Company News • 17.04.2008
WE-EF luminaires in Europe’s most modern ski hall, the Snow Dome in Bispingen
Use of exterior luminaires for a permanent artificial winter
Skiing on the Lüneburg Heath: Bispingen has been a particular attraction for winter sports enthusiasts in Northern Germany since 2006. Situated not far from the A7 motorway, between Hanover and Hamburg, the new „Heath Sölden“ has attracted almost 480,000 visitors per year, helped also by last years poor snow season.
Since it was opened in 2006, two ski lifts, an arm chair and a button lift, provide low mountain range style winter fun, under a roof spanning 23,500m². With a height differential of almost 38m, over a length of 300m and a width of 100m, the dome allows skiers, snowboarders and tobogganists reasonable runs. Any shortness of run however, is compensated by a lift service that can handle up to 3000 people per hour. To entice you for some après-ski activities, there is a large gastronomy area which covers approximately 2000m² and a comprehensive shopping area. The buildings construction is self supporting and consists of steel beams and continuous wall struts. There is no access for natural light and therefore the hall must be completely illuminated by artificial light.
Indoor skiing sets particular lighting requirements. This applies above all to a constantly illuminated skiing area as is the case in Bispingen, without the benefit of daylight. Here as with all illumination of sports complexes, the most natural lighting is required: both for the immediate users and the spectators. This means glare free light with the least amount of shadowing both on the reference area and/or the other areas of use. For ski halls the reference surface is of course the actual snow surface. This requires highly elevated or suspended luminaires. In addition the particular reflective qualities of the snow have a positive effect and therefore, as experience has shown, the floor area does not need to be illuminated as strongly as a dark surface for example.
WE-EF have illuminated numerous outdoor sports complexes, such as the training ground of the women’s football world champions 1. FC Turbine Potsdam or the extremely difficult lighting task at the canoe training stretch at the Olympic staging post in Potsdam. The company were able to acquaint themselves with the particular lighting requirements of a ski hall for the first time when illuminating the Mall of the Emirates, which was attached to the Snow Dome in Dubai.
The WE-EF luminaires used in Bispingen - compared to the usual 1000 to 2000 watt fittings in such situations – were actually fitted with 2 x 400 watt metal halide lamps. The majority of the axially symmetrical FL 31 flood lights were affixed along the hall beams and aimed down. In this configuration skiers that go down the run, always get light slightly from behind. The positioning of the floodlights provides a pleasant and mostly glare free „white“ light environment, even when looking at the hall ceiling thanks to horizontally mounted covering disks. The postioning and aiming of the WE-EF luminaires also prevent shadowing of the outer areas of the ski run.
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