As lighting consumption continues to increase, solid state lighting will become a major driving force for LED lighting growth that is expected to grow for several years, said Micheal Schmitt, Regional Marketing Director at Osram during LEDinside’s LEDforum at Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) on June 11, 2014.

Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm Sequoia teams up with Austrialian based smart lighting start-up LIFX with a US $12 million investment. The investment bumps up LIFX’s total funding to US $16.6 million. 

The most common kind of light bulb in the United States—the incandescent—is only about 5 percent efficient. The phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode, on the other hand, makes light out of 100 percent of the electricity that goes into it.

In cooperation with Dr. Peter Schmidt of Philips Technologie GmbH in Aachen, a team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schnick, who holds the Chair of Inorganic Solid-State Chemistry at LMU Munich, has developed a new material for application in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). “With its highly unusual properties, the new material has the potential to revolutionize the LED market,” says Schnick. The two teams report their results in the latest edition of Nature Materials.

The new lighting system will be in place for the coming campaign with the club moving in line with Premier League requirements for a higher level of light output. 

HiLumz USA LLC (formerly Lumax Systems LLC), a U.S. manufacturer of LED Lighting and Retrofit Solutions announced today that production of its 2nd Generation Diamonz® Retrofit Kits has begun in the United States. Designed to retrofit commercial and industrial 100 Watt to 1,000 Watt light fixtures, HiLumz customers keep their existing fixtures and simply replace the bulb and ballast with an LED solution. Primary applications for the 40 Watt to 360 Watt LED retrofit kits include lighting of parking lots, street lights, warehouse high bay fixtures, wall packs, garage and gas station canopy lights and commercial flood lights. Virtually 95% of the high intensity light fixtures in use today are candidates for the Diamonz LED retrofit.

VOLT® Lighting announced today the addition of a new line of energy-efficient integrated LED Recessed Lighting . These LED fixtures are designed to replace existing incandescent or halogen bulbs and the recessed reflectors and rings that house them.

Leading Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar acquired bankrupt Taiwanese blue-ray CD and LaserDisc manufacturer Optodisc factory for NT $836 million, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. Epistar plans to expand AlInGaP and InGaN LED production at the new factory site.

GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) is reportedly using the US $578 million received in prepayment from Apple to expand sapphire production through establishing an additional facility. This new facility will produce roughly 20 million sapphire displays per year on top of the 200 million estimated from earlier reports, said Analyst Matt Margolis via BGR. 

The Brazil World Cup 2014, which officially kicked off on June 13, 2014 at São Paulo is entering climax. This year’s game has taken an interesting turn, since the last World Cup champion Spain was knocked out of the game. Sixty four years have elapsed since soccer nation Brazil hosted the global sports event. Although, the Chinese soccer team was disqualified from the World Cup this year, Chinese-made LED displays have successfully earned “front row seats” to the world’s top sports event.

Low price has been the key to success in the LED industry as market penetration rates rise. However, manufacturers will need to look into different avenues to keep ahead of the pack as price competition intensifies. Ray Chock, Philips Lumileds Sr. Director of Marketing and Business Development shared his insight on where the industry is heading in regards to the lumen per dollar trend during LEDforum at Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition 2014 on June 11 in China. LED bulb prices drop dramatically LED bulb prices have dropped over the past few year...

The roads throughout the city of Phoenix are being lit more efficiently through a more than 95,000-fixture conversion to LED street lighting---a move expected to save the Valley of the Sun upward of US $100,000 each year.

Samsung Display recently revealed plans of selling outdated LCD equipment from a production line in Cheonan, South Korea to Chinese manufacturer Truly, according to a recent Yonhap News report.

LakePoint Sporting Community, the world’s largest sports vacation destination, has partnered with the leading innovator of sports lighting solutions, Musco Lighting, to provide a LED lighting system for enhanced playability and energy efficiency. LakePoint is the first multi-field sports complex to use Musco’s cutting-edge lighting solution harnessing LED technology to direct more light onto the playing surface.

When residents of the Park Centre Casitas residential community in Mesa, Arizona, got together and hired a security company to survey the property and suggest ways to keep it safe, the security company suggested adding perimeter lighting.

The Philips Lightolier COREPRO LED MINI CYLINDER is a completely integrated LED luminaire. By combining the optics, light source, thermal management system and driver into a single housing, this luminaire provides a sleek look suitable for lower mounting heights and smaller spaces. This small, sleek luminaire design offers efficacy up to 80lm/w.

The WAL-SL-10-PAR38-LED work area string lights from Larson Electronics consists of ten industrial grade LED lamps with 10 feet of 14/2 SJTW cable between each lamp. This temporary LED string light system is connected to power via an integrated 3’ cable terminated with a standard 5-15 weather proof straight blade plug. Each globe light is equipped with a high output LED bub which delivers more light output than a 150 watt PAR38 lamp. Each individual socket is equipped with a hook eyelet making them versatile for a number of industrial applications requiring reliable and bright illumination. This LED light set is a far more energy efficient bulb and provides 250,000 lumens of illumination over 50,000 hours, compared to the 2,500 hours offered by standard 150 watt PAR38 halogen lamps. The LED PAR38 lamps have a lower energy consumption, produce more light output, are more durable to abuse and harsh environments, which translates into less maintenance and huge savings long term.

Our favorite picks of the week might be a bit of a surprise, smart LED light yoga mat TERA makes headlines this week. The new application is a good demonstration of integrating smart lighting technology with health and fitness products. More rumors about Apple have emerged too, as the company is actively seeking out potential smart lighting partners for its smart home projects. The much anticipated iPad Air 2 is also rumored to be using sapphire material, although, liquid metal will be temporarily ruled out.

China is researching on LED lighting subsidies and policies at the moment, according to a report from Chinese-language Yancheng Evening News. Manufacturers interviewed indicated Chinese government’s new subsidies were “highly likely” to further promote the generalization of LEDs. Competition among manufacturers have advanced from single product technology to the next level involving systems.

During an interview with LEDinside, BYD Marketing Director Xiao Zhiyong explained the input and output ratio for the company’s LED investment, and discussed the company’s current situation and future developments. 

Philips signed a multilateral agreement with Xuchang City government in China and VisionMax (Shanghai) Electronic Technology (VisionMax) to establish a LED lighting manufacturing base, according to a report by GG-LED.com.

The industry’s new round of global LED patent competitions will bring new challenges to the industry, said Ryoichi Tohmon, Director of Intellectual Property Project of Global Marketing and Sales Department at Toyoda Gosei during a talk at LEDforum Guangzhou 2014 in Guangzhou, China on June 11, 2014.

The ongoing penetration of OLED displays in mobile phones and wearables and renewed prospects for the OLED lighting market will catapult the OLED materials market from around $900 million in 2014 to $3.7 billion in 2019.

Taisei Corporation, Okamura Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) have jointly developed OLED desk lamps for office use. The newly developed OLED desk lamps will be installed in a Net-Zero Energy Building (ZEB)* verification facility that Taisei Corporation is constructing in the city of Yokohama. The OLED lamps, which emit soft light over a wide area, will be tested on an office-wide basis and are expected to reduce energy consumption while creating a more comfortable work environment.

The LED industry is fierce. For manufacturers to stay on top, they must make products that outshine their competitors. Therefore, manufacturers are continuously launching new products with high light outputs and longer lifespans to keep consumers coming back. Some of the claims however are too outlandish to be true. 

Cree and Musco Lighting might be working closely to light up Bay Bridge in San Francisco, California, U.S. with 1,600 custom made LED lighting fixtures utilizing some 250,000 LED lights. However, the current lighting installation will only be on display till March 2015.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently completed its LED lighting overhaul to the East Span of the iconic San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. After three years of testing and designing custom fixtures, Musco Lighting provided an energy-efficient LED lighting solution featuring Cree® (Nasdaq: CREE) XLamp® XM-L LEDs to illuminate the picturesque suspension tower and bridge deck.

Hubbell Lighting, a world leader in lighting innovation, announced today that Hubbell Industrial Lighting’s modernly styled LUNABAY™ LED High Bay is now available in high output versions. While still providing excellent efficacy of up to 95 lumens per watt, the LUNABAY™ can now deliver up to 23,650 lumens.

Hadar Lighting, part of the Ashington-based A-Belco Group, has launched the latest generation of LED floodlights certified for use in Hazardous Areas which offer the very latest LED technology producing more light using less power.

The arrival of LED industry’s prosperous three years is for real this time, a recent CNA report quoted Epistar Chairman B.J. Lee saying at the company’s latest stockholder meeting.