Lighting is one of the important parts in table tennis room. Getting a perfect lighting for table tennis room or ping pong table is vital because it allows the players and audiences to see the fast-moving ping pong balls. Without the good lighting system, the players can’t look at the table and hit the ball.
Nowadays, there are many lighting solutions and options to light a table tennis room such as LED, metal halide, halogen, mercury vapor. To better assist you to select the best lighting for your ping pong tables and rooms, we compiled this guide to solve your issues. You may also contact us directly to get the free lighting design and consultation so you can know how many lights and wattage is required.
Dimensions of table tennis room
We need to take a look at the size of table tennis room because it affects the lumens and wattage required for the table tennis room lights. Generally, larger the area, more the lumens we need. Let’s take a look at the size of the table tennis table.
| Level of competition | Size |
| Recreational or residential | 28 x 13 ft |
| Local competitions | 30 x 16 ft |
| National events | 40 x 20 ft |
| International events | 46 x 23 ft |
The first step of the lighting design is to tell the engineer that the size of the table tennis room, so they can simulate and calculate the number of lighting fixtures required to properly light up the table tennis room.
Table tennis room lighting design and requirements
Similar to other sports, there are some lighting standards that we need to follow, such as brightness, lighting uniformity, glare and etc. Let’s take a look.
1. Lux and brightness requirement of table tennis room lights
First and foremost, lux reflects the brightness of the ping pong table. Higher the lux value, brighter the ground or table tennis room you will see. In the lighting design software, we can easily estimate the lux value after putting the lighting fixtures. Here are some of the lux standards.
| Level of competition | Lux requirement |
| Home or recreational | 200 to 300 lux |
| Local league and national events | 400 to 500 lux |
| International tournaments | 600 to 1000 lux |
| Olympic Games, ITTF World Cup, etc | 1000 to 1500 lux |
As we can see, the lux requirement of ping pong table lighting increases with the level of competition. Generally, we need brighter lights for international matches. If the venue is designed for Olympic Games, World Table Tennis Champions, or other international events, we will need at least 1000 lux.
2. Lighting uniformity
Getting the proper lux value is just the first step. Then, the lighting also needs to fulfill the lighting uniformity requirement. If the lights are uniform, it means the light beam is evenly distributed on the ping pong table and the floor. The optimized lights enhance the performance of the table tennis players.
The lighting uniformity standard also increases with the level of competition. Let’s take a look.
| Level of competition | Lighting uniformity required |
| Recreational or club house | 0.5 |
| Community or national events | 0.6 |
| International tournaments | 0.7 |
For instance, uniformity 0.7 means the ratio between minimum lux and average lux is 0.7:1.
3. Anti-glare lighting inside table tennis room
Another important aspect of table tennis room light is the glare-free design. The lights should not produce significant glare. If we select the lighting fixtures which product strong glare, the players will be irritated, and their performance will the greatly affected. To reduce the glare, we may select the fixtures with larger beam angle or increase the height of installation. Some lighting products may also have the anti-glare filter.
How many lights do we need in the table tennis room?
After understanding the lighting standards of table tennis, we are going to explore more on the number of lighting fixtures required. In general, if there are 3 recreational ping pong tables in the room, we will need around 3 to 6 flood lights of 50 to 100W in order to produce bright and uniform lighting.
Again, if we need to illuminate the Olympic Games venues, we may sometimes need 500W to 1000W LED lights.
What is the height of ping pong table lighting?
The ping pong table lighting height should be at least 3 to 4 meters for recreational or residential (such as basement or garage), and at least 12 meters for indoor table tennis arena. This is because we need to leave ample space for light beam to spread apart. If the distance between the ceiling and the table is too short, blind spots may easily occur.
In fact, higher table tennis lighting is better because we can have a more uniform illumination. However, if the table tennis room has the relatively short ceiling, we can make use of the lighting fixtures having large beam angle (>90°).
Using LED ping pong table lights
There are many reasons to use LED in the table tennis room.
1. Brighter but more energy saving
LED light has become the must-have item in many sports field. The most important reason is that LED is much more energy-saving then the conventional metal halide, mercury or halogen bulbs. So, there are many table tennis stadium owners are going to replace their old fixtures with LED lights.
For instance, the 200W LED light can retrofit 500W to 800W metal halide lights. By having the LED replacement, we can sometimes saving $100 to $1000 running cost of table tennis room lighting per month.
2. Longer life span
Aside from the power consumption (the running cost) we also need to consider the maintenance cost. In fact, the installation and replacement can be very costly. So, having a long-lasting lighting is vitally important. LED is the best solution because it has the long life span of 80000 to 120000 hours, which is about 5 to 10 times higher than the metal halide or halogen bulbs.
3. Wide range of color temperature options
Another reason to select LED is that it has a wide range of color temperature that fulfill the lighting requirement of ITTF. Generally, we need around 5000K lighting for national or international table tennis events. We can precisely control the light color temperature of the lights, so that the players audiences can have the best lighting experience.
Case study of installing table tennis room lighting
After going through the theoretical part, let’s take a look at the practical scenario.
Question:
I would like to light up a ping pong table in the basement and don’t know how should I start. The basement is 20′ wide and 25′ long. I just put the table in the middle of the basement. How many watts and how many pieces of lighting fixture do I need? Should I use panel lights, recessed lights or track lighting?
Answer:
The first step is to identify the brightness required. According to the background, we can say the ping pong table is designed for recreational or residential use. So, the lux level required is around 200 lux.
To achieve the best lighting uniformity, we can place 2 or 4 UFO fixtures above the table tennis table. If we want to use 4 lighting approach, we need to make sure that the distance between the lights should have at least 6′. If the lights are too close together, the blind spot may be created and thus affect the vision of the players.
Besides, we should also avoid installing the lighting directly over the table because the ping pong table is slightly reflective. It may cause glare in the reflection. So, placing the lights near the corner of the table is a better option.
If you are in a tight budget, we can use only two lights. In this case, we may place the LED or fluorescent tube near the short side of the table tennis table. In this case, the tubes will give out uniform lighting. However, the shadow may easily create as we are having two light sources only. 4-light layout is a better choice if you want to minimize the shadows.
Recessed light is also an option. However, it would be difficult to install the replace. And the heat may be easily trapped inside the ceiling.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for free lighting consultation.
