Earlier today, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd, Messe Frankfurt’s Indian subsidiary, announced the acquisition of the LED Expo and Media Expo trade fairs from founders Media Exposition & Events and MEX Exhibitions Pvt Ltd. With LED Expo and Media Expo, Messe Frankfurt is expanding its portfolio by two additional events in its Technology & Production division and by three in Entertainment, Media & Creation. 

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, unveiled a stunning lighting makeover of the well-renowned Nigerian National Arts Theater in Lagos, one of the most iconic buildings in the city, as part of its fifth consecutive pan-African Cairo to Cape Town roadshow. Philips has installed its latest range of RGB (red, green, blue) LED luminaires around the National Theater complex, emphasizing the beauty of the structure and cutting energy consumption by up to 80 percent as compared to the existing conventional lighting.

Sensity Systems, the pioneer of Light Sensory Networks (LSN), today announced the appointment of Phil Rehkemper as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In this newly created position, Rehkemper will lead the company’s financial and administration operations, reporting directly to Sensity Chairman and CEO Hugh Martin.

Pulsaderm, the U.S.-based skincare line that offers a family of state-of-the-art skincare devices at affordable prices, is proud to announce the launch of the FDA-Cleared Pulsaderm LED Blue at this year's Cosmoprof North America. The FDA-approved Class II Medical Device is available for US $189 and is specially designed with advanced blue light LED technology to deliver a non-invasive and painless treatment for mild to moderate inflammatory acne. With competing FDA-Cleared light therapy devices often selling at well over US $500, Pulsaderm is providing a safe, effective and affordable alternative. 

After successfully illuminating more than two dozen indoor and outdoor sports and entertainment venues across North America with its revolutionary LED arena and stadium lights, Ephesus Lighting has been selected as the lighting solution at Canadian Tire Centre, home of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators, making it the first NHL venue to be lit with Ephesus LED lights.

After Epistar and FOREPI’s merger earlier this month, Everlight is also showing a rarely ambitious side, according to a China Post report. The company has decided to expand capital expenditure (CapEx) from less than NT $ 1.0 billion (US $ 30 million) to NT $1.5 billion to NT $ 1.7 billion. The move highlights the LED industry’s high growth.

A small Taiwanese technology company Gunitech’s Bluetooth lighting controlled smart LED bulbs are now being used at Google’s headquarters in California, according to a Taiwanese Sanlih E-Television report.

LED prices are anticipated to drop around 20 percent in 2014 and pricings are already at a level comparable to traditional lighting, according to an Ofweek report. At the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) LEDforum, Dr. Ke Zhang, Director of Business Development and Government Affair, Asia Pacific Osram and Dr. Guoqing Tang, General Manager, LED China, Samsung and Sr. Vice President, expressed their optimism about LED prices continual decline. The LED industry remains upbeat despite faltering macroeconomic growth for LED products, and manufacturers aggressive production expansions.  

Veeco  Instruments  Inc.  (Nasdaq:  VECO)  has  formed  a  strategic partnership  with  Agnitron  Technology,  Inc.,  a  focused  compound  semiconductor  research  and  development company specializing in the refurbishment and upgrade of Veeco legacy metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment. 

Apple fans might be slightly disappointed to note the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 launch date might be pushed back to 2015, according to an Apple Insider report.

A video released by Chinese media Apple Daily shows rumored Apple iPhone 6 sapphire phone cover withstanding coin and key scratches, and does not deform when bending. The phone cover even emerges unscathed after being forcefully thrown to the ground, and being roasted by a lighter. It took a 1.6-ton car to break the cover to several dozen pieces.

With Germany taking home the World Cup 2014 trophy this year, Simon Greenwood, Commercial Director Europe at GE Lighting shares in this blog entrry some lighting techniques adopted for the stadiums.

Located in the heart of downtown Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the newly constructed office building Edificio Renaissance features a stunningly lit façade. In a city without much architectural façade lighting, the modern yet simple illumination of Edificio Renaissance makes a statement.

The LEDinside editorial team has released our July edition feature, discussing in-depth the impact of the two biggest mergers in the industry so far this year: Epistar and Philips Lighting. 

Global shipment proportions for Chinese TV brands are increasing yearly, with the possibility to reach 28 percent in 2014, according to the latest China LED Package Industry Market Report from LEDinside, a division of research organization TrendForce. Six Chinese TV brands will benefit the most from domestic demands in 2014. LED manufacturers beginning to pay more attention to opportunities in this market segment due to low in-house LED production capacity of Chinese TV brands and low strategic alliance among LED manufacturers. The supply chain for Chinese TV brands has started to change. Once reliant on Taiwanese and Korean LEDs, Chinese package manufacturers is starting to change as price competition heats up and technology matures. 

While the LED industry was still reeling from news of Epistar’s acquisition of FOREPI, Philips dropped another bomb shell, announcing the merger of its LED component and automotive lighting assets on June 30, 2014. 

The merge between Taiwan’s top LED chip manufacturers Epistar and FOREPI will no doubt be remembered as one of the most significant events in the LED industry in 2014. Market rumors about the two companies potential “marriage” first surfaced in 2007, but has been repeatedly denied by Epistar. The company’s last minute press conference announcement about the merger on June 30, 2014 sent shockwaves throughout the industry.

LED chip manufacturer Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) announced that June revenue reached NT $397 million (US $13.2 million), down 5.82 percent MoM, but growth of 27.54 percent YoY. Revenue for 2Q14 was NT $1.2 billion, up 10.68 percent compared to 1Q14. 

It has been reported that Apple has been granted new three new sapphire glass related patents from the U.S. Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) on July 8, 2014. Discovered by AppleInsider, the three new patents cover a method to strengthen weak areas in sapphire display covers, application of sapphire to illuminate buttons, and embedded product details under a sapphire layer. 

China based Elech-Tech’s Yangzhou subsidiary has begun mass production of LED wafers. Equipment used at its Yangzhou factory are mainly 14x4” MOCVD wafer production units from U.S. manufacturer Veeco. The company currently has 12 units in operation with a yearly production capacity of 190,000 pcs, which can then produce 50,000 chips. 

China based Jufei Optoelectronics released their 2014 half year performance report on July 10, 2014. The company estimates net income available to stockholders to reach around RMB 76.57-97.88 million (US $12.3-15.7 million), up 25-50 percent YoY. 

The U.S. Department of Energy's Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium (MSSLC) has released the first updated version of its Model Specification for LED Roadway Luminaires. A “living document” that's updated as needed to reflect changes in technologies and associated standards, and to incorporate feedback from users, the model specification enables cities, utilities, and other local agencies to assemble effective bid documents for LED street lighting products.

ThedaCare™​ health system selected outdoor LED lighting from Acuity Brands, Inc.​ to address safety, energy and maintenance concerns at two of its leading campuses. Sixty high-performance D-Series LED luminaires from Lithonia Lighting®​ were installed in parking areas to replace 84 existing high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal halide (MH) fixtures, delivering a projected annual energy savings of more than $40,000.  

ColorStars Group (CSTU) together with its subsidiary Anteya Technologies were awarded a street lighting project in Taiwan. The project is to retrofit a 9 kilometers long roadwith new LED street lighting system in the township of Yangmey of Taoyuang County. A total of 574 LED street lights will be installed and each street light is composed of 2 pieces of 120-Watt cobra head LED street lights and 2 pieces of 30-Watt reflective LED spot lights. The total value of the project is $45,172,600 New Taiwan Dollars or $1.5 million US Dollars. ColorStars' scope of supply is about US$1.0 million. The project will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Precision-Paragon [P2] announced the release of the DLC QPL listed SNL; an ultra-efficient LED sealed sanitube for food service and food processing applications. In recent years, the manufacturer has established a reputation for releasing carefully engineered lighting fixtures designed and manufactured in the United States.

KC HiLiTES announces the availability of the new KC Gravity LED series lights powered by KC’s patented Gravity Reflective Diode (GRD) technology. The KC Gravity LED series launches with 3 product offerings:

The two German high-tech companies temicon GmbH and holotools GmbH join forces to expand their product portfolio in the area of micro and nanotechnologies. In the future they are going to operate under the corporate roof of temicon, continuing the well established brand “holotools” as their trademark for laser interference lithography. Both companies have been working together successfully over many years using complementary technologies in the production chain of high-tech components for optical, medical, solar and environmental applications.

Sandia National Laboratories has come up with an inexpensive way to synthesize titanium-dioxide nanoparticles and is seeking partners who can demonstrate the process at industrial scale for everything from solar cells to light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The LED industry has entered into a period where penetration rate is rapidly increasing each quarter. Consumers continue to purchase traditional lighting products in large volumes, but distributors have begun reducing the proportion of products for sale. Manufacturers are facing saturated orders and rising lighting order visibility.

Chinese manufacturer Refond Optoelectronics (Refond Opto) released their 2014 half year financial report on July 9. The company estimates net income available to stockholders for the first half of the year to reach RMB 19.64-23.56 million (US $3.2-3.8 million), YoY drop of 10-25 percent.