Glasgow's Arena is lit up for the Commonwealth Games

The SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow has been given a makeover. According to Pollstar, the arena is the fourth most popular venue in the world.

The SSE Hydro Arena was designed by Foster + Partners and fitted with specialist lighting by Arup. The 13,000 capacity venue will be holding the 20th Commonwealth Games on the 23rd of July.

The architectural lighting is controlled by a Lutron system which is co-ordinated with Martin show-lighting software. A model of the façade can be sent out to a concert lighting designer for advance programming so that the arena is easily set up on arrival.

The actual arena is lit by Philips luminaires, based on LED high bays. These can emit over 300 lux or be dimmed to 5%. There’s a huge rig so that when the Commonwealth Games comes to town, its specific lighting scheme can simply be attached.

Lighting Designer, Patrick Elsdale, said:

We designed it so that you can get the inside, the outside and (eventually) the plaza all controllable by show control. The whole scheme can be integrated with the interior lighting. Once you get up into the lobby, that whole level is lit almost entirely by façade lighting and suddenly it’s all about colour and show. It’s an amazing space when lit up. Once we had cracked the rock’n’roll lighting everything else was simple.