Korean LED lights to illuminate Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium, the home ground for the New York Yankees of the U.S. Major League Baseball, will use Light-emitting diode (LED) lights developed by a South Korean company.

KMW Inc., an LED manufacturer, said Sunday that it had reached an agreement with the baseball team to replace the entire lights at Yankee Stadium with the company`s 1,000-watt "SUFA-X" sport LED lights. In April, Safeco Field, the home ground of the Seattle Mariners, also changed its lighting system to the KMW products.

Sports lighting requires strict standards in terms of the level of illumination and color rendition. The lighting standards for baseball games are particularly strict, as the ball is small and fast. KMW said its products are more than 20 percent brighter than its competitors` and offer ultra-slow motion replay with 960 frames per second without any flicker in high-definition and ultra-high-definition broadcasting.

Kim Deok-yong, chairman and CEO of KMW, said his company had invested "tens of thousands of dollars" to develop global-standard LED lighting products, noting that the Yankee Stadium deal would provide the basis for the company`s dominance in the world`s sports lighting market.

KMW also installed LED lighting systems at around 10 overseas sports facilities, including the home stadium of Borussia Dortmund, a German Bundesliga soccer club, and the tennis courts of Sydney Olympic Park.