Wait…..its Wednesday right? So why are LEDinside editors posting this? Due to the upcoming Chinese Moon Festival, we will not be in office from Sept. 15-16, 2016 and will not be updating our site during this time. So we’d like to wish all our readers Happy Chinese Moon Festival in advance, as we battle against natural elements caused by raging Super Typhoon Mernati in Taiwan.

Korea’s LED industry took off at a much later date than Japan or Taiwan, in fact it developed at around the same time as China, but has advanced at an accelerated rate. However, the country’s LED industry plummeted much sharply compared to Japan, China and Taiwan. The Korean LED industry development occurred in three phases the first was started by upstream LED manufacturers EE coined the “double E era”, followed by Samsung and LG’s entry during the peak of the Solid State Lighting (SSL) phase, followed by large scale withdraw from the market, in response to emerging Chinese LED industry.

Osram, a leading global lighting and technology company, has appointed Michael Flieger, 42, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Americas region. Flieger succeeds Grant Wright, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Osram’s Americas region in July 2015, and for the past year has maintained a dual role as CEO and CFO. Flieger will be responsible for the financial oversight and governance of Osram’s business operations in the Americas region.

Fremont, a city located in California, U.S. will be replacing 14,000 streetlights with LEDs in the next few months, as a citywide effort to slash energy costs and make streets safer for pedestrians at night, reported East Bay Times.

Following the LEDriving Xenarc headlight for the Audi A4 B7 which were introduced in 2014, Osram is now launching another full retrofit headlight. The LEDriving Xenarc Golf VI Edition can not only be used to update the lighting technology of the VW which is popular with tuners, but it will also give the car a modern and dynamic look. The three versions of the LEDriving Xenarc Edition, GTI, Black and Chrome, will be first showcased at the 2016 Automechanika from September 13 to 17 in hall 3.0, booth D15, and will initially be available exclusively at the Essen Motor Show in November this year. 

Cree announces a completely new portfolio of next generation LED bulbs aimed at delivering better light experiences for consumers.  The new bulb portfolio consists of 25 new products, offering better light quality, better dimming, better lifetime, better warranty and better pricing to deliver on the true promise of LED technology to make lighting better than it was before.

Lumileds introduced FreshFocus Technology for bread & pastries, LEDs used to show food items in their most appetizing light. FreshFocus Technology is part of the LUXEON Stylist Series, Lumileds transformative line of LEDs designed to provide the perfect lighting environment for fashion retail, fresh food and restaurants.

With its new Night Breaker Laser halogen lamps, its redesigned halogen Ultra Life and new Xenarc Ultra Life series Osram is showcasing several new products for the replacement parts market at this year's Automechanika fair. “These products underline our pioneering role as a leading manufacturer in the automotive lighting sector and show that we are continuing to invest in the important replacement parts market and in traditional technologies”, said Terje Noevig, Head of Automotive Aftermarket at Osram, emphasizing the significance of the innovative lamps that will be on display at Automechanika from September 13 to 17 (booth D15, Hall 3.0). 

v2 Lighting Group, an innovator in modern, specification grade LED lighting, expanded their range of lighting solutions by introducing the catenary mounting accessory. This robust, weatherproof solution for suspending v2 pendant and surface mount fixtures to a catenary system, is perfect for beautiful, open-space lighting applications.

Three decorative LED luminaires from Acuity Brands were selected to receive a 2016 Lighting for Tomorrow (LFT) award. The annual competition was created in 2002 to recognize the best decorative, energy-efficient luminaires in the market, and is organized by the American Lighting Association, the Consortium for Energy Efficiency and Underwriters Laboratories.

Rubicon Technology announced plans to cease all production activities and shut down its Penang, Malaysia facility. Production activities at the Penang facility are expected to cease by Nov. 30, 2016, with the shutdown of the facility to be completed by the end of the year. The Company’s Malaysia facility has been primarily engaged in producing polished and patterned substrates for the LED market and the decision was made in order for the Company to focus on the optical and industrial sapphire market for the foreseeable future.

MLS board recently nominated Guoqing Tang, a seasoned professional in China’s LED industry, as one of the company’s independent director.

Advanced optical material specialist Pixelligent is ramping up its deployment strategy in Asia, and set up a new office in Taoyuan, Taiwan two months ago, said the company CEO Craig Bandes in an exclusive interview with LEDinside.

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, today announced its YellowDot program, opening its indoor positioning technology to work with LED luminaires from other lighting companies. The YellowDot program allows manufacturers to test and certify their LED luminaires to work with Philips’ indoor positioning technology, and is supported by the planned launch of three YellowDot Ready LED drivers (60, 100 and 150W) in Europe by end of the year. This move follows successful system launches in Europe and Middle-East, and addresses the growing demand from LED luminaire and retail customers for lighting based indoor positioning technology.

Veeco Instruments announced that HC SemiTek Corporation, one of China's leading solid state lighting manufacturers, has ordered multiple TurboDisc® EPIK™ 700 GaN (Gallium Nitride) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems and the TurboDisc K475i™ As/P (Arsenic Phosphide) MOCVD System for production of LEDs.

Seoul Semiconductor announced on Sept. 11, 2016 that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit together with its affiliate company, Seoul Viosys, against Kmart in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Kmart is one of the largest global retail companies with approximately 1,000 stores in the U.S., and whose annual revenues total US$25 billion.

Seeking to add a leading comprehensive suite of smart city solutions enabled by its ThingSpace internet of things (IoT) platform to help communities increase economic development, drive citizen engagement and enable sustainability, Verizon Communications announced it has signed an agreement to purchase Sensity Systems, a private company based in Sunnyvale, California.

Almost as elusive as unicorns, finding practical materials for invisibility cloaking is challenging. Michigan Technological University researchers have new ideas how to solve that.

MAC Group is pleased to announce a new U.S. distribution agreement with California-based Light & Motion for their line of Stella Single-Point LED lights and lighting kits.

Shenzhen AOTO Electronics has invested in AV Stumpfl® Wings Engine Raw 8K uncompressed super media servers to showcase core content for all customer presentations, exhibitions and trade shows globally.

At the leading international trade fair for the automobile industry in Frankfurt Osram is showcasing new products and innovative developments in the aftermarket sector

LCD display manufacturer Japan Display Inc. (JDI) developed an ultra-thin bezel LCD that is merely millimeters thick, which could greatly increase smartphone makers design flexibility, reported Nikkei.

A Xiamen-based Chinese technology company (厦门市钛科创科技有限公司) has alerted LED manufacturers of a U.S. LED T8 tube light patent that companies should avoid infringing on in its LED patent thread on social platform WeChat.

Korean LED manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor has filed a lawsuit against Kmart, claiming the American retail franchise was selling LED products that violated its patents, reported The Korea Herald.

The TIDA-01096 TI design is a tested DC-DC LED driver sub system for tunable white LED luminaires. It is built-on a wireless SoC platform which can enable intensity adjustment (dimming) and co-related color temperature (CCT) control using any BLE smart device. Tunable white light luminaires simulate daylight conditions. With a separate warm-white and cold-white LED string, it allows CCT tuning and thereby helps achieving proper circadian stimulation. TI design TIDA-01096 provides high efficiency DC-DC conversion and allows dimming and color temperature control over more than 1:50 and 1:500 range using analog and PWM methods.

Serenity LED, a leader in the LED lighting industry, has announced that they have hired a new chief executive officer, Anthony Bianco. Bianco, the former president of Supreme Lobster & Seafood, has emerged from retirement to take over business development and day-to-day management of Serenity LED.

MaxLite has been committed to providing energy efficient lighting products for more than 20 years, and was one of the first movers into LED technology in the industry. A four-time ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year, MaxLite offers an extensive line of quality, certified indoor and outdoor LED lamps Situated in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., the recently opened Embassy Suites by Hilton Pittsburgh Downtown houses Elevation restaurant, a modern American bistro with panoramic views of the city.

Gabrielle Serriere, Senior Lighting Designer at ARCHITECTURE & LIGHT, a veteran designer in the lighting industry with more than 11 years of experience shares in this Soraa blog entry how to light up art galleries.

GlacialPower, a division of LED technology manufacturer GlacialTech Inc, is pleased to announce a new LED Driver, the GP-HS35P-48CA, with a rated power output of up to 33.6W for LED lights from 33 to 48V. This new driver offers energy saving features and a smooth output waveform with low distortion, and it closely follows EU and other directives for safety and energy efficiency. With its compact, durable design that avoids the common maintenance issues that affect competing products, GlacialPower's newest IP67 rated LED driver is ideal for interior and exterior applications. Nominal input voltage range is 100 to 277VAC, with a maximum input range of 90 to 305VAC.

The latest report from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, finds that LED chip suppliers raised their prices in August, slowing down the price decline for end products. Thus, prices of LED light bulbs will be on a stable trend in the short term.    “Compared with July, the global average sales price (ASP) of 40-watt equivalent LED light bulbs fell just 0.4% in August to US$9.4,” said LEDinside analyst Allen Yu. “The global ASP of 60-watt equivalent LED light bulbs also dropped 0.3% to US$12.8.”