While decorating the tree, house, or garland, a whole section of lights can go dark -- along with holiday spirits. Light outages can be frustrating and time-consuming to repair during the busy holiday season.

In the realm of LED measurement and testing, a lot of attention has as of late been given to the development of small, handy size devices, allowing  for the quick and easy assessment of any light source. GL OPTIC has therefore been continually developing its range of hand-held state-of-the-art spectrometers. Yet the need for top performing spectrometers in industrial or extensive laboratory settings has by no means diminished. The growing number of quality requirements introduced by new standards for lighting has made it necessary to ensure constant control of LED products as they are being produced.

In part one of EcoLightTech Asia 2014 Innovative Product guide, LEDinside addressed smart or innovative products displayed by Thai LED manufacturers. Here we will take a look at the interactive and smart LED products international manufacturers were showcasing at the lighting show that took place in Bangkok, Thailand recently.

Leicestershire County Council in UK has proposed to invest more than GRB 25 million (US $39.2 million) to convert the city’s outdated sodium lights to LED streetlights to cut energy bills, according to a BBC report.

If LCD TVs start getting much more colorful — and energy-efficient — in the next few years, it will probably be thanks to MIT spinout QD Vision, a pioneer of quantum-dot television displays.

On November 6, 2014, India's second largest Electrical accessories manufacturer - Anchor Electricals, a Panasonic group Company since 2007, launched a stellar range of 276 Professional LED Luminaires for commercial & hospitality premises. This is Anchor's first major venture into the Professional LED Luminaires spectrum in India following its entry in the already expanding residential LED luminaires in 2013. It aims to rise as a leading lighting solutions provider in the Indian market by FY 2018 with market sales to the tune of 4.25 billion INR plus.

Lighting Science Group Corporation announced that it has received $13.0 million in preferred stock financing from Serengeti Asset Management. The funding will be used to finance the Company's growth and solidify its leadership position in the LED lighting market, with a strong focus on the Company's technology platforms and product innovations.

When the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded this October to three Japanese-born scientists for the invention of blue light emitting diodes (LEDs), the prize committee declared LED lamps would light the 21st century. Now researchers from the Netherlands have found a novel way to ensure the lights of the future not only are energy efficient but also emit a cozy warmth.

Panasonic exhibited at the 16th China Chain Store Industry Conference and Exhibition (CHINA SHOP 2014), which was held from November 6-8 in Fuzhou City, the capital of Fujian Province. In a booth designed to resemble supermarkets and convenience stores, Panasonic introduced one-stop solutions for retail under the theme of "A smart, beautiful lifestyle with intelligent retail," aimed at the rapidly growing demand in China for safe and comfortable shopping environments.

Hodi Technologies, a premier LED lighting and smart-grid system company in China, has selected Greenvity Communications’ Internet of Things (IoT) turnkey solutions for multiple Hodi smart lighting products. In addition, Greenvity and Hodi will collaborate to develop future products focused on controlled lighting and smart metering applications.

Terralux Inc. announces that its R20 LED Spot Engine has received the 2014 Product Innovation Award (PIA) from Architectural Products Magazine. These awards champion product ingenuity in the built environment.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced components, has introduced a high-voltage, mid-power LED package that makes it easier for LED products to be directly connected to high-voltage power supply units and AC, significantly reducing system costs and improving efficiency. 

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) will be the game changer in the TV and display industry over the long-term while quantum dot (QD) technology will not have a powerful impact, a report from The Korean Herald cited Korea CEO Michael Grund saying.

In the price sensitive Asian LED market, smart lighting products remain a field where only a few brave vendors have ventured into. The Thai LED lighting market was no exception, and only a handful of smart LED products were displayed at EcoLightTech Asia 2014, which took place recently in Bangkok, Thailand.

DEKRA, a leading global provider of auditing and certification services, has entered into a cooperation agreement with TRaC Global, a Zigbee Alliance Certified test laboratory in the United Kingdom. The new partnership will enable DEKRA to call on TRaC Global for ZigBee certification purposes, while TRaC Global will be able to extend its testing services in the field of electrical safety via DEKRA.

The lighting-use LED market contracted 5-16% in the fourth quarter, while backlighting-use LED products fell 4-13% according to a new report from LEDinside, a division of the Taiwan-based market intelligence firm TrendForce. The average price of lighting-use LED products is falling with the arrival of the non-peak season and as competition intensifies among manufacturers, said Jack Kuo, an assistant research manager at LEDinside. “Orders are falling and profits are being squeezed,” he said. “For manufacturers to increase their market share, they need to introduce more new products.”

The National Gallery, London, has become the latest high-profile building to benefit from the introduction of intelligent lighting control. A combination of highly efficient LEDs and a digital control system from Open Technology has achieved 85% energy savings on lighting. The system’s ability to respond to the changing environment allows the Gallery to make full use of available daylight and adjust lighting levels around visiting hours.

Meteor recently added the Cylinder Mini 45W and 85W to its popular Cylinder Series LED Surface-­‐mounted Downlight Series. Cylinder Mini delivers up to 8500 lumen output at 100LPW ideal for wide variety of application ranging from atriums, auditoriums, corridors, foyers, lobbies, and retail spaces.

Plessey today announced that it has entered a long-term commercial agreement with 8point3 Ltd., a Dartford-based LED luminaire manufacturing company. Plessey will be supplying its GaN-on-Silicon MaGICTM LEDs, made at its state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facility in Plymouth, UK, for use in 8point3's new Sabre Architectural range of LED linear lighting products.

Taiwan’s Executive Yuan announced recently plans to phase out the nation’s 692,000 mercury-vapor lamps with LEDs in the next two years, according to a recent Taipei Times report.

At the Smart City Expo World Congress, Silver Spring Networks unveiled the next generation of its multi-application, smart city networking platform. Key advancements to Silver Spring’s IPv6-based networking platform include smart city extensions in the Streetlight.Vision Central Management System (CMS) software, integrated GPS, a migration path for those dependent on antiquated GPRS, and successful interoperability testing with multiple smart city CMS solutions in advance of certification for the TALQ outdoor lighting protocol. Silver Spring also announced new partners EnLight and Lumnex, who are integrating their smart lighting technologies with the Silver Spring networking and software platform.

Think-Eleven, a San Diego based business development and consulting agency and IC12, an electronics and product design firm, announced the launch of its joint Kickstarter campaign for the Lume Cube. Controlled via a wireless Bluetooth-enabled app, the Lume Cube is a powerful and ultra-portable lighting tool that will open new creative possibilities for photographers and videoagraphers of any skill level looking to get the most out of their smartphone cameras, action cams and more traditional digital cameras. 

Architectural Products Magazine – a respected publication that provides architects, designers, and other specifiers with product and application information for commercial and institutional building design – has released the winners of their 2014 Product Innovation Awards (PIA), which recognizes ingenuity in the built environment. Jim Crockett, Editorial Director at Architectural Products Magazine, stated that the “fourth edition of the awards proves commercial building manufacturers are committed to, and are working arduously toward, delivering more sustainable products, as well as products that deliver better performance, life and affordability.”

Access Fixtures is expanding its extensive product line to include LED amber garage lighters as part of its line-up of wildlife-friendly luminaires. Wildlife-friendly lighting minimizes light pollution in areas where excessive artificial lighting can harm ecosystems, especially coastal areas where sea turtles need a dark sky to migrate towards the ocean. Garage lighters in parking garages around waterfront locations can emit light through openings and contribute to light pollution. Access Fixtures LED amber garage lighters produce light that is visible to humans, but not to most species harmed by artificial lighting. 

A distinctive trend in the Thai LED market reflected at EcoLightTech Asia 2014 was the lack of LED chip, driver and component manufacturers, and the overly dominant presence of LED luminaire manufacturers and traders.

Fujitsu Laboratories announced the development of a technology that can embed ID data in light cast by LEDs or other light sources onto objects, and also recover this ID data from objects that have been lit in this way.

Light and Charge system combines cutting-edge lighting and electric drive technologies – first unveiled at EUROCITIES 2014 in Munich – prototypes now up and running at BMW Welt – highefficiency LED technology, adaptive lighting levels, charging station integrated in the BMW i ChargeNow network.  

Cree offered a solution that fulfilled our needs for clean, efficient lighting with little to no maintenance expense. The lighting is fantastic.

Lighting Science Group Corporation (OTCQB:LSCG) today announced that it has ranked once again on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Award winners for 2014 are selected based on revenue growth from 2009 to 2013. Lighting Science grew 165% during this period.

The current trend, due to the constant increase of energy prices and lack of capacity, is for the management of large industrial enterprises to search for energy saving technology.