Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) recently announced plans of investing KRW 22 billion (US $21.5 million) to set up a OLED lighting industry support fund over a period of five years, according to a report by Korea IT News.

New Zealand’s Wellington City Council is planning to retrofit 18,000 streetlights with smart LED streetlights, according to a recent report by Radio New Zealand News.

The Illuminating Engineering Society recently shared an article by Don Peifer from his recent column in LD+A that addresses whether the hype surrounding LEDs match the reality? Or put another way: Is the battle over and have LEDs already won? Below is the excerpt posted on their website:

NBA player Kobe Bryant speaks about the future of basketball courts during a tour to China recently, with the infusion of LED technology players will probably be able to train with more precision. 

Plessey announced today that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Solid State Supplies Ltd., an electronics distributor and provider of advanced complete solutions headquartered in Redditch, UK, to expand its European network with coverage in the UK and Ireland market for its GaN-on-Si LED products.

Bruges Studio in collaboration with Philips has developed a digital water lily concept, using the OLED Lumiblade technology.

The latest product from Recom supplements the immensely popular R-78 switching regulator family: introducing the new R-78W. This wired version of the R-78 is mainly intended for use in applications which utilize few or no printed circuit boards. For example in LED lighting solutions, a constant voltage for a fan can be generated by connecting the switching regulator in parallel with the LED driver. Additionally, in prototyping and in many areas of electrical engineering, wired regulators are extremely advantageous.

Changfang Lighting announced on Aug. 15, 2014 that the company’s restructure application to absorb Kang Ming Sheng Industrial (KMSI) was halted by China Regulatory Commission over suspected insider trading by financial organization Guosen Consultant, according to several Chinese media reports.

Russia hopes to further raise China-Russia LED trade volume, and attract top Chinese LED manufacturers to invest in the country, said Alexey Gruzdev, the Russian trade representative to China during a Russia’s lighting market analysis and strategy forum in Shenzhen, China.

Latest developments between Elec-Tech - International (ETI) and NVC Lighting have taken another dramatic turn.

An  Indian municipality is planning to upgrade outdated sodium vapor lights with LEDs, according to a report from The Indian Times.

LEDinside had reported theft of LED lights from cars to grow marijuana, but who would have thought religious icons lit by LED might be targeted as well?

Some of you may recall last Friday LEDinside posted an article about the cons of smart bulbs is the requirement of having a fully charged smartphone, that concluded a voice controlled smart bulb would be the perfect solution. Well, it turns out an Israeli entrepreneur Ori Indursky plans to change all that with smart lamp socket Vocca.

Everlight Electronics, a leading player in the global LED and optoelectronics industry, announces the XI3030 High Voltage series, an addition to EVERLIGHT’s popular XI3030 mid to high power LED package. By introducing the High Voltage version, a new concept of the existing XI3030 series with higher voltages at a lower price, EVERLIGHT aims at reducing manufacturers’ total lamp or fixture costs. The XI3030 HV LED is a half to full watt LED that has a 30V version available, with other voltages upon request.

Wearable smart LED devices are often known to be rather bulky and downright ugly. To make up for this market gap for fashionable wearable devices, Elemoon has followed in the footsteps of Memi in creating a smart bracelet to attract female consumers.

A UK photographer Martin Kimbell has created breath taking images of swirling light tornados.

A UK solar light blog outlines some of the latest developments in solar LED surveillance lights. Solar Power LightsSecurity illumination is seen as one of the essentials to protecting your property. The instalation and running costs have now been shattered to make this aspect of security available to all. So have a look at the new lines of security lighting.

DRSA, a supplier of marine LED lighting, has recently secured over 12 major contracts to refit yachts ranging between 100 feet and 175 feet (30.48 to 53.34 meters) with LED lighting.

Things do not look too well for former NVC Lighting CEO Wu Changjiang this week. After being ousted from the company board, Wu employees got into a violent fight with ETI staff. The power transition after the merge is getting messier with ETI CEO Wang Donglei and Wu throwing accusations at each other. With Apple iPhone 6 launch date just one month away, latest leaks noted the phone will still be using dual-flash LEDs. Great news for those who enjoy taking selfies on their smartphones. LEDinside has also launched its latest ranking report for Chinese manufacturers. For more please see below:

Smart bulbs are a very interesting smart home appliance and often the first products families introduce into the household, according to a report by Sinai. Manufacturers design concept is also easy to understand: Use the smartphone to control the light switch, and even swap colors, or audio system and other interactive products.

The LED industry in China and Taiwan has gone from cooperation to competitive, said Epistar Chairman B.J. Lee. Even though China is still a major threat, Taiwan manufacturers cannot always choose to escape, or Taiwan will have no market strategies left. It is important to see where one’s opportunities are and think about whether Taiwan’s LED industry has any chances of winning. If there are opportunities then it is important to establish an environment beneficial to the industry’s development.

Osram Sylvania is relocating its North American headquarters in Danvers and nearby R&D facility to a single site in Wilmington next summer, according to a report by the Boston Globe.

Danish city Copenhagen plans to roll out a pilot project featuring smart LED lights, according to a Nature World news Report.

A University of Utah team discovered a method for turning a small, US $40 needle into a 3-D microscope capable of taking images up to 70 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This new method not only produces high-quality images comparable to expensive microscopes, but may be implanted into the brains of living mice for imaging at the cellular level.

Live music lighting designer Nick Whitehouse is currently out on the road for a year long tour with pop superstar Justin Timberlake, and he has chosen to specify Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot, VL3015 Spot and VL3500 Wash luminaires as the backbone of his stylish and dynamic design.

A new Japanese LED lighting retailer Only 1­ is differentiating itself from comptetition by offering uniquely hand made LED light bulbs, according to a report by Spoon and Tamago.  One of the product range that stands out is Biei (meaning beautiful shadow) that is crafted by artisans.

SemiLEDs Corporation (Nasdaq:LEDS), a global provider of vertical LED technology solutions, today announced sampling and volume availability of a complete line of 80x80mil rugged metal LED chips, including white, blue, and UV variations. The EV-80mil family allows packagers and integrators a wider variety of high-efficiency/high-output choices to address the growing number of applications in both the commercial lighting and industrial spaces. With the new family, a single 80x80mil device will typically replace four 40x40mil LED chips, which simplifies packaging and optical designs, while minimizing color fringing and shadow effects common to multi-chip implementations. 

The facility managers of Terminal One at San Francisco International Airport in California wanted to give the high-volume concourse a modern and forward-thinking look. The terminal, which serves AirTran, Alaska Airlines, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and US Airways, had illumination issues caused by aging four-tube linear fluorescent troffers. The check-in stations were not properly lit and had poor illumination on work surfaces where agents process paperwork. The overall terminal looked dim and muted.

What can we learn from the recent NVC Lighting’s power struggle between company founder Wu Changjiang and Elech-Tech International (ETI) CEO Wang Donglei? According to a recent report from Tencent, the dramatic transition of power and management reflects how Chinese companies operate differently from the West.

The LED industry showed stable growth in first half of 2014, with conventional peak season arriving in 3Q14, many LED manufacturers July 2014 revenues set new historical records including listed companies Everlight, FOREPI and Lextar. LED upstream sapphire substrate manufacturers revenues were slightly weak last month, with only listed company Crystalwise Technology showing strong revenue income. Other listed sapphire substrate companies including Rigidtech and others have also expanded  production capacity.