Since lasers were invented more than 50 years ago, they have transformed a diverse swath of technology -- from CD players to surgical instruments.

In October of 2015 the City of Albuquerque in New Mexico, U.S., through the Department of Municipal Development and Department of Accounting and Financial Services/ Purchasing Division, released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the evaluation and implementation of energy efficiency and reduced maintenance project for city owned street lighting. After much review of all proposals received, Citelum Group was selected as the winning bidder. As part of their contract, Citelum will evaluate and develop a plan to convert approximately 19,000 city-owned street lights to LED.

With up to 103 lumens per watt, and 32,000-97,000 delivered lumens, it is possible to reduce the overall number of luminaires needed per high mast setup when compared to traditional HID technologies.  This not only reduces energy-related costs but maintenance and initial project costs as well.

Elation Professional has added to its family of LED strobes with the new Protron 3K Color™, a high-power LED strobe light featuring 240 x CREE™ XLamp™ 3W RGBW LEDs and 40,000 lumens of power for an explosion of color. The Protron 3K Color not only packs a powerful punch of colored light - and without thermal issues - it provides a much better ROI compared to conventional 3K Xenon strobes on the market.

The robust TALEXXmodule RLE OTD EXCITE 2x4/ 2x8 HP high-performance modules stand for a durable lighting system which, thanks to an efficiency of up to 161 lm/W and 4 kV overvoltage protection, offers impressive performance both in outdoor and industrial applications in an extended temperature range from -40 to +105 °C. The modules have passed the test carried out in an environment of saltwater and fog according to IEC 60068-2-52 and are also resistant to hydrogen sulfide (GR-1217-CORE).

ZEDGE Materials Inc. (“ZEDGE”), a Taiwan-based company with focus on inventing hitech materials for LED lighting and other industrial products, successfully launched its proprietary thermal radiation material at the Light + Building Fair Frankfurt (“the Fair”) 2016. The material, which consists of a simple ceramic based coating applied on the LED substrate, is innovatively designed to replace the function of heat sink in high power LED lighting (bay light, down light, street lamp, light engines, etc).

Google (also known as Alphabet) has patented a display that can be ripped and disposed, according to Mesh Republic and numerous reports.

LG Display will be investing another KRW 140 billion (US $123 million) into mass producing OLED panels for lighting during first half of 2017, reported Nikkei Asian Review.

Japanese advertisement network MicroAd recently sent 25 LED-lit drones to the sky as lighting performance. Together the drones created breath-taking light display that integrated with the culture’s traditional musical instruments Shamisens rhythms, reported PC mag.

Cree a leader in LED lighting, announced that it has reached a confidential settlement in its patent infringement lawsuit with Harvatek. Harvatek has agreed to a royalty bearing, worldwide license to the Cree patents-in-suit, thereby ending the lawsuit between the parties. Harvatek will pay Cree a license issue fee and ongoing royalties as part of the license agreement.

Dutch lighting giant Philips will be shutting down its only fluorescent bulb factory in Thailand by next quarter and lay off in total 200 workers at the plant, reported The Nation.

Ford, America’s truck leader and the only automaker to offer an available factory-installed strobe warning LED light kit, is making strobe lights available to F-150 fleet customers for the first time.

Aura Light has taken a step into the future with its new Indico LED road and street light luminaire. The innovative exterior lighting solution not only breathes a stylish and contemporary design but incorporates intelligent features to create an advanced street lighting scheme.

Today Philips Lighting, a Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) company and global leader in lighting, releases the much-anticipated new Philips Hue gen 2 app for iOS and Android. With a fresh new design and intuitive interface, the new Philips Hue gen 2 app now features ‘Rooms’ meaning that you can group all of the lights in one room together to control them all at the same time; ‘Routines’ which are light schedules you create to support your daily activities; and ‘Scenes’ which extract the color palette from any picture to create a unique atmosphere personal to you. Through the new home dashboard, you can see an overview of all the lights across your home, and also switch them all on, off or to dim them with just a tap or a swipe.

As previously communicated, Philips continues to simultaneously prepare for an initial public offering (IPO) or a private sale of Philips Lighting. With equity markets’ sentiment improving compared to the first couple of months of the year, an IPO increasingly appears a more likely outcome, subject to further market developments and other relevant circumstances.

Many products being showcased at LED Expo Thailand 2016 that took place from April 19-22, 2016 in Bangkok attracted more attention than others. Filament LED bulb is one of the most popular items, though it has only been introduced to the market a few years ago. Be it Taiwanese manufacturers, Chinese luminaire makers, Thai manufacturers and foreign companies   such as Philips, the launch of filament LEDs washed over Thailand’s lighting market. Aside from local labels that had entered the well-known local channel, HomePro, buyers are mainly distributors, contractors and tenders.

Augsburg, an university town in south Germany now can call itself a safer city for the so-called "smartphone zombies" as it is to officially embed LED lights to the road to display traffic lights to pedestrians that bury their head in the mobile, reoprted Sputnik Germany.

Nichia and researchers from AIST have developed the first standard LED that covers the full visible light.  

Soraa, the world leader in GaN on GaN™ LED technology, today announced that it has appointed marketing veteran Todd Antes to the role of Senior Vice President of Marketing. Todd will report directly to CEO Jeff Parker and work closely with the sales and product development teams.

EPIC and LUX Photonics Consortium are mutually motivated in cooperative activities involving technological and commercial advancement in the area of photonics. The partnership will encourage direct contact and cooperation between the consortiums and its members, exchange of information and contacts, be the platform for members of a consortium to reach the other’s relevant government representatives, public funding bodies as well as other entities in the region, co-host visits of delegates of each consortium’s commercial trade missions and business events.

Philips Lighting has expanded its innovative LED connected lighting indoor positioning system in North America. Today at the LIGHTFAIR International tradeshow in San Diego, the company announced a new luminaire, the Philips Day-Brite LED Linear Suspended LBX, adding to its award-winning indoor positioning portfolio, which has been deployed successfully with retailers Carrefour in France and aswaaq in the Middle East. The energy efficient lighting system enables retailers to provide location-based services to shoppers’ smartphones to help boost sales, drive operational efficiencies and increase customer loyalty.

PLUMEN, the world’s first premium low energy lighting brand, has announced it will launch a designer smart bulb collection that will adjust according to your natural body clock.

Soraa, the world leader in GaN on GaN™ LED technology, today wraps up another exciting LIGHTFAIR International where the company displayed its full visible spectrum LED lamp and optical light engine lines; two new exquisitely designed, minimalist ambient LED luminaire series; Flicker FreeTM MR16s; and beam rotation and color enhancing SNAP System accessories. 

LED Expo Thailand 2016 that took place from April 19-22, 2016 at IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand is the largest LED exhibition held in southeast Asian district. Compared to Singapore’s economic role as a hub, the Thailand-based LED exhibition emphasizes more on creating business opportunities for local manufacturers and international ones. Buyers are mainly local Thai manufacturers, foreign investors that focus on southeast Asian market as well as district distributors. Quite a few buyers are based in Vietnam and Singapore. Vietnam, at the same time, is also one of Taiwanese manufacturers’ targeting markets.

Goa, a state located in the South western region of India is to become the first state 100% lit with LEDs. The authority, the Electricity Department, has rolled out the distribution project of 1.5 million LED bulbs to approximately 489, 000 local consumers. Meanwhile, LED streetlight replacement project hosted by EESL will switch 166,000 conventional streetlights to LEDs, reported Herald.

As one of the top five power supply vendors worldwide, FSP Group has built up many years of experience in the LED lighting sector. At this year LIGHTFAIR International (LFI) in San Diego from April 26 to 28, FSP will present its wide range of products related to outdoor industrial lighting, smart lighting and firmware solutions. The event will also mark the official entry of the company’s customized lighting solutions to the U.S. market.

To accelerate digital outcomes and use cases for commercial, industrial and municipal users, Current, powered by GE (NYSE: GE), is adding 15 partners and microservices to its open Intelligent Environments ecosystem. The growth in the company’s app catalog and digital capabilities comes as Current deploys intelligent LED infrastructure in three cities –Tianjin, China; Schenectady, New York; and Cleveland – and on the heels of the company’s acquisition of Daintree Networks, an enterprise IoT provider of building controls solutions for small and medium commercial facilities.

Minebea Co., Ltd., an innovator of LED technologies, today announced the North American release of its connected LED lighting system, the Smart Adjustable Light for the Internet of Things (SALIOT), at LIGHTFAIR International 2016, the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference.

Lighting Science is debuting their new brand look and feel at Lightfair International in San Diego this week along with a collection of ground-breaking new solutions, casting an emblematic light on the future of this burgeoning LED brand.

The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) has joined the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smart Cities, Chaired by Rt. Hon. Mark Prisk MP.