LED lighting to make Super Bowl debut in Glendale

PHOENIX -- Super Bowl XLIX is more than the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy under the bright lights in Glendale.

It also happens to be about the lights as well.

University of Phoenix Stadium will illuminate the Feb. 1 Super Bowl like no other previous NFL championship game before. The Patriots and Seahawks will be the first teams to compete for the title under an LED lighting system, which the stadium installed prior to the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers game in September.

The use of LED lights for the game comes at a time when attention to detail has been critical in an NFL game. Look back at this postseason, where two games involving the Dallas Cowboys came down to calls made by the referees.

The company that brought the new lights to Glendale, Ephesus Lighting, designed and installed these lights to provide television audiences and replay officials more vivid detail.

Scott Norton, director of marketing and public relations at University of Phoenix Stadium, said media companies like ESPN and Fox have praised the stadium's upgrades.

"The lighting is just amazing for slow-motion [replay] and HDTV," Norton said.

The installation of the LED lights cut down the number of lighting fixtures by more than half, saving about 929,000 watts needed to power the fixtures, according to a case study Ephesus Lighting conducted.

Doug Drotman, the spokesman for Ephesus Lighting, said that number of watts is equal to about 15,000, 60-watt light bulbs. In layman's terms, that equates to about the same amount of energy needed to power about 750 homes each using 20 of those bulbs.

In all, stadium officials expect the lights to save about 65 percent in electrical costs.

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LED lighting to make Super Bowl debut in Glendale