Ewweb 3717 Qualite Image
Ewweb 3717 Qualite Image
Ewweb 3717 Qualite Image
Ewweb 3717 Qualite Image
Ewweb 3717 Qualite Image

Lights a Retrofit Challenge for Georgia State's New Football Stadium

July 26, 2017
The stadium, converted from the Atlanta Braves' former Turner Field baseball stadium and Olympic Stadium to host college football, combined new lighting technology and clever reuse of existing equipment.

Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, officially began construction in February on an interesting project. The plan will turn Turner Field, formerly the home of the Atlanta Braves and an Olympic Stadium in the Summer Games of 1996, into the school’s new football stadium. The $22 million project is expected to be ready for GSU Panthers’ home opener against Tennessee State on August 31.

Qualite, Hillsdale, MI, a specialist manufacturer deep in the sports lighting world, was picked to light the space with its Q-LED GameChanger lighting system. Qualite has provided lighting for high schools, colleges, parks and recreation departments, and minor and major league professional sports franchises for over 30 years, said a company release.

 “This is an exciting project for Qualite. We are doing a combination of installing new lights and also retrofitting onto the existing super structure which held the old lights. We are able to showcase, on a national scale, what we and others know: the GameChanger is like no other LED light on the market. The awards prove it and being chosen by GSU for this iconic project is just more validation,” said Eric Boorom, owner of Qualite.

“GSU was very excited about the GameChanger when we presented it to them,” Patrick Kinney, Qualite’s Southeast sales manager explained. “A big part of our conversation with GSU was how they are working towards being a national leader in technology. We were able to easily demonstrate how the GameChanger represented the newest and most advanced technology found in the sports lighting industry today.”

The project benefited from the infrastructure already in place running power and control cable to the light towers, said Rob Stewart of Penco Electric, the contractor on the project. “Qualite’s wireless control system fit this project perfectly since a big portion of the new lights were to be retrofitted onto the existing structure,” he said. “We had more than enough power to these locations already, and we did not have to run new control wiring to all the existing locations around the stadium for the new LED lights.”