Albion are not just stepping up one division next season, they are leaping into a whole new world.

A world of Section K and PLP.

Where even the position of the sun matters to satisfy a global glare.

Welcome to the Premier League.

There is nothing quite like it and nothing can fully prepare you for it.

Not even for a club like Albion with an impressive stadium and training ground, and key members of staff with heavyweight CV's.

Their watchword had been 'Premier League Ready'. They are more ready than most but there are still new challenges to face, a staggering level of scrutiny bearing no resemblance to the world they have been inhabiting in the Championship.

South coast cousins Bournemouth have already been on the same journey for two seasons, with a third guaranteed by Saturday's 2-2 draw at home to Stoke (below).

The Argus: Albion start with an advantage. The six-year-old, 30,750 capacity Amex holds almost three times as many supporters as Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium, or Dean Court as it used to be known, their home since 1910.

Even so, as The Argus revealed last month, the Seagulls are still having to spend £5.5 million to upgrade the Amex to the Premier League's demanding standards, primarily to improve broadcast facilities and the floodlights.

Liz Finney, Bournemouth's general manager said: "The Amex is a great stadium, it's lovely. I've been there and seen the facilities, they are amazing.

"We don't have much space. Our footprint is really small, so there was quite a lot for us to do.

"I am sure the people at Brighton are poring over Section K of the Premier League regulations as we speak. That all relates to broadcasting requirements. That was our focus really.

"As we did better we had more and more TV games. So we had temporary camera positions in when we knew we were going to have a game.

"Those positions then became permanent and there were further positions we had to put in place.

"Our TV gantry had to almost double. We had international press requirements as well as UK press requirements in terms of seats, so we had to move 140 season ticket holders. That was tricky."

Albion are building a second broadcast studio. It is no longer just about Sky Sports, who screened 18 of their Championship matches live this season.

The Premier League has its own television company, Premier League Productions, a dedicated 24-hour channel broadcasting games to 185 countries all over the planet.

The Argus: Finney (above right) said: "We have a match manager, provided by the Premier League. They are there to make sure everything goes smoothly. Our press officer, Anthony Marshall, liaises with them closely on a match day.

"Lots of emails come through in the run-up to the game, where they are setting up arrival times for riggers, the camera positions being used, how many international press have requirements. All those things build up towards a game.

"The challenges around broadcasting were huge, the cabling, we had to build a studio.

"An issue for them was the positioning of the ground and the sun, so we did a really detailed report. The main gantry is in the east stand and the sun shines straight across into the main camera.

"We had to map the trajectory of the sun and see where it would impact.

"I can't quite believe we had to. We did everything bar changing the course of the sun. That was something we really couldn't do!

"Now we have put up a solar shade. They need the end product to be good as it possibly can be."

Natural light is not the only issue. Albion need stronger floodlights now to satisfy the requirements of a worldwide broadcasting operation.

Finney said: "It's a big jump from the Championship. We'd increased our floodlighting anyway for the Championship but the lux requirement for the Premier League is almost double.

"The broadcasters want vertical and horizontal lighting. That was a challenge. We employed our own lighting consultant to assist us.

"We went the LED route for floodlighting and we negotiated with the Premier League so that we did a stepped implementation.

"We kept our stanchions in the corner, we put LED luminaires on there and also on the roof and underneath the edge of the roof. We got to a good level for season one in the Premier League and then last summer we upgraded again."

Albion's match-to-match operation, like Bournemouth, will not change much. Both became accustomed to near-capacity crowds in the Championship, so staff increases will be minimal, although the Seagulls recently launched a modest-scale recruitment drive for stewards and retail, stadium, family stand and supporters services assistants.

Finney added: "The Premier League are great, they work with you. I'm sure Brighton will have had a visit from Sky and Premier League Productions. "That's the biggest thing all-round with the Premier League. In the Football League you are one of 72 clubs and in the Premier League you are one of 20.

"They will work with you much more closely in most areas. The regulations are regulations, they are not guidelines, but again they are very supportive and we found going into the Premier League the other clubs are really helpful."

* In part two tomorrow, the commerical contrasts between the Premier League and Championship