Virginia Tech University’s Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center was originally built in 1992. The 46,485 square foot facility offers six outdoor and six indoor courts and was awarded the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Outstanding Tennis Facility. One of the key initiatives for the University was to make improvements to the indoor tennis court area with respect to increasing light levels while reducing energy and maintenance costs. With over 30 years of experience helping indoor sports facilities, Sports Interiors leveraged its experience to put together a plan for Virginia Tech that would allow them to reach their goals while aligning with their budgeting for this project.
The first phase of the facility improvement plan included improving the existing lighting system in the indoor tennis court area. Sports Interiors’ crew removed the existing lighting and unistrut that the fixtures were mounted on and hung our LED System along the pitch of the ceiling which allows for not only increased light levels, but even distribution of light across the playing area.
Below is a short video midway through the LED installation as you can clearly see the difference in quality of light between the 3 tennis courts on the left which still have the metal halide lighting compared to the 3 tennis courts on the right where the LED System has been installed.
At the end of the LED installation, we added our Lighting Control System which will mean further energy savings and allows for facility management to control the lighting system remotely from their smartphone or tablet.
Final results of the LED installation included light levels increasing by an average of 97%, original light levels were averaging about 50 and after the installation, were about 101.
The last part of the Virginia Tech facility improvement plan is to have Sports Interiors return in 2021 to implement it’s highly durable and reflective Liner System to the ceiling area which will mean projected light levels will increase to about 140 foot candles, making Burrow-Burleson Tennis Center one of the brightest indoor tennis facilities in the country.
