Peru stadium moves to LED

LED light bulbs are revolutionising lighting displays. If anyone doubts this, they have only to look at the interactive, crowd-controlled LED light bulbs of the Peru National Stadium.

The Peruvian president Alan Garcia wanted to mark the end of his term of office with an outstanding architectural project. He decided to renovate the country’s National Stadium. He wanted something special, though. This is where LED light bulbs came in.

A company called Ciminod Studio pitched an unusual idea. The company suggested installing LED light bulbs across the outside of the stadium. This in itself was nothing new. But Ciminod’s imaginative leap was to use a bespoke control system to link the mood of the stadium crowd with the LED lighting on the stadium’s façade. President Garcia gave the idea his approval.

In the stadium, sound-level meters capture the noise from the crowd. These meters are along the edge of the stadium’s roof. They absorb the noise and pass the data to a computer in the stadium’s communications room. Software analyses the data and transmits it to an electronic LED lighting controller.

The controller immediately passes a signal to the LED light bulbs. The lighting system reacts to create an appropriate, mood-based display.

The LED lighting display reflects four mood states of the stadium’s crowd:

Bored
Excited
Celebratory
Disappointed

If you stand outside the stadium, you can match the noise of the crowd to the spectacle mounted by the LED light bulbs. When the crowd is waiting for something to happen, the display is negligible. If the level of excitement in the stadium rises, the lights begin to flash and surge across the façade. Celebration creates a vibrant colour show. And disappointment gives the stadium a dull appearance.

At Peru’s National Stadium, LED light bulbs have once again proved how versatile they are. The stadium is evidence of the way LED lighting can interact with our lives and enhance them.