Signify teams with NHL as ‘preferred lighting partner’

In more of a promotional announcement than a plate of meat and potatoes, Signify has dished up an alliance with the National Hockey League to become the “preferred lighting partner” for NHL arenas and possibly thousands of rinks in North America. Signify hopes the deal leads to all sorts of lighting projects, including glare-resistant ice illumination, atmosphere, Internet of Things (IoT) systems, and ultraviolet C-band (UV-C) disinfection.

Signify billed the new partnership as one that will help rinks reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint through LED illumination.

“These solutions can help the ice hockey industry reduce its environmental footprint by improving energy efficiency, while also delivering health and wellbeing benefits and an enhanced fan experience,” the company said.

Although Signify said the partnership is aimed at “more than 4800 ice rinks across North America, from major arenas to community facilities,” it declined to provide LEDs Magazine with any examples of early adopters.

Still, the potential to drum up business seems real, not just with NHL properties, but also elsewhere. The NHL is working as a sort of marketing partner to Signify as it identifies opportunity not all within the immediate NHL orbit.

“The partnership provides Signify with exclusive marketing rights and designations that will connect the company with the NHL, rink owners, players, fans, and events,” a Signify spokesperson told LEDs. “Signify and the NHL will work together to help rink owners and operators identify and make sustainable lighting upgrades.”

Signify’s sports lighting includes many aspects of stadium life, not the least of which is illuminating the ice with the company’s ArenaVision LED floodlights in a manner that supports play as well as high-definition television broadcasts. Signify noted that hockey carries the challenge of glare from the ice, and said its illumination services take that into account.

The company also provides lighting for public areas as well as color façade and display lighting that boosts excitement and atmosphere inside and outside the stadium. Its Interact Sports control system allows stadium operators to use Internet connections and provide pushbutton changes to colored lights, often coordinated with music. Sometimes it provides just field illumination, such as at the 110,000-seat Motera cricket stadium in India. Other Signify sports projects have included a broader deployment of its portfolio, such as Japan’s Toyota Stadium.

Signify, like other lighting vendors, has started providing UV-C products for use in locker rooms to zap the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as it has done recently for London rugby team Harlequins, for the PSV Eindhoven soccer team in Holland, and the RB Leipzig soccer team in Germany.

For UV-C, Signify uses mercury-vapor technology. Some UV-C providers are using LED emitters, such those provided by Crystal IS to luminaire maker Healthe Inc. for use by the Miami Dolphins football team. In a recent LEDs webcast, semiconductor and LED expert Mike Krames covered the features, performance, and demands placed on UV-C LEDs for germicidal applications in comparison to commercially available mercury-vapor sources. You can access that webcast on demand from our archive.

MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]m).

For up-to-the-minute LED and SSL updates, why not follow us on Twitter? You’ll find curated content and commentary, as well as information on industry events, webcasts, and surveys on our LinkedIn Company Page and our Facebook page.