A photo taken by American astronaut Scott Kelly from International Space Station (ISS) shows the influence of Canadian city Calgary’s LED streetlights conversion, according to a report from Huffington Post.

The Indian government is halting subsidies to CFL-based solar lights to encourage the adoption of LED solar lights, reportedLive Mint.

Effective November 30, 2015, Tridonic GmbH & Co KG, a leading manufacturer of LED lighting components and systems and part of the Austrian lighting company Zumtobel Group, has sold its LED signage business to U.S.A.-based AgiLight.. With the acquisition of Tridonic’s signage activities, AgiLight, a subsidiary of General LED headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, becomes one of the largest LED system suppliers to the global signage market. AgiLight’s core markets in the U.S., Latin America and the Middle East are complemented with Tridonic’s strong position in Europe, Asia and Australia. 

MaxLite announced that it filed suit against ATG Electronics, a California-based LED lighting company, and James Steedly, Sophia Galleher and Matthew Kim, three former employees of MaxLite. The suit, filed on February 12, 2015, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Royal Philips announced Ledra Brands Inc. as its 600th member to its EnabLED Licensing program, continuing the growth trend which has added 100 new members in the last 9 months. The large number of members that have joined during the rapid rise of the program confirms the attractiveness of the program offering and recognizes Philips’ innovative leadership in LED lighting.

The  ‘dimming and trimming’ (reduced lighting ‘level’ and ‘period’) pilot is being introduced as part of our LEDs (light emitting diodes) street light rollout and will involve reducing lighting levels and periods in some areas. The existing lighting is already reduced by 25 per cent between 11pm and 6am.

Award-winning lighting designer Bruno Poet felt privileged and inspired when offered to work in Verona Arena with the spectacular live show Intimissimi On Ice. At the same, this was his first opportunity to deploy SGM’s LED luminaires in his creative design.

The new Quantum Colors conversion technology from Osram Opto Semiconductors will set new standards in LED backlighting for TV displays as it offers much better coverage of the color space, significant cost savings compared with conventional quantum dot sheets, and zero cadmium. For many years leading manufacturers of televisions have been demanding an ever broader color space. The TV standard is once again moving to a larger color triangle with Ultra HD. 

Smithers Apex is pleased to announce the return of the Phosphor Global Summit. Now in its 14th year, the 2016 edition will be held March 7-9 at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach, California. Smithers Apex is also continuing the successful collocated event of the Quantum Dots Forum on March 9th providing attendees an opportunity to extend their stay in San Francisco for two top industry events.

Alpha, the world leader in the production of electronic soldering and bonding materials, had a strong presence at the first annual LED Assembly, Reliability, Testing Symposium organized by SMTA that was recently held in Atlanta, Georgia. Alpha was an integral part of the program as an organizer, exhibitor and presenter.

The fourth Lumiere festival closed on 15th November at 11pm. First estimates put the number of visitors at around 200,000 attending the festival over four nights. The festival is produced by Artichoke and commissioned by Durham County Council with additional support from Arts Council England and a raft of sponsors.

Smithers Apex is pleased to announce its third annual edition of Quantum Dots Forum 2016, taking place on March 9-11 at the Island Hotel. The two-day event will cover market opportunities, developments in technologies, end user opportunities and challenges, innovations in applications and environmental issues related to Quantum Dots.

“Nice to see you!”– Parents can’t always greet their little ones in the baby carriage this way, because during the dark winter months or nighttime strolls, it’s often too dark for them to see the tiny passenger inside. But in the future, an innovative lamp called “LUNA” from the startup STORCH will supply the right kind of light. Mounted by magnet on the canopy of a baby carriage, a light tap is all it takes to switch on the lamp and select one of two brightness levels or a soothing play of colored light.

At the show grounds at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in late November, the once exclusive LED lighting show, EcoLightTech Asia 2015 was starting to feature solar panels and air conditioning products. Many foreign buyers from Japan, Korea, Israel and Uganda showed interest in solar panels and air conditioning products.

Recently a US startup company named MOLT launched a crowdsourcing project for its latest product on Kickstarter. The product is called Mstick, a user- friendly LED light bar that suits everyone’s daily use, according to the campaign page.

Light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturers are now looking to develop niche application markets that can provide higher margins as the price competition in the LED lighting market has become too difficult for them. Among these niche application markets, ultraviolet (UV) LED has attracted investments from many manufacturers because of its enormous market value. The UV LED market has much higher technological barrier to entry, so prices of its products are several tens of times greater than those of the general LED products. LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, states that the global UV LED market in 2015 is estimated at US$122 million, which is around the same level as in 2014, in its 2015 Global LED Industry Supply and Demand Database Report. The absence of noticeable growth in the market value this year is mainly attributed to the rapid decline in UV-A LED prices (UV-A spectrum is between 320~400nm in wavelength).

Chinese LED light manufacturer Advanced Optronic Devices and Indian company Syska LED Lights will jointly invest INR 5 billion (US $75.21 million) in a LED manufacturing plant in the state of Telangana in India, according to a report from Live Mint.

The TV series is being made by BBC Cymru Wales Drama in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. During filming in Russia, local production company Globus Film Studio took the decision to install over 1,200 Verbatim LED retrofit lamps to create appropriate lighting when shooting important scenes such as those in a historic ballroom.

An Estonian start-up Velmenni in Tallinn is planning to launch a Li-Fi LED bulbs within three to four years, reported BBC.

Philips Selecon and Showline LED luminaires have performed a range of crucial lighting roles whilst complementing a traditional tungsten rig on macabre musical The Addams Family at the John McIntosh Arts Theatre in London.

NEMA's Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America measured 58.3 in November as a larger share of panelists reported conditions improved (33%) than reported they deteriorated (17%). The November EBCI reading was a substantial increase from the 44.7 recorded in October. In contrast, the EBCI for future North American conditions fell to 55.6 in November, down from 68.4 in October.

Instrument Systems GmbH Munich is a leader indeveloping and manufacturing high-precision light measurement systems. With the new offer of stray light correction during the calibration of array spectrometers, Instrument Systems now is the first company to serve the broad market. By including a stray light correction matrix in the calibration process, it is possible to suppress the stray light during the measurement by an order of magnitude down to 10-5. A 10% higher sensitivity in the UV range after stray light corrected calibration leads to about 3-4% higher accuracy in the radiometric measurement. The more accurate determination of the radiometric values of UV LEDs facilitates their characterization and development, and supports the various applications of these radiation sources, for example, in the field of coating, curing, disinfection or biomedicine.

Soraa, the world leader in GaN on GaN™ LED technology, launched a full line of high performance, full visible spectrum LED 230V large lamps. From narrow spot to flood, Soraa’s PAR20, PAR30 short/long neck, PAR38, and AR111 LED lamps produce incredibly high peak intensity; provide flawless beam definition and smooth beam edges; and have exceptional color (CRI of 95 and R9 of 95) and whiteness rendering. The lamps are also customizable with the company’s SNAP System.

On December 10, there will be a 60-minute live webinar to provide information on interior lighting, with a focus on troffers and how new technology can significantly reduce energy use in higher education spaces. Colleges and universities in the U.S. spend around $1.10 per square foot on electricity, with lighting representing 31% of energy usage.

 Light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturers had an especially tough year in 2015. “Despite rising LED lighting market demand and the large scale replacement of traditional lighting products, the oversupply situation has caused the average LED sales prices (ASPs) to plunge 30% to 40% year on year,” said Roger Chu, research director for LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. “Growing number of manufacturers have incurred heavy losses and exiting the market.”

LED bulb prices in India are nearing CFL prices, but might be priced down a further INR 20 (US $0.30) following the government’s 50 million LED bulb purchase tender to be issued in the next ten days, reported The India Times.

An emerging class of atomically thin materials known as monolayer semiconductors has generated a great deal of buzz in the world of materials science. Monolayers hold promise in the development of transparent LED displays, ultra-high efficiency solar cells, photo detectors and nanoscale transistors. Their downside? The films are notoriously riddled with defects, killing their performance.

GE Lighting has signed partnership agreement with UAE lighting solutions company AW Rostamini Lumina, a business division of AW Rostamani Group of companies in Dubai earlier this month, according to a report from Gulf News.

OSRAM was announced as the Official Lighting Partner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

Royal Philips , the global leader in lighting, is helping rose growers increase yields and improve the quality of the most romantic, yet light-intensive flower in the world. Philips GreenPower toplighting LED solution brings more light for the same amount of energy, optimized light spectrum and a significant reduction in radiated heat. Today, Philips announces that three major cut rose producers from Belgium and The Netherlands have installed GreenPower toplighting and are using Philips’ light recipes to obtain significant improvements.