A consortium formed by Korea’s BlueKite, Chunil Engineering, and KMW Inc. has won a $14 million contract to install LED lighting at a stadium for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. According to BlueKite, the LED lights will brighten an outdoor stadium that will host ski jump, biathlon, and cross country events. KMW will supply the luminaires. Chunil will be in charge of their installation, and BlueKite will supply its light controlling software.
BlueKite, which was founded in April 2014 through a collaboration of industry, university, and research institutes, says that it has already successfully supplied and installed the same KMW LED lamps in baseball stadiums in the US for the Major League Baseball team New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. The firm expects that the use of LEDs for the Pyeongchang Olympics venues would significantly cut the cost of hosting the international event. Most sports stadiums employ energy-guzzling metal halide lamps that need at least 30 minutes of warm-up time, and they generate a lot of heat. Also, the manufacturing of metal halide lamps requires the use toxic substances such as lead and mercury. Contrary to this, KMW’s LED lights do not require a warm-up time and consume 70% less energy than the metal halide lights. BlueKite’s software also allows remote control of the LED lights. All the KMW’s LED lamps are tested to ensure that they meet the standards required to host Olympic Games and commissioned LG Innotek to develop LED chips to fit the luminaires.
