Affinity Electrical Technologies has been working with the Ainslie Football Club since 2015 maintaining their lighting on Alan Ray Oval. Alan Ray Oval was upgraded in 2000 and had 40 x 2KW 415V Fittings on 4 x poles that were used for 23 years to floodlight the oval for training and match play. Since working on the lights for many years and the costs of maintaining the lights have become increasingly costly, AFC asked Affinity Electrical to scout for options to reduce the maintenance costs incurred each year.
Since 2021, Affinity Electrical had a costed proposal in front of the football Directors at Ainslie Football Club to upgrade the lighting, as the club was going through a development application for the site it was decided that AFC required clear directions on the future of the Oval prior to upgrading the lighting. AET also worked with the AFL to seek funding from the ACT Community Football Facility Funds, in which Ainslie applied for a grant and was successful in receiving that grant which went a long way to offsetting the costs of the project. Come 2023 with the maintenance costs now becoming problematic, it was decided to proceed with the lighting upgrade to be completed before AFL Canberra football finals.
In 2021 AET performed a lot of due diligence on sports oval lighting and over time we became aware that it was with a significant world-class manufacturer with whom we wanted to partner. Through Integral Lighting which is the local ACT agent for Phillips, AET was able to design the 200 Lux lighting replacement job at Ainslie and through their design team reduced the overall number of lights from 40 fittings to 32.
The project was like any other when you are retrofitting new fittings onto existing infrastructure at a height of over 25meters, however after 1 pole installation it was realised that the 2 x cross-arm system was not going to work and it was decided to mount the 8 x fittings per pole onto 1 x cross arm that provided better-aiming ability. The installation was completed before the AFL Canberra Finals with a finals match for under 18 women’s and men’s being played the night after completion.
Through our lux level testing and meeting with Ainslie Football Club Hierarchy, the project has been warmly received and is the 1st project completed in the ACT utilising the AFL Community Football Funding. All the stakeholders are very pleased to have this project completed and night-time football available on Alan Ray Oval for finals 2023 and ongoing.