Haberdashery, a United Kingdom-based design agency, recently announced the launch of Laserpod 2, one of its newest cool Kickstarter projects. Laserpod 2 is a 100-percent safe, battery-powered laser light sculpture that produces interestingly shaped beam-splitting optics.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, USA is one of the widest cable-stayed bridges in the world. Named for both the local civil rights activist Leonard P. Zakim and the American colonists who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, the ten-lane bridge spans the Charles River and carries over 200,000 cars each day to and from major interstates on the north side of the city. At night, lit with bright blue light, the Zakim Bridge is an instantly recognizable feature of the city skyline. In an interview with The Boston Globe, bridge architect Miguel Rosales said: “the bridge is supposed to have the feel of a regal entry to Boston, the towers bathed in blue, the cables highlighted in gleaming white."

Although 4Q is traditionally a low season for the LED industry, Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Everlight has benefitted from rising lighting demand. Europe and U.S. Christmas holiday sales opportunities will increase lighting industry performance, said Everlight chairman Yeh Yin-fu.

Created in 2003 by Philips and LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International), the city.people.light is an annual award that is attempting to rehumanize the urban environment through light. It also rewarding cities that are exploring ways to maximize energy efficiency, improve sustainability and livability. The 2013 Awards has been conferred to the following cities: Rietberg, Germany, Seoul, South Korea, Geneva, Switzerland, Zhengzhou, China, and Wuppertal, Germany.

Recently, the EU’s Rapid Alert System for non-food dangerous products issued a warning on LED lights manufactured in China. Latvia was the EU member state that reported the issue. The warning reported Chinese LED lights can create high magnetic fields and potentially cause Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) interference. This violates the EU directive 2004/108/ EC which regulates EMC and also does not meet another related standard the EN55015.

As the LED industry enters the traditionally low 4Q season, Taiwanese manufacturer Lextar LED backlight and lighting business eased, with utilization rates reduced to 60-70 percent. Order visibility is around one month and less than one month for the company’s lighting business.

Following the rise in the automotive electronics market, Excellence Opto. Inc. (EOI) is trying to make a mark for itself in the automotive LED lighting market.

Philips Lighting blogger Monique Cosineau talks to Canadian designer David Sasaki about his Light Fall design, which clinched second place at the 2013 CLU Foundation Contest. Below is the interview posted on Philips Lighting blog:

Rishang LED, the leading manufacturer of LED lighting modules and components in the world and renowned lighting brand, will be launching its wide range of products for the Malaysian market. LED or Light-Emitting Diode lights have been one of the fastest growing technologies in the world especially through its known benefits which offer better cost savings in utility bills like electricity.

Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. has added to its series of STAR LED heat sinks designed for convection cooling of high heat flux LEDs. Each of the 32 heat sinks provides enhanced heat transfer for effective LED cooling without fans or blowers.

PhotonStar customers will have the option of ordering many of the company’s high performance LED lighting products with a prewired Lutron Ecosystem driver, straight from the factory.

There are many applications including restaurant lighting, high-end retail lighting, and hospitality lighting where color-changing RGB LED and white LED light can be used to create unique lighting environments.

This week chubby TV developments have emerged on the radar screen. The TV is expected to become mainstream model in 2014, and to cope with ongoing price wars LED packagers are making swift changes in the packages used. Mid power LED sector is also seeing increased competition from EMC, PCTand Flip chips. The Chinese LED industry is facing tough challenges, whether it from corrupt government officials, or serious copycat issues in the decorative luminaire industry. Nichia and Everlight also enter a new round of patent wars in the U.S. this week. For more details please see below:

With the LED lighting market booming and  LEDs in backlight spec changes, the mid power spec market had taken center stage within the LED industry this year, already surpassing the high power market in initial output value. LED drivers with EMC lead frames can reach 1-2W power output which can supply the mid power and mid/high power LED market. LED package manufacturers are expanding EMC production capacity. After improvements to PCT lead frame materials, LED package manufacturers plan to introduce PCT products into the mid power market. Flip-chip products are also making their way  in the 2014 mid power market.

China’s LED luminaire market faces serious copying issues, Chinese-language China Building Materials quoted a man in charge of a famous luminaire store in China. Some small enterprises dumping of fake LED luminares on the market has interfered with normal luminaire prices, according to the article. Small manufacturers are highly capable of imitating large brands; do not require R&D design fees or costs; and can quickly produce these replicated luminaires. It is difficult to differentiate these products from appearance alone.

Everlight responds to Nichia's amendment complaint concerning the U.S. patent litigation.

NSF I-Corps saw promise in the work of a team of about a dozen ASU engineering doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers to make a significant advance in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

Toshiba Corporation flipped the switch on the new "Centennial Holiday Light Show" in New York City's Grand Central Terminal on November 21. The colorful animated display can be seen on the monumental windows above the Terminal's west balcony through December 26, 2013. Click here for the full press release.

Hubbell Lighting announced its latest innovation to quickly and simply upgrade HID lighting—Sterner Lighting's Executive RT21 LED and Retrofit Power Door Upgrade Kit. The LED luminaire is bred from the popular Executive RT family that blends traditional rectangular styling with sophisticated engineering making it the perfect solution for area and site lighting in business parks and campuses.

Dow Corning, a global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, introduced new Dow Corning® MS-2002 Moldable White Reflector Silicone at Strategies in Light Europe 2013. This highly reflective white material extends the excellent photo-thermal stability and high-moldability that typifies Dow Corning's award-winning optical-grade Moldable Silicone family to the reflective elements of LED lamp and luminaire applications. 

Author: CC Hwang, Art Director of BeLight.com There is a Chinese proverb expresses: "Anyone who has been to Silver Cave would never short of money" and Silver Cave is a national AAAA scenic spot in Guilin, China. 20 years ago, I had been here once when I didn’t possess any knowledge about lighting. I remembered that I couldn’t appreciate the beautiful karst landscape at all as the over-colorful lighting kept distracting me. There were several scenic areas in the Silver Cave and each was assigned with different name and story according to its shape and people’s imagination. I was totally overwhelmed by the overly-elaborated stories and the overly-lit colorful stones.

After a year full of strife in 2013, the LED industry has finally seen signs of market rebound. As China gradually establishes national LED standards, leading enterprises have also increased R&D. The LED industry’s oversupply frozen state is gradually being melted away, and the industry is opening up to a new phase of explosive growth, according to a Chinese Business News report.

The possible blue light hazards in LEDs on  the eyes have become a hot global topic. The expanding application field for LED lighting has raised consumer awareness towards the possible risks of blue LEDs. In order to clarify the consumers misgivings towards LED lighting products, the China National Lighting Fitting Quality Supervision Testing Center (CLTC) has released a report addressing the dangers of blue lights in LEDs. The CLTC advises that single LED package components with 1W power must strengthen structural protection measures and that color temperature for indoor lighting must not surpass 4000K.

Spurred by LED lighting and mobile device market demands, sapphire substrate manufacturers have been actively expanding their production capacity, according to TrendForce subsidiary LEDinside’s “Global Sapphire Substrate Market 2013” research report. The top five sapphire ingot manufacturers for instance, have seen 2-inch equiv. sapphire substrate monthly production capacity grow by 75% to 7800Kmm compared to 2012.

For LED outdoor display manufacturers in the lower rung of the industry competitiveness will be supported by three cores: their ability to obtain resources, innovative technology and creative strategy. The extent of control and balance over these three resources will decide whether they will have the ability to construct competitive technological barriers, according to a report by Chinese-language online media CIEN.

On November 22, 2013, Nichia Corporation filed an amended complaint in its on-going patent infringement lawsuit against Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and Everlight’s U.S. subsidiary Everlight Americas, Inc. (collectively “Everlight”), originally filed on September 11, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) thanks all who participated in the eighth annual Solid-State Lighting Market Introduction Workshop, held November 12–14 in Portland, Oregon. More than 200 attendees gathered to share the latest updates and strategies for successful market introduction of high-quality, energy-efficient SSL solutions.

Guam Senator Thomas Ada, who belongs to the U.S. ruling Democrat party, has proposed a new bill to establish the Guam Streetlight Financing Authority to fund the island’s replacement of some 15,000 incandescent streetlights to LED, according to an article by Pacific News Center. Ada’s stated the obtainment of US$ 16 million funding would be required to replace the island streetlights. Below is the senator office’s press release posted on Pacific News Center website: 

Peter Bauer (53) is the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board of OSRAM Licht AG and OSRAM GmbH. He is taking over both offices from Siegfried Russwurm (50), who stepped down from the committees at the end of the day on November 26, 2013. Roland Busch (49) will take his place as a member of the Supervisory Board of both entities. He was in each case elected additional Deputy Chairman by the Supervisory Board. Osram had stated in its prospectus in June 2013 that Mr. Russwurm planned to step down from his Osram mandates before the end of the calendar year 2013.

Photometric Testing has increased its laboratory and workshop space four-fold over their old facility and installed a second goniophotometer which means that that they now have the added capacity to handle everything from a one-off test right up to the photometry of a complete catalogue of products.