The Norfolk County Football Association is the not-for-profit, governing body of football in Norfolk. It runs 10 County Cup competitions and three purpose built football development centres.

Founded in 1881, Norfolk County FA grows participation, promotes diversity and now administers for over 25,000 players, 1,000 teams, 300 clubs and several volunteers that help keep the grassroots game going.

For most of this time the work has been carried out on an honorary basis, however funding support from The Football Association led to the Association becoming administered by a full-time secretariat in 1996. In August 1999 the Association became a limited company, again at the behest of The Football Association. Since then, The FA has taken a far greater interest in County Associations, working in partnership to provide increased sums of money to support new initiatives and staffing.

There was a requirement to build new offices for the Chief Executive at the FA’s headquarters in Bowthorpe Park, Norwich, including meeting rooms, hot desks and a common area.

Dextra worked with local Norwich-based contractor Eyre Group who it has previously worked for, and consultant Eco-Classrooms Limited to deliver the project to an agreed budget.

“We’re delighted with the look and feel of our new County Headquarters building, and the fantastic work completed by Dextra and locally based Eyre Group, with regards to the lighting installation, has really added an air of contemporary quality to the venue in both design and functionality that has brought many admiring comments.

“The suspended Runway lighting inside the main office looks very sleek and modern, making it a great place to work. Furthermore, with the lighting operating via sensors this also enables us to be greener as an organisation, which is something we are now thinking about more than ever.”

Norfolk FA Chief Executive, Matt Carpenter

THE SOLUTION

An important part of this project was the addition of a bespoke Runway cross. This cross design was provided for the offices, breakout rooms and common areas, to help lift the aesthetics of this area. For this reason, the Runway Continuous Surface/Suspended was chosen and 17 different sections/lengths were provided including corners and crosses, with M3 emergency versions.

The Runway Continuous Surface/Suspended is provided with a slim line aluminium housing which is available in three colours. Surface mounted or suspended in continuous runs with corner sections, a range of lengths and lumen outputs and optional bidirectional distribution ensures that you can create a layout that enhances any space.

The Runway also incorporates the latest mid power LEDs ensuring optimal energy efficiency with minimal need for maintenance over the course of its lifetime.

This flexibility is further enhanced with integral emergency, white tunable and dimming options and two optic styles, a minimalist opal finish or microprism for compliance with the 3000 candela requirements of BSEN12464 for use in office and school areas (L22, L14 and L29 variants only). The Runway is also available in a range of standalone and recessed options where required.

Elsewhere in the building, six Amenity Decorative LEDs were installed to provide surface lighting in the toilets and lobby area with LE3 emergency versions.

For the exit signs, the Dextra HBE2 was chosen. The HBE2 is a highly versatile exit sign is designed to suit nearly all emergency exit applications. The standard product is suitable for both suspension and surface mounting, whilst the blade angle can be pivoted through a range of angles when mounting onto sloped ceilings. Operating at just 2.7W, the HBE2 LED offers excellent energy efficiency and is also available with both standard, self-test and autotest options. Legends are also available in both Euro Norm and ISO 7010 formats. In addition to this, recessing kits and wall mounting kits are available as optional extras.

Leading to the outside, the Amenity Exterior Eyelid was used to light the external areas of the office building. The Dextra Amenity Exterior Eyelid uses the latest branded LEDs offering excellent efficiency, durability and LM80 verified: 90% LED lumen maintenance at 60,000 operating hours. All Amenity Exterior products are manufactured from die cast aluminium with injection moulded polycarbonate diffusers giving a strong and durable luminaire.

The Amenity Exterior can be offered with optional integral sensor, emergency, corridor mode or dimming options as well as three different housing colours, all of which can be combined to tailor the luminaire to suit your application.

The Amenity Exterior Eyelid variant is available in both 800 lumen and 1600 lumen variants with an optimised card design to ensure that a minimum of light is lost behind the eyelid cover. The Amenity Exterior range is sealed to IP65 and rated to IK08 allowing for use in external areas such as under canopy, however is also suited to a range of internal applications such as corridors, stairways, toilets and storage areas.

“We’re delighted with the look and feel of our new County Headquarters building, and the fantastic work completed by Dextra and locally based Eyre Group, with regards to the lighting installation, has really added an air of contemporary quality to the venue in both design and functionality that has brought many admiring comments.

 “The suspended Runway lighting inside the main office looks very sleek and modern, making it a great place to work. Furthermore, with the lighting operating via sensors this also enables us to be greener as an organisation, which is something we are now thinking about more than ever.”  Matt Carpenter, Norfolk FA Chief Executive