Avnet, a major global technology distributor, announced that Avnet Illumineer Bob Householder will be among the featured course instructors at this year’s LIGHTFAIR International (LFI), May 7-8, 2017, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia. LFI is the world’s largest annual commercial lighting conference and trade show.

Apart from reporting its third-quarter financial results, Cree, Inc. on Tuesday also announced that it is forming a joint venture with San’an Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. to produce and deliver to market high-performing, mid-power lighting class LED packaged products in an exclusive arrangement to serve the expanding markets of North and South America, Europe and Japan, and serve China and the rest of the world on a non-exclusive basis.

Cree, Inc. on Tuesday announced financial results for its third quarter of fiscal 2017, ended March 26, 2017, which missed Wall Street expectations. Shares of Cree declined over 7% in after-hours trade.

Osram announced the availability of SIMPLUX™, a simple standalone wireless lighting control system designed for small- to mid-sized spaces up to 10,000 square feet and/or up to 100 nodes. For maximum design flexibility, SIMPLUX enables specifiers to choose virtually any manufacturer’s luminaire that has a 0-10V dimmable ballast or LED driver, and deliver fixture-by-fixture or full group control as needed. SIMPLUX also offers an easy upgrade path to POLARIS 3D software and the ENCELIUM® networked light management system for more sophisticated, enterprise-level control or integration to building automation systems via BACNet®. 

Philips Lighting announced that MediaMarkt’s flagship store in the center of Eindhoven will introduce "Store Guide” app.  It allows customers in store to use their smartphones to locate products and be guided to them quickly and easily thanks to innovative LED lighting that acts as an indoor positioning system.  

NTT DOCOMO, INC., in a continuing quest to create innovative new business, has developed a spherical drone display - an unmanned aerial vehicle that displays LED images on an omnidirectional spherical screen while in flight - which DOCOMO believes to be a world first (as of April 16, 2017).

The Brecon Beacons National Park, one of the three national parks in Wales, UK, has earned special protection of its night sky from light pollution and is an ideal place for stargazing. However, for the sake of safety, the Welsh Government recently installed LED street lights in Cwmdu, Powys, leaving a campaign group concerned. 

Ricoh USA, Inc. announced the addition of EFI's H1625 LED and VUTEk® H2000 Pro hybrid roll/flatbed wide format printers to its growing wide format portfolio through a reseller agreement with EFI™. This new partnership is part of Ricoh's ongoing efforts to better serve customers looking to add or enhance capabilities in the fast-growing wide-format segment. 

At the 2017 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, Leyard, a global leader in visualization products, and Planar, a Leyard company, launched the Leyard® LED MultiTouch, the industry’s first seamless LED touch-enabled video wall. This proprietary multi-touch solution revolutionizes interactivity for narrow pixel pitch LED video walls without the disadvantages of front glass—offering a seamless, smooth, lightweight and durable LED touch surface that delivers superior visual performance enabled by the patent-pending Leyard® PLTS™ (Pliable LED Touch Surface™) technology.

The Optoelectronics group of Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. has introduced a new series of super red, red, amber, and yellow ultrabright LEDs in compact untinted surface-mount packages with dome lenses. Utilizing the latest ultrabright AllnGaP on Si chip technology, the space-saving Vishay Semiconductors VLD.1535.. series delivers extremely high brightness with luminous intensity to 14000 mcd and an emission angle of ± 22° without the need for an external lens.

Along with the escalating competition in the OLED industry, strategic investments and capital operations among large enterprises were growing more frequent in 2016 when a large number of excellent OLED brands rose rapidly. The year of 2017 will be the inflexion for significant growth in the global OLED market when Asian panel makers from Korea, China and Japan that represent the makers of the world will become the fulcrum for the development of OLED across the entire industry chain, which will promote the innovation in the display industry all over the world.  &n...

Ultratech, Inc. a supplier of lithography, laser-processing and inspection systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices and high-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs), announced unaudited results for the three-month period ended April 1, 2017.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday the first span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge will open to drivers between Brooklyn and Queens on Thursday, April 27. 

Philips Lighting announced the company’s 2017 first quarter results on Friday, which showed improvement in comparable sales growth, continued increase in operational profitability and free cash flow.

High Power Lighting (HPLighting) is a major UV and IR LED vendor. Over the years, HPLighiting has worked closely with chip vendors and focused on LED packages and optical design. The company has successfully developed UV and IR LEDs based on its competitive advantages. At OPIE’17, LEDinside interviewed Charles Wei, General Manager of HPLighting, to learn about HPLighting’s progress of UV and IR LED technologies.

Alabama Power is partnering with Signature Homes, Southern Company, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and technology vendors to introduce Smart Neighborhood™ by Alabama Power.

Beaverstate Dental Systems (BDS) announces the release of their new L-series LED patient light. "We have designed an operatory light that provides all the advantages of an LED, while remaining in the comparable price range of a halogen," states BDS President Rick Whitman. "We excel at offering more bang for the buck, each and every time. It doesn't have to cost you more to get a long-lived, reliable product. Our L-Series is low wattage, with a 5,000-5,500 K color temperature. With multiple mounting configurations and 3-Axis head rotation, our LED lends itself to increased flexibility."

This Tuesday (April 18th, 2017), Samsung Electronics (SAMSUNG), the second largest LED chip manufacturer, successfully held the 2017 “SAMSUNG LED New Product and Technology Seminar” in Shanghai Marriott Hotel Pudong East. The seminar discussed topics on medium power LED, high power LED, CSP, COB, filament LED, and LED’s future development trend.

Nan Ya Photonics Incorporation (NYPI), a leading LED lighting manufacturer, has begun to develop system products over the past two years. The company removed its mid-to-upstream LED production lines in 2016. In order to operate in coordination with the government’s green energy policies and expand revenue, NYPI conducted transformation in 2H16 and entered the green energy industry. LEDinside had the privilege to interview the vice president of NYPI, Jung-huang Lo, to discuss about NYPI’s transformation process and its future business direction.

Luminus Devices, Inc., a global manufacturer of high-performance LEDs and solid-state light sources, announced its superior alternative to metal halide, the Gen 2 XH Series chipon-board (COB) LED array. With substantial increases in light output and density, as well as color rendering, Luminus’ Gen 2 XH Series directly addresses the requirements of lighting designers and retailers for punch and the ability to create dramatic scenes.

Future Farm Technologies Inc. (the "Company" or "Future Farm") (OTCQB: FFRMF) is pleased to announce that it is sold out of its exclusive line of Scorpion LED COB Grow Lights, which recently passed Intertek's ETL certification process. Intertek is one of the world's largest testing, inspection and certification companies and its ETL Mark is proof of product compliance to North American safety standards. With the ETL testing complete, Future Farm is now able to implement its planned sales and marketing strategy into the fast growing North American cannabis cultivation market.

Power management company Eaton announced that it’s being recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a 2017 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award winner. The Sustained Excellence Award is the result of the company being named for the third consecutive year and Eaton is the first lighting luminaire manufacturer to receive this distinguished honor since 2009.

Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVLT) (“Revolution Lighting”), a global provider of advanced LED lighting solutions, announced it has opened a new state of the art facility in Simi Valley, California, expanding the warehouse and production space for its industry leading LED technologies, including its high performance Buy American Act (BAA) and Trade Agreements Act (TAA) compliant LED tubes.

Situated in Dubai’s Business Bay District, a short stroll from The Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa, Steinberger a cosmopolitan hotel with a German touch is the first property from the Deutsche Hospitality brand in the GCC region, featuring elegant and stylish designs with aristocratic ambience, the newly opened 5-star Hotel meets the demands of both leisure combined with German precision and efficiency. 

Among the possible new technologies to be incorporated in this year’s refresh of the iPhone series, 3D sensing has generated a lot of interests in terms of applications. A 3D sensing solution requires an RGB camera module an infrared (IR) sensor module that uses VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) as a light source. With more high-end smartphones adopt 3D sensing, TrendForce estimates that the worldwide market scale of IR sensor modules for mobile devices will reach US$145 million in 2017.

Apple is said to start producing a small amount of Micro LED displays from a plant in northern Taiwan by the end of 2017 and use them on its new Apple Watch, according to a recent report published by Taiwan’s Taipei Times. 

Extron Inc., the North American manufacturer and distributor of Knurr electronics enclosures, control room consoles, and mobile carts, recently rolled out new capabilities for the design and integration of advanced air cooling and lighting solutions for its line of 19" network server enclosures and custom electronics enclosures.  

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) recently received top honors from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the design of its corporate headquarters at 101 Huntington Ave., making it the largest project in New England and 12th largest in the nation by square footage to be LEED® Platinum certified out of nearly 3,300 projects. Blue Cross received the LEED Platinum certification using LEED CIv2009 – Commercial Interiors criteria.

There is no better time to acknowledge how your choices impact the protection of the environment than during Earth Awareness Month, observed in April each year since 1970. Earth Awareness Month, which culminates with the celebration of Earth Day on April 22, is celebrated to demonstrate support of environmental concerns and remind citizens to appreciate our precious planet Earth. 

Wipro Lighting, part of Wipro Enterprises (P) Ltd., India’s leading LED lighting company, announced that it has won the prestigious Red Dot Award: Product Design 2017 for its lighting product – VERGE LED, in the product design category.