How Integrating LED Lighting Control with Your Netting System Can Save You Money and Improve Safety

by Connor Beauchemin

When you need a major facility upgrade, the usual way is to handle big projects like spectator netting and LED lighting separately. This looks smart when you’re just comparing bids, but it creates a chain of hidden risks—to your structure, your budget, and your potential legal standing.

This guide breaks down the challenges and risks of handling these projects one by one. We’ll show you the engineering and financial proof that investing in a netting and lighting system from a single expert partner is the only safe choice for cautious facility leaders.

The Bottom Line in Brief

  • Hidden Dangers: Separate bids for netting system and lighting lead to clashing engineering plans. This cancels out key safety calculations and creates a “blame game” when something goes wrong.
  • True Costs: The cheapest bid often brings huge surprise costs, like needing to strengthen poles or accidentally voiding your manufacturer’s warranty.
  • Smarter Finances: A system that has been properly combined has a lower total cost over 20 years because you stop paying for the same work twice and have fewer long-term repair costs.
  • The Gold Standard: Working with a single partner reduces risks. It’s the method trusted by top pro sports leagues like the MLB, NFL, and PGA.  

Why Planning Netting and Lighting Control System Together is Critical

It’s a call no facility director wants to get. A big storm just hit, and a pole at your facility has failed.

You ask, “How did this happen?” The netting was designed for the wind. The new LED lights were installed correctly. Both companies said their plans were solid.

The problem? Their plans were never designed to work together.

This is the biggest, most dangerous flaw in the separate-bid process. You didn’t buy a complete system. You bought parts from different distributors that now have to share a pole that wasn’t designed for their combined weight and wind load.  

The Conflict of a Single Pole

A support pole for a net isn’t just a piece of steel. It’s carefully designed to handle very specific forces: the pull of the net and the force of the wind. All the safety math is based on that.  

Now, bolt on a new LED light solutions from another company. This adds two new forces: the light’s own weight and, more importantly, a new shape that changes how wind flows around the pole. The original engineering is now wrong.  

The “Blame Gap”

When the pole fails, this conflict creates a “blame gap”. The lighting company will say their work was fine and blame the pole. The netting company will say that their design was changed without approval.  

And you are the one left responsible.  

The Real Cost: Why Total Cost of Ownership Matters

The engineering risks associated with separate projects lead to significant financial problems.  

That’s why you have to look beyond the initial price tag and think about the 20-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). When you look at the big picture, a combined system is the only choice that makes financial sense.  

Surprise Costs That Come with the “Low Bid”

The “low-bid trap” is tempting because the price looks great on paper. But a smart director knows the real costs show up later.  

Here’s what a standalone lighting proposal never includes:

  • Strengthening Poles. This is the biggest surprise cost in upgrade projects. When you find out late in the project that the poles aren’t strong enough for the new, combined load, you’re stuck with additional costs to reinforce them.  
  • Extra Engineering Fees. You might have to hire a third engineering firm to get the first two plans to work together. This adds more cost and delay.  
  • Voided Warranties. Your netting system’s warranty is a key part of its value. When another company drills into or clamps things onto the poles, you could easily void that warranty.  

Thinking Ahead About Maintenance

Working with a single partner is crucial for creating a fully integrated system that is designed for easy maintenance. Key parts are often placed in a locked box at ground level. This innovative design turns a big, expensive repair job into a simple task your own crew can do safely in minutes. That’s the difference between buying parts and investing in a complete system.  

Benefits of Working With A Single Partner

Instead of buying separate parts from different distributors and manufacturers, invest in a system designed to work as one.

Our approach is entirely different. While we offer netting and lighting separately, we can also deliver a single, integrated system where every part is designed from the start to work together seamlessly.

Better Performance with a Combined System

This all-in-one type of approach gets rid of the compromises you have to make with separate projects.

  • The Best Lighting, Guaranteed. With a fully integrated system, you never have to choose between safety and great lighting. We design the poles to hold the lights in the perfect spots according to the lighting plan. The final result is both safe and effective, with no trade-offs.
  • Better Materials Make Better Systems. This better design works because we use high-tech materials like Dyneema® fiber. It’s incredibly strong but light, which lowers the overall weight and wind load on the poles without sacrificing safety.

Best of all, this means one team is responsible for everything. You get a single, approved set of engineering plans that covers the entire structure.

For organizations that want to eliminate risk, this is priceless. It makes the investment safe, secure, and legally sound.

Conclusion

Choosing how to upgrade your netting solutions and lighting is about more than just parts and specs. It’s a basic choice about how much risk your organization is willing to take.

The usual, separate-bid approach is a gamble. You’re betting your facility’s safety, budget, and legal protection on the hope that two clashing systems will somehow work together.

Working with a single partner removes unknowns, streamlines the point of contact, and builds for strength from the ground up. By choosing a combined system from a single expert partner, you aren’t just buying netting and lights. You’re investing in a complete solution that is proven to be safer, more dependable, and cheaper to own over its lifetime.

Upgrade your lighting control and netting system

If you are planning an infrastructure upgrade, don’t start by issuing separate RFPs. Start with a conversation. We invite you to schedule a no-obligation consultation with one of our integrated system engineers to discuss your facility’s unique challenges and discover how a unified approach can de-risk your next project.