Malibu, California Half Court Basketball Lighting System
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Case Study: Client Gregg Ruth Malibu, CA Half-Court Basketball Court Lighting System.

Click Here For Our Brochure Of CXL Basketball Court Lighting Fixture.

RLLD Commercial Lighting recently sold a half-court basketball court lighting system to a client named Gregg Ruth who resides in Malibu, CA.

This was a very small job, comparatively speaking, to some of the other projects the company normally handles. However, smaller jobs like this are not uncommon in the residential marketplace.

Home sport courts are often very small themselves. They are typically customized to the athletic preferences of the homeowner. As such, standard sport court lighting kits cannot be used effectively. Lighting systems have to be customized to the specific dimensions of the court. They also have to take into account any mitigating factors that come to bear upon the project.

At first glance, this should have been a very quick, simple order of basketball court lighting fixtures. The electrical contractor who was working on behalf of the homeowner had already worked out the photometric lighting calculations. He also knew exactly how many light poles and fixtures he needed.

In most instances, we would have been required to calculate a photometric lighting design that would have indicated foot candle spreads.
This design schematic would have in turn been used render a 3D model of the proposed system. Such models allow them to try out, so to speak, different fixtures before any purchase orders are actually completed.

Things were not so simple with this particular basketball court lighting system. Malibu, CA has very strict light dark sky laws. For those of you who may be new to this term, “dark skies” refers to a desired level of minimal artificial light.

When light trespass into the sky above a city is restricted, the moon and stars are clearly visible, and the scenery looks much more peaceful and beautiful. Also, people are able to sleep better at night when light trespass is prohibited from shining into their bedroom windows. In some driving areas and parking lots, limiting light trespass is also a safety consideration.

Not only did we have dark sky laws to contend with, but we also had homeowners’ association limitation on the basketball court lighting poles.
Pole heights were limited to a maximum height of sixteen feet. This measurement included the combined length of the pole and the height of the supporting base. This was no easy order to fill, because no manufacturer makes poles at this height.

However, thanks to the strong relationship that we enjoy with top American sport lighting manufacturers, our team was able to negotiate a special requisition. Two light poles were cut to lengths that would total 16 feet when mounted on the bases that the contractor had already purchased. They were then drop shipped directly to the electrical contractor onsite.

Along with the two poles were also shipped two 1000W full cutoff light fixtures. These basketball court lighting fixtures strictly limit luminance to court boundaries and operate in full compliance with the standards of the International Dark-Sky Association.

Once this was complete, there had one other unforeseen challenge to contend with. A lens in one of the CXL lighting fixtures was broken in shipment. RLLD immediately responded by covering the cost of a three day air freight replacement. Expedited delivery was handled by such efficiency by all parties involved that the replacement actually arrived after only two days at no additional cost to the client.