Repton School Tennis Courts

Fusion were approached by Lightcraft Technology, a successful lighting design practice, to quote for installing a bespoke lighting system across 12 tennis courts for the 500-year-old private Repton School in Derbyshire.

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Challenge

There were a number of challenging aspects of this project. Firstly, Fusion were appointed to act as the principal contractor for the work at the start of August 2023 with a very short mobilisation period. As the project was on the site of a renowned school, the lighting on the courts would need to be finished, and the courts must be fully functional by the end of the month, ready for students returning from the summer holidays.

The second challenge was the location of the courts, being in an established position within the centre of the school’s sports ground, with little access for the required plant and machinery. Fusion also had to find the best way to get power out to the middle of the field where the courts are located without disturbing the normal day-to-day activities of the school.

A third layer of complexity came as the client requested a manual but access-controlled system to operate the lights. Local clubs and coaches often use the tennis courts outside of normal school hours, and the school wanted them to have the opportunity to use the courts all year round but within specific parameters. Fusion needed to design and implement a solution that did not make the request financially unachievable.

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How we helped

As principal contractor, Fusion opened the site per their CDM responsibilities. Following the calculated lighting design by Lightcraft Technology and coordination with all the relevant suppliers/subcontractors, Fusion went about organising trenching and laying cables to the perimeters of the courts. A new electrical supply was brought over from a neighbouring school facility, and bespoke power distribution equipment was installed in feeder pillars around the site.

Twenty lighting columns, ten metres high, were installed in positions detailed by Lightcraft's design.  A wireless lighting control system, designed by Hytronik, was installed by Lightcraft into each of the luminaires, with control receivers placed on several columns around the courts. The system would allow complete app control of specific scenes for each luminaire. The scenes, commissioned by Hytronik, allowed the courts to be individually lit when required for the duration specified, with a start and exit ramp up/down of brightness to aid access to the court.

The requirements for a manual but controlled interface for the out-of-hours use were satisfied by using some rather traditional technology, more often found on fairground rides and arcade machines! Fusion designed and built two bespoke feeder pillars that housed token slots, prompting each court's lighting scenes to start using Hytronik’s switch modules linked to each token slot. Tokens could be assigned to the clubs and coaches and used at their discretion without having to be supervised out of hours. The feeder pillars also housed an override key switch for tournament and maintenance use, prompting the control system to engage further scenes. A bespoke token collection apparatus was built into the cabinets, and the whole cabinet was protected by condensation via a heater.  

All civil work was accomplished with new surfacing to match the existing finishes and re-erected fences to secure the site.

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Outcome

Repton School received twelve perfectly lit tennis courts with a one-of-a-kind token system to satisfy their specific access requirements and their budget. All our work was completed within budget and the one-month timeline.