Today Current, powered by GE (NYSE: GE), announced the acquisition of Daintree Networks, an Industrial Internet provider of building controls solutions for commercial facilities. This acquisition will enable Current to expand its building automation platform and its energy-as-a-service offering to small- and medium-size facilities through the deployment of Daintree’s open, standards-based wireless control systems.

LEDinside has released two important research reports this week, in case you missed our research director Roger Chu’s talk at Taiwan International Lighting Show 2016 (TILS 2016) last week, you can find the complete summary of his talk from the contracting Chinese LED chip market piece. In addition, the company has unveiled the top 10 LED package manufacturer rankings in 2015. Nichia has defended the top ranking position, and Everlight edged up one spot. Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Lite-On has also squeezed into the top 10 rankings for the first time, for more details please see below.

Greg McNevin sheds light in this Greenpeace blog entry how LEDs are illuminating invisible radiation levels in Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

Today, the U.S. Senate passed the Energy Policy Modernization Act by a vote of 85-12. This vote comes four months after a December 3, 2015, vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on its comprehensive energy legislation, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act.

Opposition party Projet Montréal in Canada is asking the city to halt its CA$ 110 million project to replace 110,000 streetlights with LEDs lights over health risk and light pollution concerns, reported Montreal Gazette.

Due to an ongoing positive business development in the second quarter the managing board of OSRAM Licht AG raises the revenue and profit outlook for fiscal year 2016.

Daintree Networks®, the leader in open networked wireless control, sensing and Enterprise Internet of Things™ solutions for smart buildings, and North American lighting leader OSRAM SYLVANIA, today announced their collaboration to enable out-of-the-box wirelessly controlled LED fixtures. The OSRAM Connected Lighting Module (CLM) is certified to work with Daintree Networks’ ControlScope® open networked wireless control solution, which further expands the availability of open standards-based controllable luminaires and facilitates the Enterprise Internet of Things (E-IoTTM).

The AT&T Center, home to the award-winning San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the San Antonio Spurs, Stars, and Rampage, shines a little brighter. As part of a $110 million infrastructure and technology renovation project, new state-of-the-art light-emitting diode (LED) lighting was installed at the Bexar County-owned arena. The LEDs maximize energy efficiency and enhance the entertainment experience at the venue.

Policymakers, business leaders and financiers agreed that the global transition to energy efficient lighting solutions such as LEDs is an unprecedented opportunity, at a global event which took place in Vijayawada in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, on April 7-8.

Company representatives from LiteOn, China Electric and Monocrystal urged Taiwanese LED manufacturers to direct resources to develop niche market products, instead of developing products in the overtly competitive general lighting and application markets during a press conference for the upcoming lighting show LED Taiwan at Taipei World Trade Center Club, Taiwan. 

Cornawall, a city in eastern Ontario, Canada, is expected to complete the upgrade of 5,000 LED streetlights by the end of 2016, reported Seaway News.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C78 published ANSI C78.374-2015 Light-Emitting Diode Package Specification Sheet for General Illumination Applications. The purpose of this new standard is to specify the standardized white light-emitting diode (LED) package specification sheet, or data reporting format, as the means of communication between LED package producers and users in general illumination applications. The minimum defined contents and format of the specification sheet are provided. 

As crews installed the 30,000th energy efficient L.E.D. (light emitting diode) streetlight fixture of a planned 50,000 units in Hempstead Town, Supervisor Anthony J. Santino detailed energy cost savings associated with the major project.  At the same time, Santino “illuminated” residents on the expansion of planet friendly/cost saving the initiative to include the conversion of 17,000 interior light fixtures at town facilities.  Joining the Supervisor at a press briefing on Hamilton Avenue in Island Park was Councilman Anthony D’Esposito, along with Ricky Tripodo of Facility Solutions Group (FSG), a private sector partner that is converting streetlight elements in tandem with town work crews.

Royal Philips has listed six banks and filed draft documents to the Dutch market regulator for a possible IPO for its lighting division as it proceeds the sale of the lighting business, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

Highlights this week: Apple has dropped Osram Licht from its list of top 200 suppliers and added Royal Philips to its supply chain, ahead of the release of the iPhone 7.

The procurement price of LED bulbs may have hit a record low at INR 54.90 (US $0.82), and it could continue to drop as Indian government promotes energy-efficient technology across the country.

LG Display announced that the company has inked a deal to construct a display module assembly factory in Hai Phong, Vietnam, reported Reuters.

German lighting giant Osram’s spin-off of its lamps business into LEDVANCE has completed organizational separation as of April 1, 2016, while the legal separation is scheduled in July 1, 2016. Many lighting vendors have been competing for a chunk of Osram’s lamp business, which LEDinside projects details of the acquisition transaction will become clearer from late April to late May 2016, including the offered price from various bidders, developments of vendors granted priority rights, and other conditions involved in the talks of the separation of LEDvance. Besides weighing in on the potential acquisitor of the lamp business and conditions under the procurement, the deal is under the lime light of the entire lighting and LED business.

NEMA’s Lighting Systems Shipments Index, a measure of demand for lighting equipment, decreased 2.6% quarter-to-quarter while posting a 0.1% increase year-over-year during 4Q15. Fixtures, emergency lighting, and miniature lamp, components of the index, gained ground on a year-over-year basis, while ballast and large lamp, components recorded year-over-year declines.

Dame Zaha Hadid, the renowned Iraqi-born architect, who designed the London Olympic Aquatic Centre, has died after a heart attack, reported the Telegraph.

Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc., together with its parent company, Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (TNSC), has announced that the Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC), the world renowned research center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, installed an SR-4000HT grade gallium nitride (GaN) metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor for its continued compound semiconductor device developmental work for UVCLED. SSLEEC is co-directed by Nobel Prize-winning Professor Shuji Nakamura and Professor Steven DenBaars.

The city of Phoenix in Arizona, U.S. is asking for public input on the appearance and use of energy-efficient LED technology for street and park lighting.

NEMA’s Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America surged in March, climbing to 64.7 from 44.4 the previous month as more panelists reported conditions improved than eroded. Compared to February, a larger share of the survey panel reported that business conditions improved (41% in March compared to 22% in February) and a smaller share reported that they deteriorated (12% in March compared to 33% in February). Forty-seven percent claimed conditions were unchanged in March, similar to the share holding this view a month ago.

As LED lights are generally considered to be an ideal replacement for conventional HPS lamps for its high efficiency and low maintenance, complaints about these overtly bright energy-saving lights from residential areas across U.S. has been quite common.

Stirling Council is set to save GBP 31 million (US$44.57 million) over the next 30 years by installing energy saving streetlights.

Smoke and flame shot from Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar’s plant in Northern Taiwan last night. The source of the fire was located at the waste water tank next to the parking lot at B2 (second level in the basement) in the company’s N3 plant. The fire started at around 6 PM and was soon under control. There were zero casualties, no one was wounded. The fire has no impact on the company finances and sales.

Investor lawsuits have caused Foshan Lighting’s net profits to plummet 79.93% in 2015 to RMB 53 million (US $8.15 million), while annual revenue dropped 6.26% YoY to RMB 2.88 billion, according to a company statement.

ETI announced recently that the company board’s Independent Director Jing Guo Jiang has resigned, due to personal reasons.

Shanghai Felio Acoustics rebutted misleading reports claiming its affiliated company INESA is building a new LED plant in France that could create 200 to 300 new jobs in the country.

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it won a patent infringement lawsuit regarding LED backlight lens technology against Japanese lens maker Enplas.