The Second Split of Kings League Italia, the seven-a-side football tournament streamed live across multiple platforms, took place at Fonzies Arena in Cologno Monzese, with a PROLIGHTS lighting system at the heart of a production built around one of the most technically complex briefs in live entertainment: meeting the demands of sports facility lighting and broadcast show production at once. Lighting designer Francesco Vignati was responsible for the design and operation of the rig throughout the championship, with Professional Show managing the complete technical production.
The format's dual nature shaped every decision in the design process. "The Kings League is a very particular format because it requires combining sports lighting, extremely uniform and functional to the game, with a scenic component designed for broadcast and streaming," said Vignati. "The main challenges were above all technical: guaranteeing uniformity and correct levels on the field without incurring flicker issues for the cameras, while maintaining a colour rendering suited to video capture." His solution was a layered architecture: a stable, sport-optimised base light running continuously beneath a dynamic scenic system that could be shaped around the rhythm of the broadcast. "The approach was precisely to design a flexible system, capable of moving quickly from a sports logic to a more spectacular one, while always maintaining visual coherence for those following the event in streaming."
The field illumination was built around 146 ArcPod 48Q architectural LED wash fixtures. Precision in aiming and installation geometry was central to the outcome: "The installation and the aiming were fundamental to avoid direct glare and guarantee a uniform distribution of light across the field. The players were able to maintain good readability of the action without critical zones or excessive contrasts," Vignati explained. The cameras shared in that precision: "The photography responded very well. The light was uniform and stable across camera cuts, with a clean colour rendering that helped maintain visual consistency between different shots."
The scenic component of the show was built around the Astra Profile400, Astra Beam260IP and Astra Wash7Pix moving heads for effects, shaping and wash, supported by Stark Bar1000, Lumipix 15IP, LumiPar 12IP and Halu Pix for colour, texture and pixel mapping throughout the venue. Throughout the championship, Vignati found consistent behaviour across the entire PROLIGHTS rig: "I found the products reliable and coherent across the different fixtures used in the setup. I found good stability of the light, also in the management of intensities and transitions, the fixtures responded precisely." An aspect Vignati highlighted as fundamental, given that the majority of the audience follows the event in streaming: "The video performance met expectations, contributing to building a solid and recognisable image for those following the event on digital platforms."
The tournament's weekly rhythm added a further operational requirement: the rig had to deliver the same quality, match after match, across an entire championship run. The base lighting remained constant, ensuring broadcast continuity, while the scenic component was adjusted through the season's phases to follow the tournament's development without visual repetition.
"This project allowed me to test the products in a much more in-depth and continuous way," Vignati concluded. "The experience was confirmed positively, above all in terms of reliability and consistency of performance over time, which in a format like the Kings League are fundamental aspects." It is precisely that consistency, week after week, camera cut after camera cut, that the Kings League demands of its production, and that PROLIGHTS fixtures delivered.
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