BMW Park, the arena in Munich, Germany, and home to the FC Bayern Basketball club, has had a giant LED display installed in the form of a glass playing floor.
Never before has such a floor been used for competition in the German Basketball League (BBL), although one was used for the women’s U19 Basketball World Cup last July, and the Harlem Globetrotters played on one for one of their exhibitions in 2017.
This ASB GlassFloor “replicates the original playing surface” with LED marking lines beneath the floor itself, but also “allows for the incorporation of visual digital animations, graphics, image spots, and entertainment,” according to the club.
Last year the international federation Fiba enacted a change in the rules to authorize the use of LED glass floors as of Oct. 2022. Apparently, such “Lumiflex” floors yield lower odds of joint injury than conventional basketball floors. According to Elias Harris, who plays forward for Bayern, “you have grip, and a rough landing feels almost soft.”
The Munich initiative is the result of a partnership, established in July, between BMW Munich and the club. The floor itself was developed in Bavaria and consists of two safety glass panels, each 5 mm thick and laminated with a safety film. The glass rests on an LED display that is itself mounted on “aluminum elements.” The results are described as uniform, elastic and shock-absorbing. A “deeply etched surface with embedded ceramic dots” provides the grip that Harris speaks of.
Image source: ASB Glass Floor
