BS EN 12193:2018

What is BS EN 12193 about?  

BS EN 12193 is an international standard that discusses specifications for good quality lights and lighting for sports.  

BS EN 12193 specifies lighting for those indoor and outdoor sports events most practised in Europe. It only considers artificial lighting.  

BS EN 12193 provides lighting values for the design and control of sports lighting installations in terms of illuminances, uniformity, glare restriction, and colour properties of the light sources. All requirements are intended to be as minimum requirements.  

BS EN 12193 also gives methods by which these values are measured. For the limitation of glare, it also points out restrictions on the location of the luminaires for specific applications. 

Note: For emergency lighting, BS EN 12193 refers to the requirements of EN 1838. 

Who is BS EN 12193 for? 

BS EN 12193 on light and lighting for sports is useful for: 

• Lighting services companies 
• Electrical contractors 
• Manufacturers and suppliers of luminaires 
• Concert halls, sports halls, and sports stadium authorities 

Why should you use BS EN 12193? 

BS EN 12193 deals with sports lighting to ensure good visual conditions for players, athletes, referees, spectators, and CTV transmission. It serves the objective of providing recommendations and specifying requirements for good quality sports lighting by: 

• Optimizing the perception of visual information used during sports events 
• Maintaining the level of visual performance
• Providing acceptable visual comfort 
• Restricting obtrusive light 

BS EN 12193 discusses design data, essential light source data, replaceable lamp data, LED light source data, essential luminaire data, luminaires with replaceable lamps, LED luminaires, useful luminaire data, essential installation data, and general principles of the lighting, which proves very helpful for the users to carry out the installation of lighting related to sports. 

What’s changed since the last update?  

BS EN 12193:2018 supersedes EN 12193:2007, which is withdrawn. The main technical changes compared to the previous version are as follows: 

• Technical changes can be divided between the needs of the players and that of the camera. For the players, the minimum colour rendering index has been increased from Ra > 20 to Ra > 60  
• The tables of requirements have been updated to take into account sports that have become popular since the last edition, recommendations on the use of Glare Rating for indoor sports areas are now included 
• The requirements for television and film recording have been revised to reflect changes in broadcast technology since the last edition 
• For cameras colour rendering index has been replaced by Television Lighting Consistency Index (TLCI) which has been developed specifically for broadcast cameras 
• Requirements for eliminating flicker from slow-motion cameras are included as well as the lighting of spectators