We are proud to share our first AFL oval project, Alan Ray Oval. The original lighting of the oval required frequent maintenance to ensure that the Ainslie Football Club could train and play day and night throughout the winter. Over the years, Affinity Electrical has worked with Ainslie Football Club to maintain the lighting on the Oval. As they continued to work on the project, the maintenance costs for the lights increased significantly for AFC. In response, they asked Affinity Electrical to explore options to reduce the annual maintenance costs.

Affinity Electrical conducted extensive research on sports oval lighting and discovered they needed to partner with a world-class manufacturer and in turn, they reached out to Integral Lighting. Integral Lighting supplied the Philips Lighting OptiVision floodlights to replace the existing lighting. The Philips OptiVision lights the oval to 200 lux and reduces the total number of fixtures from 40 lights to 32. The new lighting scheme ensures consistent colour and output, visual comfort, and minimal spill light to create ideal conditions for nighttime play.

With the rising maintenance costs becoming problematic, Affinity Electrical collaborated with the AFL to seek funding from the ACT Community Football Facility Funds. Ainslie applied for a grant and was successful. Based on this outcome, it was decided to proceed with the lighting upgrade, which to be completed before the AFL Canberra football finals.

The project has been warmly received and marks the first project completed in the ACT utilising the AFL Community Football Funding. All stakeholders are delighted to have this project completed, making night-time football available on Alan Ray Oval for the 2023 finals and beyond.