Sportball — Multi-Sport Lighting Design (Kids Activity + Pickleball Court)

Project: Sportball — Multi-Sport Lighting Design (Kids Activity + Pickleball Court)
Location: Sportball — Canadian sports chain, multi-sport facility
Project Type: Commercial Spaces Lighting Design
Scope: 0 fixtures · 5 rooms — kids play area, pickleball court (Room 3, dual-use), 3 ancillary rooms
Year: 2026
Design Team: Jainsons Lights Design Studio (Dialux, AutoCAD, aiming view)

The brief

Sportball runs kids sports-activity centres across Canada and overseas markets. This facility was being built as a multi-use sports floor — high-energy kids programming during the day, and a paddle / pickleball court at night. The interior designer's lighting plan worked at a glance, but when we ran it through Dialux it showed sparse coverage on the courts (only 3 × 10 fixtures over the pickleball area), big lux dropouts between fixtures, and a real glare risk for both children looking up and players tracking the ball.

How we approached it

We threw out the original lighting layout and redesigned each room around three sports-grade rules: uniform horizontal illuminance, glare-free optics, and a contrast palette that stays gentle on a child's eye but bright enough for tournament play. The pickleball court was re-laid as a dense 5 × 12 grid of 24.4 W luminaires for even coverage across the full playing surface. Kids play area (Room 1) was re-spaced to hit the 500 lx working-plane target with uniformity Uo ≥ 0.50 — well above sports hall minimums, so coaches can run any drill in any corner without re-pointing fixtures. Ancillary rooms (entry, toilets) were dialled in separately to keep transition between zones gentle on the eye.

Fixtures used

Room 1 (kids play area): dense grid hitting Ē 543 lx (target ≥500 lx), Uo 0.53 (target ≥0.50 — sports-hall grade); Room 2 (multipurpose): Ē 411 lx (target ≥400 lx), Uo 0.48; Room 3 (pickleball + corridor): 5 × 12 grid of 24.4 W luminaires, calibrated for tournament pickleball (≥300 lx uniform across the entire court with no shadow zones); Rooms 4 + 5 (ancillary): comfortable 200+ lx ambient. The redesign roughly doubled fixture count on the play areas vs the original plan but used lower wattage per fixture, so connected load barely moved while uniformity, glare, and child-comfort metrics all improved dramatically.

The outcome

Sportball got a sports-facility-grade lighting design before fit-out started — the exact moment in the build where ceiling positions and electrical points can still move cheaply. We iterated through the brief in three to four design rounds — starting with the interior designer's original lighting plan, running it through Dialux, identifying every sparse zone, and rebuilding room by room until every working plane hit its target. The full iteration journey — architectural drawings, original-plan Dialux analysis showing the issues, and our final redesign — is bundled in the single combined report linked above. The Dialux output now drives the install: every fixture position is documented, every lux target is verified room-by-room. The play floor is bright enough for kids drills during the day and uniform enough for serious paddle / pickleball play at night — one ceiling, two completely different programs running off the same fixtures.

What you get when you work with us

• AutoCAD lighting layout with aiming arrows for every fixture
• Photorealistic 3D renderings of your space, lit
• Horizontal & vertical lux reports per zone
• Glare (UGR) analysis where customers and staff are positioned
• Fixture specification sheets and full BOQ
• One warm, faithful colour signature across every surface (CCT/CRI matched)

Talk to our design team about a complimentary Dialux lighting plan for your space, or read more about how we design lighting for projects like this.