Delivering calculation-led, standards-compliant lighting design for sports venues, stadiums, recreational facilities, and outdoor arenas. We create lighting solutions that enhance player performance, spectator experience, and meet the required competition standards.
Sports and leisure lighting is judged by a standard most other lighting disciplines don't have to meet: performance for the people using the facility, not just compliance on paper. A pitch, court, or track lit to the wrong classification doesn't just fail a technical review — it affects player visibility, spectator experience, and in some cases whether the venue can host the level of play it was built for. HLS Consultants is a specialist sports and leisure lighting design consultancy, providing calculation-led, standards-compliant lighting design for sports venues, recreational facilities, and outdoor arenas across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Middle East.
Whether you're an engineering consultancy needing design capacity for a sports venue package within a wider development, a Tier 1 contractor delivering lighting as part of a leisure facility contract, a local authority relighting a recreational ground, or an infrastructure developer with a sports or leisure facility as part of a wider scheme, our sports and leisure lighting design service is built around one outcome: a scheme calculated to the correct playing standard, engineered to reduce the risk of rework at review.
HLS Consultants is a design-only lighting consultancy — we do not supply luminaires and we do not carry out installation, electrical connection works, or statutory approval submissions. What we deliver is the technical backbone of a compliant sports or leisure lighting scheme: the design, the calculations, the verification, and the documentation your team, contractor, or authority needs to move a scheme forward.
Our sports and leisure lighting design service covers outdoor pitches, courts, tracks, recreational grounds, and outdoor arenas, alongside the surrounding access, car park, and public realm lighting a venue needs — for both new build schemes and retrofit or upgrade projects, including relighting of existing venues as part of an LED conversion or a step up to a higher playing classification. This makes the service equally relevant whether a venue is being lit from scratch or an existing recreational ground is being upgraded to support a higher standard of play.
Sports lighting is calculated against classification requirements that go beyond the lux-level and uniformity thresholds used for general amenity or highway lighting — glare control and vertical illuminance matter as much as horizontal lux level, because the people using the facility are tracking a ball, a runner, or an opponent, not just walking a path. Get the classification wrong for the level of play the venue is built for, and the result isn't just a compliance gap — it's a facility that doesn't perform for the players and spectators it was designed around.
This is the gap a specialist sports and leisure lighting design consultancy closes. HLS Consultants calculates each scheme to the classification the venue's intended use actually requires — recreational, club, or competition-level play — rather than applying a generic outdoor lighting calculation to a facility with sport-specific visibility and glare requirements
Sports and leisure lighting design generally falls into one of two categories. New build schemes — a new pitch, a new arena, a new recreational facility — start from a clean design brief, where column and floodlight positions are calculated directly from the playing surface dimensions and the intended classification of play. Retrofit and upgrade schemes start from an existing venue, often lit to an older standard, fitted with ageing floodlights, or classified below the level of play the venue now hosts.
HLS Consultants designs for both. On new build schemes, we calculate the lighting layout from the playing surface and classification requirements from first principles. On retrofit and upgrade schemes — including LED conversion and reclassification projects where a venue is stepping up to a higher standard of play — we design around the existing structure and column positions wherever possible, flagging where a genuine change is required by the calculation rather than defaulting to a full redesign.
Sports and leisure lighting schemes tend to run into a similar handful of problems, regardless of region. A venue is lit to a general outdoor lighting calculation rather than the sport-specific classification its level of play actually requires, and player or broadcast visibility suffers as a result. A retrofit or reclassification scheme reuses existing floodlight positions without recalculating glare and vertical illuminance, and the upgrade under-delivers against the new standard it was meant to achieve. The surrounding access, car park, and public realm lighting is designed separately from the venue lighting, creating an inconsistent standard across a site that should read as one coordinated scheme.
Each of these is a classification or coordination failure, not a technical one — and each is avoidable with a design process that calculates to the sport-specific standard from the outset and treats the venue and its surrounding infrastructure as one coordinated scheme. That's the process HLS Consultants applies to every sports and leisure lighting scheme, regardless of scale or region.
Every sports and leisure lighting scheme we design follows the same structured, verifiable process — from the survey data you provide through to a fully checked documentation package ready for submission.
You supply topographical survey data and site layout plans for the facility. We carry out desktop assessment using aerial and mapping data to confirm structural layout and operational context — no site visit is required from HLS directly. This keeps the design process fast to start and easy to run alongside your own team’s workload.
Photometric calculations are carried out first, using Lighting Reality and DIALux, to establish the lux levels and uniformity required for the facility’s classification. Only once the calculation is correct do we develop the layout in CAD and BIM, coordinated to the facility’s structural and operational layout. Calculating before modelling means the layout reflects a design that’s already been verified against the required standard, not a fixture count set by default and checked afterward.
Fixture and luminaire specification is selected to meet the required lux levels and uniformity under BS EN 13201, calculated for coverage without over-specifying fixture count — balancing compliance against realistic capital cost and long-term energy load.
Calculations and layout are checked against BS EN 13201, and cross-checked against ILP (Institution of Lighting Professionals) guidance, before issue. This verification step happens before the scheme is submitted, not after a reviewer flags an over- or under-specified layout.
The final documentation package is issued in CAD files, PDF documentation, and inventory/schedule data in spreadsheet format — structured to be used directly in your submission or construction process, without your team needing to reformat or rebuild it first.
HLS Consultants designs to the specific classification standards relevant to sports and leisure lighting in each region, rather than applying a single generic standard across every market
Confirming the governing standard set and the intended level of play with you at the outset of every engagement means there's no ambiguity later — the scheme is calculated once, to the classification the venue actually needs, rather than adjusted after a reviewer or governing body flags a gap.
Sports and leisure lighting design work reaches us through several different routes, and we structure the engagement around how you actually need to use the output.
We provide design capacity for sports and leisure venue lighting packages that sit within a wider development scheme you’re delivering, calculated to the same standard your own team would apply if resourced to take it on internally.
Sports and leisure lighting design is bundled into a wider leisure facility or venue construction contract, sequenced to your build programme rather than delivered as a disconnected specialist workstream.
Sports and leisure lighting design is bundled into a wider leisure facility or venue construction contract, sequenced to your build programme rather than delivered as a disconnected specialist workstream.
We support relighting and reclassification of council-operated recreational grounds and leisure facilities — LED conversion or a step up to a higher playing standard — packaged for straightforward technical sign-off within your own approval process.
We support relighting and reclassification of council-operated recreational grounds and leisure facilities — LED conversion or a step up to a higher playing standard — packaged for straightforward technical sign-off within your own approval process.
Where a development includes a sports or leisure facility, we deliver venue lighting design coordinated with the surrounding access, car park, and public realm lighting for the same site.
Where a development includes a sports or leisure facility, we deliver venue lighting design coordinated with the surrounding access, car park, and public realm lighting for the same site.
We provide design capacity for sports and leisure venue lighting packages that sit within a wider development scheme you’re delivering, calculated to the same standard your own team would apply if resourced to take it on internally.
We calculate to the classification required for the venue's intended level of play — recreational, club, or competition standard — under BS EN 12193, alongside BS EN 13201 for the surrounding access, car park, and public realm infrastructure.
Yes — we typically design the venue lighting and the surrounding access, car park, and public realm lighting as one coordinated package, so the whole site is designed to a consistent standard.
Yes. On reclassification and upgrade schemes, we design around the existing structure and floodlight positions wherever possible, flagging only where a genuine change in position, count, or specification is required by the calculation to meet the new classification.
No — we work from client-supplied topographical survey data and playing surface dimensions, plus desktop assessment using aerial and mapping data. Where a physical visit is genuinely required, we coordinate it through our delivery partners in the UK and Ireland on a chargeable basis.
We're a design consultancy — fixture supply, installation, and electrical connection works sit outside our scope. What you receive is CAD files, PDF documentation, and inventory/schedule data in spreadsheet format, structured to be submission-ready
UK and Irish sports and leisure schemes are both designed to BS EN 12193 for the playing area and BS EN 13201 for surrounding infrastructure. Middle East schemes are calculated to the same classification principles, coordinated with the relevant local authority or venue governing body's requirements. We confirm the governing standard set and intended level of play with you at project kickoff.
Partner with HLS Consultants for expert lighting design, backed by electrical design and CAD/BIM expertise.
Partner with HLS Consultants for expert lighting design, backed by electrical design and CAD/BIM expertise.
B-128, Ist Floor, Sector 2, Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar- 201301, Uttar Pradesh
Copyrights© 2026 HLS Consultants (OPC) Pvt. Ltd. (CIN: U71100UW2026OPC256882). All rights reserved.
