Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Sports Complex, Jakarta, Indonesia

Bung Karno Sports Arena, known as Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, formerly named Senayan Sports Arena from 1969 to 2001 and Asian Games Complex on its early days, is a sports complex located in Gelora, Central Jakarta, Indonesia. It is usually misperceived to be located at Senayan, South Jakarta, hence its former name. The sports complex hosts main stadium, secondary stadium, the Sports Palace, hockey stadiums, football fields, aquatic stadium, tennis stadiums (indoor and outdoor), baseball and archery fields, and several indoor gymnasiums. The complex was built in 1960 for the 1962 Asian Games and recently underwent a major reconstruction for the 2018 Asian Games and Asian Para Games.

Alongside hockey, the sports complex hosts a main stadium with a capacity of 77,193 seats, athletic stadium, football fields, aquatic stadium, tennis stadiums (indoor and outdoor), baseball and archery fields, and several indoor gymnasiums. It is named after Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president and the sitting president during its development and initial opening. It is the largest and one of the oldest sport complexes in Indonesia, and also one of the largest in Southeast Asia. The Gelora Bung Karno Stadium is the main building within this sports complex. The abbreviation Gelora also means “vigorous” (like the flame or ocean wave) in Indonesian language.

For the first time, the sports complex hosted fourth Asian Games in 1962. Recently, the hockey stadium hosted the 2018 Asian Games and the AHF Cup hockey championship most recently, and it is about to host the Hero Asia Cup 2022 and the Women’s Asian Games Qualifiers in May and June 2022 simultaneously. Apart from hockey, the main stadium hosted the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. Other competitions held there were several AFF Championship finals and domestic cup finals. The Istora hosted numbers of BWF World Championships, Sudirman Cup, Thomas Cup and Uber Cup badminton competitions. The tennis stadium hosted most of Indonesia’s home matches at the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.

The sports complex hosted multi-event sport such as Pekan Olahraga Nasional (PON, National Sports Week) and Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games). The complex hosted the PON seven times between 1973 and 1996. The complex hosted the SEA Games in 1979, 1987, 1997 and 2011; the latter was co-hosted with Jakabaring Sport City complex in Palembang. It also hosted 2018 Asian Games along with Palembang’s complex and some other venues across Palembang, Banten, Greater Jakarta and West Java, while it served only with other venues across Greater Jakarta and West Java during the subsequent Para Games.

Other than hosting numbers of sports facilities, the sports complex is also a popular place for people of Jakarta to do physical exercises, jogging, bicycling, aerobics and calisthenics especially during weekend.

Due to the Asian Games approaching, they decided to refurb every inch of the stadium, including the architectural lighting and even the pedestrian sidewalks.

As a result, the sidewalks were made to be more spacious and well-lit with LED streetlamps using a Pharos control system.

As well as the stadium, both use a Pharos LPC 80 to control the LED lighting system with 3,500 lux of power which is three times brighter than before, this system saves over 50 percent of their electricity.

Pharos LPC 80 offers an extreme level of power and integration for the significant channel counts. This controller offers remote management; so that the team can access the browser and manage their installation simply with their mobile phone.

With the Pharos control system in place, the Asian games opened and saw Gelora Bung Karno Stadium was illuminated. Montreal based lighting designer Yves Aucoin delivered a profound lighting display for both opening and closing ceremonies illustrating the heritage of Indonesia.

This history and legacy enrich, enchanting land of the spirit of sport – Jakarta – is where our young athletes will shine in the current 11th edition of Hero Asia Cup 2022.