The home stadium of Hungarian football club Diósgyőri VTK was voted Stadium of the Year in 2018. With the help of Loxone Technology, this beautiful stadium is impressive for far more than just its appearance.
Originally the stadium owners had decided to go with a different system. However, after the cabling was already in place they decided to look at the suitability of other systems. The thing most important to them was to ensure that all of the lighting in and around the stadium was incorporated into one ecosystem. Once the owners had sat down with our Hungarian Partner, Verdom Kft., and he showed them what was possible, they decided to go ahead with Loxone. Their main reasons were:
Greater range of functionality
Lower costs
Easy-to-use software
Facts at a glance
Where :Hungary
Award: Stadium of the year 2018
Loxone Partner Verdom Kft.
Project planned with uplan
What’s in this project?
7 Miniserver in a client-gateway grouping
Lighting control through the DALI Extension
Electricity Monitoring via a Modbus Extension
Heating & ventilation control
And much more.
Event-based lighting
The pitch at the DVTK Stadium is used for a variety of different events: league matches, UEFA competition matches (such at the Europa League), televised matches, training, etc. All of these events require slightly different lighting.
“After I found out the lighting requirements, I knew that with Loxone it would be easy” – András Schmidt. The floodlights are controlled via Loxone Relay Extensions. Using the Lighting Controller Function Block in Loxone Config András has configured predefined lighting moods to suit the club’s requirements. These can now easily be changed via the Loxone App.
However, it’s not just the floodlights that are controlled with Loxone, all of the lights in and around the outside of the stadium have been integrated into the system. Some are controlled directly through relays while others are controlled with the Loxone DALI Extension. Motion Sensors have been installed in areas such as, the changing rooms, corridors, toilets etc. to give the stadium human-centric lighting control. Touch Switches have also been installed around the stadium to enable quick and easy operation of the lights.
The exterior lighting of the stadium allows the DVTK fans to quickly see what type of event is taking place. This is because András and his team have configured different lighting moods for the various event types – so the fans will always know what’s going on.
Heated drain pipes
On the roof of the DVTK Stadium, the drainage pipes are heated to prevent them from freezing. This feature was not initially planned however they realised during the project that ice was forming there. Thankfully, as Loxone is a very expandible ecosystem, adding this extra functionality was no issue.
The heated drain pipes were achieved simply by using a relay. As soon as there is a risk of ice, they’ll automatically be heated – meaning that the staff at the stadium never need to worry.
Temperature regulation for distribution cabinets
The distribution boards in the stadium are not located in one room, they are spread across the entire building. The cabinet for the floodlights, for example, is located in a separate outhouse. The owners of the stadium wanted a way to monitor the temperatures in all of the different cabinet locations and, if necessary, heat or cool the rooms to maintain a consistent temperature.
The power supplies for the lighting system are located in each one of the distribution cabinets. When in use, these can become quite warm. However, they are also susceptible to freezing if the temperature drops too low. To counteract this, András and his team decided to implement temperature control for each cabinet. “Here the versatility of Loxone proved itself once again” – András Schmidt.
A temperature sensor, a small fan and a heater have been installed to regulate cabinets. If the temperature in one of the cabinets falls below a set temperature, the heating is automatically switched on. If the temperature is too high, then the ventilation system will kick into action. The temperature is measured via analogue sensors and the heating and ventilation systems are controlled with relays.
Simple control of a complex building
Operating and controlling a football stadium can bring certain challenges. Automation has taken care of a wide range tasks however due to the complex nature of a football stadium manual intervention is still needed. With the Loxone App and the Loxone Touches, the staff at the DVTK stadium always have a simple and intuitive way to do this.
