Winner of the “Good Lighting Award 2013” from The Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan, EX Tower + EX Theater Roppongi is TV Asahi’s headquarter featuring a stunningly lit façade in Tokyo. “EX” implies Excite, Expand, and Experience. The 17-story EX Tower office includes an entertainment space called EX Theater which hosts a wide range of performances from live concerts to plays and musicals. 

WeMo, the home automation ecosystem created by Belkin International, today announced availability of the WeMo LED Starter Set and WeMo Smart LED Bulbs. The WeMo LED Lighting Starter Set and WeMo Smart LED Bulbs allow you to control, schedule, customize and dim household lighting from anywhere using the WeMo app on a smartphone or tablet.

GlacialTech, an experienced technology manufacturer, today launches a new cold forged heatsink for 60W LED thermal solutions– Igloo FS127.

LeDiamond Opto has announced today with a development of Muti-Color LED module. Muti-Color included Red, Amber, Green, Blue and CCT 2200k, also other colors.

Access Fixtures is headed to NECA 2014 Chicago and will debut its newest vandal-resistant LED Landscape lighting luminaires. These luminaires were designed with property owners in mind to reduce maintenance on landscape fixtures. Access Fixtures vandal-resistant lights do not have a glass lens, leaving almost nothing that can break from rocks, lawnmowers, or vandalism. Available in traditional styles as well as more modern styles, these fixtures are great for lighting signs, buildings and large landscaped areas.

Six Acuity Brands LED and OLED lighting solutions were selected as winners of the 2014 Next Generation LuminairesTM (NGL) Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Design Indoor Competition, including a prestigious 'Best in Class' award for a new LED luminaire series from Mark Architectural LightingTM. Additionally, Acuity Brands won half of all of the awards in the ‘Emerging’ technologies category with unique LED and OLED luminaires from Winona® Lighting.

AFX, an industry leader in energy-efficient decorative lighting solutions has won the 2014 Lighting for Tomorrow award in the Decorative Lighting category with their Cortez LED Pendant. Equipped with a 30W 3000K LED module, the stylish Cortez LED luminaire produces more than 2,220 lumens and is rated at 50,000 hours.

Technical Vision Inc., a product development company focused on designing and manufacturing assistive devices and technologies for the visually and physically disabled, today announced the launch of the company's premier mobility aid product, My Mobile Light™ Low Vision Aid. 

Tim Bajarin, President of U.S. market intelligence company Creative Strategy, refuted an earlier report by PTT Research Senior Analyst Matt Margolis that Apple dropped sapphire substrate last minute because of Chinese sapphire glass processing manufacturers Biel Crystal and Lens Technology’s low yield rates.

Have you read Malcolm Gladwell’s longtime-bestseller The Tipping Point? In it, the author discusses the phenomenon where something goes from being marginal to mainstream. For LED (light-emitting diode) lighting, the tipping point has arrived. U.S. Department of Energy statistics show that about 49 million LEDs were installed in the U.S. in 2012 — saving about US $675 million in annual energy costs. And, switching entirely to LED lights over the next two decades could save the US $250 billion in energy costs, reduce electricity consumption for lighting by nearly 50 percent and avoid 1,800 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

Winners in the Indoor category of the sixth annual Next Generation LuminairesTM Design Competition were announced today at The LED Show in Los Angeles. Sponsored by DOE, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the International Association of Lighting Designers, NGL promotes excellence in the design of energy-efficient LED products for commercial lighting applications.

Rubicon Technology announced that Raja Parvez will step down as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. The Board has appointed William Weissman, currently CFO, as interim CEO to ensure a smooth transition and to lead Rubicon’s executive team. Chairman Don Aquilano will lead a Board search for a permanent CEO with the assistance of a leading executive search firm.

Telensa (www.telensa.com), the wireless street lighting control company, has enhanced its market-leading PLANet SmartGrid street light control system by adding an on-board GPS module and the new NEMA 7-pin connector to its telecell options.

Soraa, the world leader in GaN on GaN™ LED technology, announced today new psychophysical research proving that whiteness and color rendering have a strong effect on the perception of energy-efficient LED lighting. The study was approved by an Institutional Review Board and led by Kevin Houser at Penn State University.

Light Festivals are becoming more and more popular in cities around the world. This past weekend, the very charming coastal town of Cascais Portugal, 30 kilometers west of Lisbon, celebrated the third edition of LUMINA- Festival da Luz/Light Festival which also served to commemorate the 650th anniversary of the town. For three colorful nights, Cascais, known for its popular beaches, became the most luminous city in Portugal. From 8pm to midnight, 26 lighting installations by 40 artists were featured along the Path of Light which made its way to 26 public places around the historic centre of Cascais Bay.

ELB Electronics LED T8 U-Bend and 8’ direct replacement lamps, requiring NO Re-WIRING of the light fixture, provide excellent energy savings when replacing T8 and T12 fluorescent lamps. Installation is easy…just remove existing fluorescent lamps and install the LED linear lamp.

Hubbell Lighting, a world leader in lighting innovation, announced today that 12 of its LED lighting and controls products have been recognized by the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Progress Committee as providing important advancements in lighting. The company has now received an impressive 42 IES Progress report selections supporting Hubbell’s technology leadership, which has been demonstrated over the past three years. Hubbell Lighting currently has the largest offering of LED residential and commercial fixtures recognized by IES.

USAI® Lighting’s Color Select® and Max Output® product families were among those earning awards in the Next Generation Luminaires™ (NGL) Solid State Lighting (SSL) Design Competition, sponsored by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), and the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD). Color Select and Max Output were among 266 entries in this year’s competition, which promotes excellence in the design of energy-efficient LED luminaires for commercial lighting applications. 

A Hong Kong team has come up with an idea of encouraging social interactions on a rainy day with LED embedded UmbrellaHere.

NVC Lighting’s internal conflict has escalated in recent weeks, even after the company board voted unanimously for ETI CEO Wang Donglei to take over in early August. The transition after the merger of the two companies has been difficult, with disagreements occasionally erupting into violence.

China’s Standardization Administration has issued three new LED luminaire standards.

Harvatek Corporate announced that U.S. LED manufacturer Cree, has taken legal action against the Taiwanese company to enforce its six patents in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on September 15th, 2014. Although, Harvatek has not received an official copy of the complaint yet, is is aware of the dispute and preparing reactive measures.

Taiwanese mid-power LED chip manufacturer and packager Prolight Opto recently submitted listing applications to the Taiwan bourse. The application is expected to be completed by the end of this quarter. Top Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar is one of Prolight Opto’s investors.

U.S. LED manufacturer Cree’s stocks dropped to US $41.1 recently, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stocks from buy to neutral, according to a report by China Post. As Cree’s lighting revenue increases, Taiwanese manufacturers believe Cree’s business focus is turning towards downstream.

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) has filed patent infringement lawsuits in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin to prevent Harvatek Corporation and Kingbright Corporation from infringing Cree’s patented intellectual property. These patents, among other things, protect Cree’s LED component portfolio, including Cree’s white light LEDs.

Kateeva today announced that it has closed its Series D round with US $38 million in financing. The newest participant is Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC). Existing investors also contributed. They include: Sigma Partners, Spark Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, DBL Investors, New Science Ventures, and VEECO Instruments, Inc.

Integrated System Technologies (IST) Limited, a leading British manufacturer of smart lighting solutions, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Chinese Patent Office have granted patents covering high efficiency LED luminaires for downlight applications.

Osram is launching the world's first product based on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for car interiors in the form of a new reading lamp. The OLED Reading Light consists of a high-quality matt aluminum housing and provides a very warm and uniform light. "With the launch of the Osram OLED Reading Light in the fall we are once again providing evidence of our technological leadership and powers of innovation in the automotive lighting sector", said Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO of the Osram Specialty Lighting Business Unit.

Samsung Electronics reinforces its linear type LED modules line-up with M series and F series, which have a high lumen density and highly efficacy offering tremendous convenience to LED lighting fixture makers with one of the most reliable and design-friendly feature-sets in the industry.

Cree introduces the XLamp® MH-B LED, a new generation of high-power LEDs that delivers better performance and a more-effective way to achieve low-cost systems than mid-power (MP) LEDs. Using Cree’s high-reliability ceramic package technology, the XLamp MH-B LED is able to operate at higher temperatures than MP LEDs with no reduction in rated lifetime, enabling an impressive 60 percent reduction in heat-sink size and cost. Using up to 26 times fewer LEDs than MP LEDs to achieve the same level of performance.