In November 2015, top experts in the lighting, semiconductor, and IT industries convened in Portland, OR, to start a cross-cutting dialogue on how best to take advantage of the imminent intersection between lighting systems and the fast emerging IoT. Chief among the outcomes was the consensus that collaboration is essential to realize the full promise of connected lighting systems.

 The latest report from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, finds that the global average price of 40W-equivalent (equiv.) LED light bulbs arrived at US$10.2 in February, down 0.6% from the prior month. The global average price of 60W-equiv. LED light bulbs also fell 0.5% monthly to US$14 in February.   “Though some parts of the U.S. and European markets saw price decline, the prices of LED light bulbs remained mostly constant through February due to stable demand worldwide,” said LEDinside analyst Allen Yu. Prices also stayed relatively unchanged in China as trading fell during the Chinese New Year holidays. On the whole, the outlook of the LED industry is still gloomy and there is no sign of market demand picking up quickly. Thus, prices of LED light bulbs worldwide will stay on a gradual downtrend.   The LED package market in China witnessed only slight price fluctuations during February because of the holiday season. With the exception of 2825 LED products, other LED packages did not experience a notable price decline.

Taiwan’s largest LED die manufacturer Epistar has filed a patent infringement complaint against Epileds in Taiwan’s courts for selling infringing products to downstream suppliers, the company announced in a recent press release.

‘Leave a light on’: the popular Belinda Carlisle song is already 25 years old, but its message is forever now, for we associate light with warmth,with safety, with a feeling of home, companionship and life. Debates around new technologies and sustainability are sensitising planners,designers and consumers to the intelligent use of artificial light.

LED filament bulbs is an emerging product on the market that holds great market potential, with high visibility in the Middle East, Americas and Europe. It is also one of the most important lighting products in the Asian manufacturing supply chain. For instance, Taiwanese LED manufacturer Epistar currently holds crucial LED patents that comprise the core technology in LED filament bulbs. In an exclusive interview with Epistar managers and directors including Alexandar Wang, Director of the company’s Marketing Center Segment Group, the company’s Intellectual Property Division Meng-chun Kuo, Director, and Walter K.Y. Chou, Manager of the company’s Intellectual Property Department III, these managers revealed LED filament bulb market’s latest trends, technology development, and patent strategy deployment.

More than a year has passed since Kolhapur, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, had launched tenders and appointed a firm to install the new LED lights, but the city council has not found a sustainable economic model to finalize the feasibility of the INR 280 million (US $4.12 million), reported The Times of India.

The Gloucester City Council in southwest UK is implementing two major upgrades in local parking lots to make them more energy efficient and environmental friendly, reported Gloucester Citizen.

When Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros take the field on April 11 against the Kansas City Royals at Minute Maid Park, it will be under Musco’s cutting-edge SportsCluster Green™ LED system. As part of a significant renovation to Minute Maid Park, the new lighting system will provide unprecedented levels of energy efficiency and enhance the spectator experience at the ballpark.

Verbatim’s Vx-filter delivers precise changes to the spectral distribution curve of existing LED products to ensure that colours and finer details of objects appear as they would be perceived in natural daylight. This improvement in colour fidelity and vividness is a solution that is particularly useful for retailers, museums and hospitality venues in spaces where small differences in colour hues, tints and textures can have a significant impact.

A Malaysian manufacturer Elsoft Research has started producing 40 LED test equipment that is valued to reach an estimated RM 20 million (US $) by the first half of 2016, reported Malaysian media StarBiz.

A U.S. lighting installer Xcel Energy is tackling lighting complaints from residents in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with better designed LED streetlights, reported Leader Telegram.

In more than three years of work European scientists finally made future lighting technology ready to market. They developed flexible lighting foils that can be produced roll-to-roll – much like newspapers are printed. These devices pave the path towards cheaper solar cells and LED lighting panels. The project named TREASORES was led by Empa scientist Frank Nüesch and combined knowhow from nine companies and six research institutes in five European countries.

Last night at an exclusive screening at London’s independent Genesis Cinema in Mile End, Philips Lighting brought one of the world’s hottest bands to the silver screen as never seen before.

Acclaim Lighting, a leader in innovative and advanced solid lighting technology, announces its latest innovation to the solid state LED lighting market, Ai Dim. Abbreviated for Acclaim intelligent dimming, Ai Dim is the combination of a finely tuned dimming curve and a specific grouping of LEDs, which results in a near perfect representation of incandescent dimming. Acclaim meticulously designed every detail of the Ai Dim system, from the custom LED chipset and driver to the smooth dimming curve, which brings the best of LED and incandescent lighting together.

Organisers of the UK hardware developers’ conference H/WExpo have announced that LED specialist supplier, Intelligent LED Solutions (ILS) and LED manufacturer OSRAM Opto-Semiconductors, will jointly present a free two-hour workshop that will be an introduction to LED technologies and associated products, in both visible and non-visible areas.

Edison Opto, the Taiwanese leading LED packaging manufacturer, will participate in the world’s grand event for lighting and intelligent buildings. To answer this high profile lighting event, Edison Opto will bring their latest LED products, such as high efficiency components, AC modules with smart lighting system and the comprehensive street light solutions to demonstrate their R&D achievements. We invite you to visit us at booth E91 in Hall 4.2, and experience the latest developments in LED lighting technologies. 

Toshiba Lighting has finally made some progress in selling its less profitable Chinese production line to appliance manufacturer Konka Group. The company is withdrawing from the Chinese consumer lighting market, and plans to move operations back to Japan.

YuanRong Photoelectric Technology (YuanRong) announced recently that its wholly owned subsidiary YuanRong Health Technology (temporary translation, the company does not have an official English name) has signed a global strategic partnership agreement with HKI Group to develop Deep UV (DUV) LED technologies, reported Chinese media Sinai.

Waning market demands, price wars and severe oversupply of LED chips in LED industry has urged Nan Ya Photonics Incorporation (NYPI), a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group, to  announce earlier this week its exit from the upstream LED EPI-wafer manufacturing business, and shift its focus to downstream market, including light bulb production and lighting system.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C78 reaffirmed six standards now available for purchase on the NEMA website. 

According to statistics, the majority of accidents occur at dusk or at night – poor visibility is often the trigger. Intelligent headlights adapt to the current traffic situation, and can be a remedy. In collaboration with industry partners, Fraunhofer researchers have developed a high-resolution illumination system with more than 1,000 LED pixels: It offers considerably more options for precise light distribution than previous solutions have and is also energy efficient.

Officials from the Maharashtra state located in western-central India has announced plans of replacing CFL streetlights in 43,665 villages with LEDs, reported Moneycontrol.com.

Once, Inc., a technology company specializing in photobiology and optogenetics, announced the submission of its Petition to the California Energy Commission (CEC) to repeal the 2016 Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Standards). The Standards pose additional requirements for lighting companies and fall in line with the scientifically disputed view that lighting operating under 200 Hz is unpleasant to humans due to flicker and less energy efficient. The Standards impose additional data reporting requirements that would increase the cost of production, which ultimately translates to an increase in cost to the consumer.

Cree introduces the Cree RSW™ LED Street Luminaire, the first of a new generation of streetlights that deliver LED energy savings and reliability in a warm color temperature that is preferred in many residential applications. The revolutionary RSW™ LED streetlight utilizes Cree’s proprietary WaveMax™ technology to provide warm, even light with market-leading color quality and efficacy. Cree’s RSW Series ushers in a new era of street lighting that will transform the way cities and municipalities light their residential streets, interchanges and expressways.

Toyoda Gosei has developed a new LED package for lighting that produces up to 200 lumens per watt (lm/W), while maintaining color fidelity. The LED package is designed for general lighting applications, such as bulbs, tubes, downlights, and ceiling lights. This new package gives our clients cost-effective alternatives to fluorescent and lower CRI (Color rendering index) LED products and can help reduce overall energy consumption.

In a vote 7-1, city officials of Seguin in Texas, U.S. approved the purchase of LED lights to be installed in the downtown area, and agreed to year-round illumination before sunset till 10:00 PM, reported Seguin Gazzette.

Power Integrations, the leader in high-efficiency, high-reliability LED driver ICs, today announced the LYTSwitch™-3 family – the latest addition to the company’s LYTSwitch line of LED driver ICs. Ideal for bulbs, tubes and downlights up to 20 watts, LYTSwitch-3 ICs offer excellent dimming performance with both leading-edge and trailing-edge TRIAC dimmers, and support both isolated and non-isolated topologies.

On March 1, 2016, Samsung Electronics, the world’s second largest semiconductor supplier, signed a comprehensive strategic partnership MOU with Shanghai Wellmax Lighting Industry (WELLMAX) at Samsung Electronics’ Shanghai head office. The MOU identifies WELLMAX as one of Samsung Electronics’ first group of global ingredient brand partners together with top brands including GE and The Home Depot. WELLMAX is the first and so far the only company that receives Samsung’s ingredient brand authorization in China.

SPIN-R introduces Tittle Light (#TittleLight), a unique LED lamp that instantly transforms any home environment by titillating users’ senses with a variety of beautiful and custom mood lighting and 3D animated emojis. Complemented with an iOS, Android and web app, Tittle allows users to instantly immerse themselves in their ideal lighting environment with the touch of a finger through the app’s color, brightness, mood, timer and animation controls. In order to bring this product to life, SPIN-R has launched an Indiegogo (#indiegogo) campaign. The campaign, which can be found at //igg.me/at/tittlelight, features limited Super Early Bird specials of $199.00 USD (40% off MSRP) along with other great perks.

Efore  introduces the newest addition to its ROAL Digital Light brand LED Driver portfolio this week at Strategies in Light in Santa Clara, CA, and on March 13 – 18 at Light & Building in Frankfurt, Germany. With its multi-mode dimming feature, this new driver series, called CIELO, answers the need for more flexible LED lighting control options.