From historic venues to next-generation stadiums, lighting in North American sports facilities is undergoing a quiet yet significant transformation.
Recent upgrades at some of the country’s most prestigious venues — Intuit Dome, Crypto.com Arena, American Airlines Center, and United Center — reflect a broader trend: venues are no longer just rethinking how they light the game, but how lighting shapes the entire live experience.
Increasingly central to these modernization efforts is Elation, a lighting manufacturer that has steadily gained momentum in the sports arena sector by adapting its technology to the evolving demands of live sports presentation and broadcast, while maintaining the flexibility required to support a wide range of events.
Although each installation is unique, a clear pattern has emerged: venues are not only upgrading house and game lighting, but investing in flexible, future-ready systems that enhance entertainment and fan engagement, redefining what audiences expect from the live sports experience.
Experience-driven design
For some time now, the role of lighting in sports venues has evolved beyond simple functional illumination. Today, it is becoming a key storytelling tool, integrating with video, audio, and architectural elements to create cohesive, immersive, and engaging environments.
This is evident at the Intuit Dome, where the lighting system — supplied by sales and integration company JRLX, Inc. — was conceived as part of a broader technological ecosystem designed to work in harmony with video, audio, and interactive elements. Rather than relying on traditional “lights out” moments, the design supports a continuous visual narrative, integrating with the venue’s circular Halo LED scoreboard and interactive seat-based features to deliver a more theatrical and captivating experience.
When the Los Angeles Clippers took to the court following the renovation, fans experienced far more than basketball. A new Elation lighting system, featuring beam, colour, and texture effects from Proteus, Pulse, and Fuze fixtures, transformed the venue into a fully immersive, multisensory environment driven by the vision of Clippers lighting designer Robert Sanders.
We’ve built a system capable of delivering energy and emotion every night. We take the audience on a journey and give them an immersive light show experience so fans don’t just watch a Clippers game — they become part of the experience, said Sanders.
The effect is less about isolated cues and more about creating a sustained atmosphere that keeps fans engaged from the moment they enter the venue until they leave.
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Team branding
A similar philosophy underpins the upgrades at the Crypto.com Arena, home to the LA Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, and LA Sparks, where lighting plays a key role in reinforcing team identity and energising the venue during pivotal moments.
During LA Kings games, high-intensity Proteus Radius beam fixtures mounted in a circle around the rink create a striking cage-like effect over the ice during player introductions, goal celebrations, and key game moments. This distinctive visual identity, unique to the Kings, together with the broader lighting design, has become an essential element in reinforcing the team’s visual branding throughout the game.
Performance that stands out
One of the greatest challenges in arena lighting is scale. Fixtures must deliver enough intensity to stand out in brightly lit sports environments while maintaining saturated colours and defined effects that work both live and on camera.
The systems installed at the United Center and American Airlines Center, for example, prioritise both brightness and consistency, ensuring uniform coverage across large playing surfaces while eliminating hotspots or intensity falloff typical of older technologies. This ability to “cut through” over long distances is crucial in today’s venues, where lighting must coexist with LED scoreboards, ribbon displays, and high-definition broadcast workflows.
The American Airlines Center, home to the NHL’s Dallas Stars and NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, replaced its ageing discharge fixtures with Elation’s Paragon LED moving heads. “The new Paragon fixtures deliver a far more even output from centre to edge and generate thousands more lumens than most competitors in this category”, explained Robin Crouch of integration company Gemini Light, Sound & Video. “Not only are we helping them save money by switching to LED, but we’re also delivering higher-quality light and greater intensity — a triple win”.
At the United Center, home to the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, Proteus Brutus LED Wash FX fixtures — also integrated by JRLX — allow the ice or basketball court to be textured with extensive gobo coverage while maintaining strong output even in colour for special effects. “At distances of nearly 91 metres, the units are capable of cutting through sports lighting for broadcast”, confirms Jason Reberski of JRLX.
Robert Sanders, who worked with JRLX on the Intuit Dome project, carried out tests with the court lights on to evaluate how deep colours, textures, and patterns responded. “Seeing those saturated beams travel across the venue and register on camera was incredible”, he commented.
Equally important is control. The ability to shape light precisely — whether framing a court, isolating a player introduction, or preventing spill into spectator areas — has become a standard requirement. This reflects a broader shift toward lighting systems that behave almost like theatrical rigs, even within the scale of a sports arena.
Broadcast-ready by design
With the continued growth of live sports broadcasting and streaming, lighting systems must meet demanding camera requirements. High output alone is no longer enough: accurate colour reproduction, consistency, and flicker-free operation are essential to deliver a polished on-screen image.
Across recent sports venue installations, broadcast quality was a key consideration. Whether illuminating player introductions, highlighting key moments, supporting performances, or lighting post-game interviews, the systems are designed to look as good on camera as they do in person.
At the United Center and American Airlines Center, improvements in colour quality and beam consistency have enhanced both the in-person and televised experience. Another advantage of the Paragon fixtures at the American Airlines Center is their adaptability: rather than being limited to a single CRI or colour temperature, they can be adjusted to suit the needs of any situation.
At the Intuit Dome, Robert Sanders can easily tune the lighting to broadcast standards.
Because we do a lot of show-style lighting, I need to treat the court like a stage and make sure everything looks perfect on camera: skin tones, makeup, wardrobe… Thanks to the high CRI and excellent colour mixing of the Elation fixtures, I can precisely adjust the colour temperature directly from the light itself.
Meanwhile, the Crypto.com Arena system includes custom solutions to reduce glare while maintaining performance, another example of the level of detail now required in modern venue design.
Reliability and reduced maintenance
While creative capabilities are essential, practical considerations are also driving adoption and often determine long-term success. Arena lighting systems are frequently installed in hard-to-access locations, from overhead catwalks to integrated scoreboard structures, where maintenance is complex and costly.
For this reason, the transition from lamp-based sources to LED and advanced light engines has become a key factor in these types of installations. Eliminating routine lamp replacements reduces maintenance costs and downtime while also ensuring greater consistency throughout the lifespan of the fixtures.
This aspect was crucial in projects such as the Crypto.com Arena, where long-term operational efficiency was prioritised alongside performance. At the Intuit Dome, where fixtures mounted on the Halo LED display have limited access, reliability was a non-negotiable requirement. The installed system delivers the robustness needed for continuous, demanding use without frequent intervention.
Indoor IP protection
IP protection, traditionally associated with outdoor applications, is also becoming increasingly important indoors. In fact, these recent installations incorporate IP-rated fixtures. Dust, debris, and the general wear associated with multi-use venues can impact fixture lifespan, while sealed units provide a level of durability aligned with the operational realities of sports arenas. This added resilience translates into fewer cleaning cycles and a longer operational lifespan, especially in multi-use venues hosting concerts and a wide variety of events throughout the year.
In collaboration
From initial demonstrations and evaluations through to final commissioning, these projects were developed in collaboration with trusted integrators and long-term partners, ensuring each installation was tailored to the needs of the venue. Companies such as JRLX, Volt Integrated, Gemini Light, Sound & Video, among others, provided professional advice and support, often working within extremely tight seasonal — and even in-season — timeframes.
The changing role of lighting
Ultimately, the evolution of arena lighting reflects a broader transition toward fully integrated venue systems. Lighting must do far more than illuminate: it is no longer a standalone system, but part of an interconnected infrastructure designed to drive fan engagement.
Elation’s growing presence in this sector reflects how manufacturers are responding to these new demands. As solutions continue to evolve, lighting is taking on an increasingly defined role within this ecosystem, not just supporting the experience, but actively shaping it.
