Golf Simulator Lighting: How to Light the Room Without Washing Out the Screen

A golf simulator wants two things from its lights, and they pull in opposite directions. The screen wants the room dark, so the projected picture stays bright and sharp. You want to see the ball, the mat and the putting line, and a camera launch monitor wants light on the ball too. Here's where each light goes, which launch monitors need one, and how to keep the picture crisp while you do it. Quick summary Light the mat and the ball, never the screen, because every light that reaches the screen competes with the projector and turns the blacks grey. A camera launch monitor beside the ball wants a steady light over the hitting area, and our simulator light is an LED spotlight on a 1m powered track for £175, or £195 for the Trackman version. Some launch monitors bring their own light: the Trackman iO listing says it needs no additional lighting, and ProTee says the same of the VX, which lights the play area with built-in infrared. Hang the lights above the hitting area or behind it, out of the swing and the ball flight, and aim them down at the mat rather than forwards. If the lights stay on while you play, the projector has to work harder: plan on 4,000 lumens or more for a lit bay, against 3,000 for a garage you can black out. A blackout layer behind the impact screen stops light shining through it, from £199, and blackout blinds do the same job for the windows.

Why does lighting matter in a golf simulator? Because the screen and the golfer want opposite things. A projector makes its picture by shining light onto a white screen, and the darkest part of that picture can only be as dark as the screen looks with the projector showing black. Any other light that lands on the screen lifts those blacks to grey, flattens the colours and makes the fairway look like it's been left out in the sun. The golfer needs light. You have to see the ball on the tee, the edge of the mat and the club at address, and in a pitch-black garage you're hitting by the glow of the screen. That's fine for a driver and hopeless for a short putt. The launch monitor has a say as well. Camera units that sit beside the ball take pictures of it at impact, and a picture needs light. Camera systems are more sensitive to lighting quality than radar, which is why the hitting area is the one place in a simulator room that needs a proper light of its own. Then there's the room itself. A dark room is a room where someone trips over the launch monitor on the…