seven-days-a-week retail outlets which will all add value to the visitor experience. The flow within the Arena will be made much easier, increasing the ease of access and level of comfort.
For the internal lighting Unisio surface mounted downlighters were used, in white with 26W LEDs for entrance and concourse areas. Perfect for use in large spaces with ceiling heights of more than six metres, Unisio is a highly versatile, recessed luminaire with exceptional visual comfort that is also well-suited to fixed accent lighting.
Special LowLED downlights were also used on concourse levels, with medium beam LowLED downlighters and MiLED downlighters with a wide beam also installed in toilet cubicles and the arena.
Sombra 26W LED3000K asymmetric wallwashers have been employed under the mezzanine on the concourse floor. Two spherical rotating sections enable the light to rotate by 45 degrees and 356 degrees respectively on the axes, keeping the light source hidden from view at practically any angle.
Perhaps most striking of all is the exterior lighting scheme using the Envios fittings. This builds on the success achieved by its predecessor, the LAPD-designed Woolwich Squares scheme, also based on the Envios fittings. In this case, the lighting is provided by pole-mounted Envios in configurations of two, four and six per 5m column in a deliberately chosen mix of 32W and 39W LEDs with colour temperatures of 3000 and 4000K, all tailored to the height and location of the areas to be illuminated.
The Envios family of interior and exterior luminaires features a comprehensive array of mounting options and accessories which enable the end user to place them virtually anywhere.