Bocce ball is the new hip underground sport slowly becoming more mainstream as bars are including bocce courts, and its becoming a staple of any gathering. Now when the lights go low, the bocce won't have to stop when you have these LED bocce balls. Included in the set are nine colored balls in white, yellow, red, green and blue that all have embedded LEDs.

Delta Electronics, Inc. announced it has developed an advanced, energy-saving High Brightness 5W/9W/12W LED Lamp, and will demonstrate the new lamp at the Light+Building 2008 exhibition in Frankfurt, April 06-11. The LED lamp is 100% compatible with current sockets (E27) and is similar in appearance to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) of the same wattage. The lamp is easily installed and readily replaces CFL and incandescent lamps.

The lights are a little whiter and a little brighter in part of St. Paul as part of an experiment with LED streetlights. The city's environmental policy director, Anne Hunt, says it is experimenting with the new lights because they are greener, last longer and cheaper to operate. Paul is following Austin, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska and Ann Arbor, Michigan, in installing the lights. A few smaller Minnesota cities have also tried them.

STMicroelectronics , a world leader in power applications, has introduced three monolithic step-up converters for LED backlights and lighting, providing 30mA or 85mA current sources for six rows of up to 10 white LEDs. The LED7706, LED7707 and mobile-optimized PM6600 include on-chip MOSFETs to reduce part count, and operate up to 1MHz to minimize filter components.

Jesco LED has released its new DL-Flex-Up series, a flexible 3/8" X 1/8" X 12" PCB with high output, 110 degree or 65 degree LEDs in three color temperatures. The colors available include 3000K, 4100K, and 6000K white with an outstanding evenness of distribution. The strips are modular with flat mini-plugs eliminating in-field soldering, and special controllers that provide the designer the means to install these mini-light sources in the tightest locations.

Energomera Corporation of Russia, owner of sapphire substrate manufacturer Monocrystal, has acquired Atlas PCF of Belgorodskaya obl, Russia. Like Monocrystal, Atlas also manufactures sapphire substrates for HB-LED and RFIC applications. Vladimir Polyakov, president and chairman of Energomera said, "The acquisition of Atlas gives rise to the largest synthetic sapphire crystal growing and processing company in the world in terms of production capacity. This is a part of our strategy to develop stronger presence in compound semiconductor market."

On April 4, 2008, Avago Technologies today announced its first 1-Watt (1W) high power Moonstone(TM) LED emitter for use in a variety of architectural, garden and decorative lighting applications. Available in one of the industry's thinnest packages, Avago's ASMT-Mx00 is an energy efficient LED emitter that's encapsulated in a heat and UV resistant silicone compound for high reliability and long life.

LED-backlit LCD TVs, enabled by Dolby Laboratories' High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, produce stunning pictures. Unclear, though, is how much consumers will have to pay for that kind of picture quality. "These products have been screaming to get out to a mass market," said Eric Haruki, research director for TV markets and technologies at IDC. But he cautioned that unless LED manufacturers can achieve the economies of scale and cut the cost of LEDs, "this could still remain a great white hope for awhile."

Marumi's little ring-light uses LEDs instead of a flash tube, which has a couple of advantages. You can preview the light's effect on the image, and batteries will last a lot longer. Digital photography means that the color of light doesn't matter nearly as much as it did with film, but mixed lighting can still cause problems. The LEDs on the Marumi are daylight balanced.

It's reported that St. Paul is trying to take on a whole new light. A block of St. Paul's Iowa Avenue, between Chatsworth and Milton Streets, is lit with light-emitting diode, or LED, streetlights. The lights are brighter and save on energy costs, but some worry about the lighting levels. The city is testing them to see whether they can cut energy use and maintenance costs.

Seekway has put together this spectacular 3D LED display, which is capable of displaying images in full 3D (duh) at an amazing, 30 fps. The prototype consists of a 16 x 16 x 16 grid of interconnected colour LEDs and if our mathematics doesn't fail us, that's 4096 individual diodes.

Carmanah Technologies Corporation has received an order to supply solar-powered portable airfield lights for Bariven S.A. in Venezuela, a subsidiary of PDVSA. The order, valued at over $800,000 USD, will provide the tools to equip Venezuela's Carupano Airport with a stand-alone system of solar-powered LED (light emitting diode) aviation lights.

Ann Arbor is installing its new energy-efficient LED streetlights one block at a time in its downtown district. Tree Town is also testing new ways to save more energy in the way it provides public light. One block at a time. That's how quickly Ann Arbor is changing its downtown street lights to more energy-efficient LED lights this year.The city's energy department recently started relamping the street lights and so far has three blocks (on Washington Street between 5th and Ashley streets) of new LEDs in place.

Sim2 Multimedia and Dolby unveiled here Monday evening one of the first prototype LCD TVs to employ LED backlighting driven by Dolby Labs' set of High Dynamic Range technologies for local dimming control.Representatives from Sim2 USA and parent Sim2 Multimedia present the first prototype of a Sim2 LED-back-lit LCD TV using Dolby's High Dynamic Range (HDR) local dimming technology to produce deep black levels and high brightness. From right: Sim2 USA's Giorgio Corazza and Charlie Boornazian and Sim2 Multimedia's Domenico Toffoli and Marco Rampin.

The World's Largest LED and Free-Hanging Chandelier will be illuminated by Meyda Lighting on Wednesday, April 2nd, at 6 PM, at the Stanley Center for the Arts in Utica, New York. Meyda Lighting, a Meyda Tiffany company and nation’s leading manufacturer of decorative lighting, recently installed the chandelier after nearly one year of planning and production in its manufacturing facilities.

Recently, Dolby and SIM2 shew off their LED Dynamic Backlight technology, which gives a TV extreme contrast. The 46-inch prototype shown in New York was an LCD panel with an LED backlight instead of a regular (CCFL) one. In fact, the set uses 1,838 LEDs to illuminate the picture, each individually controlled and able to dim in areas so black areas stay black (instead of dark gray, like on most other LCDs).

Multimode charge pump features low-noise constant-frequency operation, automatically optimising efficiency based on the voltages across the LED current sources.The LTC3220/-1 is an inductorless low-noise high-efficiency LED driver for cellphone displays and other programmable lighting applications. The Linear Technology IC provides 18 individually configurable LED current sources for complete flexibility in programming multiple displays. The display currents are set via a precision internal current reference.

Taiwan-based maker of backlight units (BLUs) for use in small- to medium-size panels, Shianyih Electronics, expects to increase its shipments of LED BLUs from 1.3 billion units in 2006 to 1.51 billion units in 2008, and the company has already received orders of LED BLUs for use in 2.5- and 3.5-inch backlights for car mirror applications this year.

Cree, Inc., a market leader in LED solid-state lighting, announces that the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) franchise in Northern Virginia, owned and operated by Wilhelm Restaurant Group, Inc., has adopted Cree LED lighting products as the preferred lighting for all existing and future restaurants. Since testing began in January, 2008: - More than 100 retrofit LR6 six-inch LED downlights have been   installed in two locations,- Six additional locations have retrofit plans in progress, and

Event and Entertainment Lighting solutions provider MattLX is inviting industry professionals to the MattLX Meet, Greet and Scenic LED event to be held on the 24th & 25th April 2008 at Unit F, Imber Court Trading Estate, Orchard Lane, East Molesey. Surrey KT8 0BY.

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) and SIM2 Multimedia are proud to showcase a new prototype high-dynamic-range (HDR)–enabled LCD flat-screen display using Dolby’s new light emitting diodes (LED) local dimming technology. Dolby’s HDR technologies utilize the capabilities of LED-based backlight units (BLUs) to provide outstanding contrast combined with crisp brightness to deliver picture quality that matches real-world visual perception of depth, detail, and color.

At-large Councilman Ronnie Steine has introduced a bill that will prohibit Light Emitting Diode (LED) signs in residential zoning districts.The bill is in response to the bogged-down piece of legislation fellow At-large Councilman Charlie Tygard had sponsored. Tygard's initial bill would have allowed LED signs such as the ones often seen at pharmacies to be used by religious institutions and schools in residential areas.

LED International Holdings Ltd. reported a much lower first-half pretax profit, as the company did not take up certain 'high-margin' orders due to the consolidation and moving of its key production plants in Shenzhen, China.The LED screen maker posted a pretax profit of about HK$2.62 million for the six months to Dec. 31, 2007, compared with about HK$13.68 million in 2006, on revenues of about HK$46.61 million, down from HK$55.48 million.

Functionality improvements to the LED Refrigerated Display Lighting System, an ecomagination product from Lumination, LLC, GE Consumer & Industrial's LED business, enable further energy savings for retailers in new and retrofit applications. Based on customer needs, Lumination technologists and engineers have redesigned the LED Refrigerated Display Case System to incorporate full dimming control and motion sensing.

Kansas City Power & Light Co. has installed energy-efficient LED lights to wash the bridge in color at night.Spring pastels can become red, white and blue for Independence Day and other colors for special events.In all, there are 1,224 LEDs clustered in 52 spotlights.It is the second such lighting installation the utility has done. The first was the Wornall Road Bridge on the Country Club Plaza.

Troy-based ilumisys Inc. will begin work with the State of Michigan to provide light-emitting diode (LED) replacement lighting for fluorescent tubes and collect research data in the state's Escanaba office building.Over a 4-year period beginning this month, ilumisys plans to install three successive generations of LED lighting, each to replace 200 4-foot-long fluorescent tubes -- about 25% of those in the two-story, 31,000-square-foot building.

LUXEON power LEDs from Philips Lumileds are poised to rapidly increase their presence in front-of-vehicle applications with expected European Union regulations mandating daytime running lamps (DRLs) on new cars beginning in 2011. One of the major factors driving LUXEON use will be the dramatic reduction in DRL power consumption (Watts), (on the order of 80%), made possible by energy-efficient LUXEON technology.

Various lighting products are offered by Lightech Australia under categories like fibre optic lighting, LED lighting and lighting control. The products included in fibre optic lighting are fibre optic fundamentals, fibre optic control, fibre optic cables, fibre optic cable specs and fibre optic light sources.LED lighting has LED lighting fundamentals, LED control, LED strips and LED fixtures. Products under lighting control are Dynalite and system integration.

Design LED Products Ltd has moved into new offices within the Alba Innovation Centre in Livingston. The move gives Design LED the capacity to expand its design, sales and product marketing teams in the coming months.

The U.S. Air Force wants to shed new light on landing sites used for rapid response and expeditionary missions - and RTP-based Cyberlux is delivering a soluion based on light-emitting diode technology.The United States Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) carried out field testing of a new LED product, created by Cyberlux  (OTC Bulletin Board: CYBL)  this week at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.The new BrightEye 4M Tower Portable Illumination System meets specs outlined by AMC for both standard white lighting and covert night-vision lighting modes.