Osram has acquired a stake in Munich-based start-up Agrilution. The lighting group holds a strategic minority interest in the company via its venture capital arm Fluxunit. The start-up has developed a smart indoor growing box, the plantCube, that serves as a salad, vegetable and herb garden for the home.

Eco-friendly purification of water – UV light is already being used to kill water-borne germs but the light sources used for this purpose are still predominantly mercury vapor lamps. UV LEDs have so far proved unattractive for reasons of cost. The aim of the UNIQUE project funded by the Bavarian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Media, Energy and Technology is therefore to develop high-power UV LEDs for industrial use. The project, which is being coordinated by Osram Opto Semiconductors, involves five Bavarian companies and research institutions. 

XING founder Lars Hinrichs has constructed a building in Hamburg, Germany in the form of the "Apartimentum" that is far superior to many other residences across Europe in terms of living intelligence and networking. The most ambitious smart home in Germany offers its residents personalised living comfort with state-of-the-art technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) for significantly facilitating their everyday lives. Osram as the partner for lighting made an important contribution with intelligent products and solutions including its intelligent, networked lighting technology Lightify Pro used throughout the Apartimentum. 

AIXTRON SE, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has qualified the first of multiple AIX G5 C planetary systems for the manufacturing of GaN (gallium nitride) LEDs.

Piazza Santa Maria dei Battuti in Treviso radiates in new splendour: the new LED lighting concept from Osram emphasises the cultural importance of the square and showcases the facades of the heritage building in special light. The luminaires are interconnected via wireless RF communication, enabling them to be individually managed and controlled, and supplementary functions such as environment sensors can also be integrated in the future.

At this year’s Lightfair in Philadelphia (USA), Osram Opto Semiconductors is showcasing an LED prototype to promote healthy plant growth: the Oslon Square Hyper Red. This third-generation 2 watt LED features improved emission characteristics, higher optical output and impressive corrosion resistance, so plant lighting systems based on the Oslon Square Hyper Red can be made particularly economical. 

AIXTRON SE, a major provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced that OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has qualified the first of multiple AIX G5 C planetary systems for the manufacturing of GaN (gallium nitride) LEDs. As market demand for high-quality optoelectronic semiconductors is increasing due to the continually growing number of applications in the illumination, sensing and visualization sectors including automotive, communication, display, health and food, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is expanding production capacities, e.g. at its Regensburg facility. In this context, the company makes also use of AIXTRON’s AIX G5 C planetary platform.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2017, Osram saw a significant lift in its growth rate. On a comparable basis, i.e. adjusted for portfolio and currency effects, revenue generated in the period January to March rose by around 10 percent year on year to reach €1.05 billion. 

Due to strong financial results and based on the expectation of ongoing positive prospects for the second half of financial year 2017, the management board of OSRAM Licht AG (OSRAM) decided today to raise the forecast for financial year 2017 as follows: 

Osram Lighting Solutions together with its project partners Beckhoff Automation and Microsoft demonstrates what smart lighting solutions are already able to achieve for Industry 4.0. The installation can be seen on the Microsoft stand (Hall 7, Stand C40) at the Hanover Fair, the world's leading event for technology for industry taking place from 24 - 28 April. A fascinating example taken from successful practice is being presented, implemented together with the client Beckhoff in its "factory of the future" at Verl, Germany. The project solution consists of innovative lighting and light management connected with building automation over the cloud. 

Osram Lighting Solutions designed and implemented innovative LED hall lighting for the Nordichallen, a modern exhibition space and football hall in the Swedish city of Sundsvall. The new lighting solution complies with professional light requirements as stipulated by the Swedish Football Association and simultaneously saves around 65 percent energy. The home team of GIF Sundsvall, a club in the Allsvenskan premier Swedish football league, uses the hall for daily training, hall competitions and friendly matches.

Osram announced the availability of SIMPLUX™, a simple standalone wireless lighting control system designed for small- to mid-sized spaces up to 10,000 square feet and/or up to 100 nodes. For maximum design flexibility, SIMPLUX enables specifiers to choose virtually any manufacturer’s luminaire that has a 0-10V dimmable ballast or LED driver, and deliver fixture-by-fixture or full group control as needed. SIMPLUX also offers an easy upgrade path to POLARIS 3D software and the ENCELIUM® networked light management system for more sophisticated, enterprise-level control or integration to building automation systems via BACNet®. 

According to Reuters, German lighting giant Osram is considering new acquisitions worth up to 500 million euros (US$ 530 million), its CFO told German-based newspaper Boersen-Zeitung on Saturday (April 15). However, no specific plans have been made so far.

As the official lighting partner for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), Osram had already given excellent support to the mega show business event in 2015 in Vienna and in 2016 in Stockholm. As a powerful company for state-of-the-art digital lighting technology Osram will continue the successful collaboration this year in Kyiv (resp. Kiev). 

Streetlight 10 LED luminaires from Osram enable the town of Delbrück to simply upgrade to innovative and cost-saving LED technology.

It would be difficult to imagine the entertainment sector without fascinating lighting effects and precision lighting from Osram. For years the company has been setting new standards in the entertainment sector. Together with its renowned brands – Claypaky and ADB – Osram offers lighting solutions to cover all requirements and is presenting the latest generation of entertainment lighting: at Prolight + Sound 2017. 

Osram Lighting Solutions planned and implemented new, innovative pitch lighting together with the 1st FC 1911 Hochstadt e. V. football club. Twelve innovative Siteco LED floodlights bathe the also new, FIFA-certified artificial turf in especially efficient and high-performance light.

Osram Opto Semiconductors is expanding its offering of high-power infrared LEDs for illumination solutions to include a new wavelength (810 nm). This development will benefit camera systems, such as those used to read license plates. They can use this additional wavelength to improve image contrast making it easier to read patterns from recorded images. Moreover, camera sensors have higher sensitivity at 810 nm. At the same optical output, the new device therefore extends the range of camera systems as compared to 850 nm. 

The Vistosa track spot from Osram Lighting Solutions allows a wide diversity of merchandise to be displayed in the very best light. The extensive product family enables a range of practical and flexible design options for displaying fresh food as well as electronics and building articles with high sales-promoting impact in the retail sector.   

Facial recognition is considered a highly secure form of biometric identification. The system records the user’s face and detects typical features independent of facial expressions. However, to identify these features accurately and reliably, the software requires high-quality images. This means illuminating the face brightly and evenly, without shadows – and for this method to safeguard laptops and tablets, it also has to work in a wide variety of lighting conditions. The solution lies in additional illumination of the face with infrared light. 

Organic Response Lighting Control Systems are designed to operate wide area lighting installations with maximum energy efficiency while still maintaining a high level of comfort. The key lies in a distributed intelligence which enables the system to react to the presence of persons in the immediate vicinity, as well as to those further away.

For the 10th time, the EHI Retail Institute has presented the retail technology awards europe (reta) at the EuroShop 2017 trade fair to honour the best IT solutions in retailing. Three equally-ranked award winners were selected in four categories. The Swiss company Bollag-Guggenheim AG won the award for “best-in-store solution”. By using retail analytics and beacon technology, it has generated real added value at the POS. The retailer uses the digital technologies of Osram and its software partner beaconsmind.  

The sale of LEDVANCE by OSRAM to the Chinese investment consortium, consisting of the strategic investor IDG Capital, the LED packaging manufacturer MLS CO., LTD. (MLS) and Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center (Yiwu), was successfully completed effective on March 3rd, 2017 and with economic effect as of March 1st, 2017. This follows the parties obtaining all necessary approvals from the relevant authorities.

The new Scriptus range of luminaires fulfils all functional and aesthetic standards for Human Centric Lighting. The separately controllable direct and indirect distribution light units guarantee users high levels of individuality for personal settings and maximum visual comfort. In addition to 3000K and 4000K light colours, versions with Tunable White (TW) are also available.

Osram Opto Semiconductors’ new SFH 4787S infrared LED (IRED) for iris scanners illuminates the eyes so evenly that the software identifying the iris pattern now hardly needs to correct artefacts. 

Maximum safety for people and vehicles in publicly-used car parks is optimally achieved with the new Siteco luminaire Compact Monsun LED Parking. State-ofthe-art LED technology with 4,500 lm rated luminous flux and improved vertical illumination now provide optimum lighting and greater safety in multi-storey car parks. The luminaire is also equipped with a high frequency sensor that controls light according to movement in the car park.

Given the growing demands placed on the electrical, optical and thermal functionality of LEDs, engineers are paying more and more attention to the advancement of new material properties. To this end, the FLINGO project (Functional Inorganic Layers for Next Generation Optical Devices) was established to develop new materials (layers, in particular) and processes to improve the efficiency and durability of LEDs. As the project coordinator, Osram Opto Semiconductors is working with renowned universities, research institutes and companies to maintain and improve market leadership in innovative LED products. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research is sponsoring the FLINGO project – set to run through January 2020 – as part of the M-ERA.NET EU initiative, an EU-financed network set up to support the coordination of European research projects.

Osram recently won a contract with the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), a 7.5 million-square-foot campus in Omaha, Nebraska.

Osram’s spokeman told Reuters it foresees a rapid increase in demand for its infrared components in the light of the introduction of the state-of-the-art iris-scanning identification in mobile devices. Osram plans to recruit around 1,000 new talents at its factory in Regensburg, Germany.

- First-quarter revenue rises almost 8 percent on a comparable basis  - Adjusted EBITDA margin at 18.0 percent  - Osram confirms outlook for fiscal 2017