It has never been easier to transform your home’s traditional, flip-the-switch lighting to smart, wireless lighting that can enhance any moment of your day. Philips Lighting continues to extend the Philips Hue connected lighting family of products available to US consumers, so they can simplify and enhance their home and life.

Lighting is complicated. From Lumens to Watts to kelvins, it’s often challenging to confidently choose the ideal bulb for your home. Now, in the era of “smart,” things seem to get even more complicated - so much so that consumers sometimes avoid adoption all together and miss the many benefits LEDs have to offer. The following infographic highlights the differences between CFL bulbs and (smart) LED bulbs, from lengthof life to dimmer compatibility. The smart LED highlighted is Sengled’s Element Plus. 

Taiwan-based LED lighting company Lite-On announced its participation in a digital cities program run by the Global Project Center of Stanford University. Through collaboration with experts in various fields including finance, city management, and infrastructure planning, it aims to tailor its solutions toward the concept of smart cities.

Osram has agreed to acquire Digital Lumens Inc., a U.S. company based in Boston, Massachusetts that specializes in industrial IoT solutions. Founded in 2008, Digital Lumens employs 65 people and in the last fiscal year generated sales in the mid-double-digit millions (USD). The Digital Lumens software platform can be used to run applications covering everything from intelligent lighting control, energy use, and security systems to the measurement of environmental parameters such as air quality. The cloud-based platform is compatible with components and hardware of other manufacturers. Digital Lumens has built a strong customer base for industrial IoT solutions, with more than 2,500 installations. 

Silver Spring Networks announced that it will deploy its Starfish™ platform-as-a-service (PaaS) across the City of London and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. This adds to the previously announced London deployment in the City of Westminster. 

Silver Spring Networks announced it has agreed to work with ESB Telecoms Ltd to develop a national Internet of Things (IoT) network across Ireland. ESB Telecoms Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of ESB and operates a national open access wholesale telecommunications network throughout Ireland.

Sengled, manufacturing intelligent lighting products that integrate consumer electronics inside energy efficient LED lights, announced their acceptance into the LoRa Alliance, joining other technology innovators in efforts to evolve home automation to commercial scale.

LED lighting manufacturer, Evluma, announces the release of ConnectLED v2.2 for Android, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) app that enables utilities and municipalities to wirelessly control Evluma LED lighting products from the ground. ConnectLED v2.2 for Android is an upgrade to the popular v2.1.

The wait is over. The highly anticipated HomeKit™-enabled SYLVANIA SMART+™ A19 Full Color Light Bulb is now available for pre-order (MSRP $44.99) with delivery expected in September and additional products coming out soon after.

Heliospectra AB, an expert in intelligent lighting technology for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environments, announces a new order from John Innes Centre in Norwich, United Kingdom. An independent, international centre of excellence in plant science, research, genetics and microbiology, the John Innes Centre order is valued at £ 92,248 (1 048 273 SEK).

Power Integrations, an expert in high-efficiency, high-reliability LED-driver ICs, and Casambi Technologies OY announced a new reference design, DER-612, describing a constant-voltage (CV), constant-current (CC) 12-watt isolated flyback power supply with power factor correction for smart lighting applications. The design includes a 3.3 V power supply to drive a Casambi CBM-001 Bluetooth® wireless module, which provides convenient dimming and color management control of the four-string LED load from 0 mA to 400 mA. The power supply operates over a universal input voltage range of 90 VAC to 265 VAC and achieves greater than 0.8 power factor across all line conditions.

Ridgeland, widely known as one of Mississippi's most tech-savvy cities, will partner with C Spire in a smart city technology trial this fall involving smart lighting and vehicle traffic analytics applications.

Building on its commitment to enhancing the delivery and control of power and light, Legrand introduces Voice Control compatibility with its radiant® Collection RF (radio frequency) and adorne® Collection Wi-Fi Lighting System. This new functionality enables Legrand customers to control their lights via Amazon’s Echo and Dot devices or Google Home.

Digital Lumens, who expertizes in intelligent LED lighting and sensor-based smart building applications, unveiled the DLA-V, a new Digital Light Agent™ (DLA) lighting control designed for a direct connection to 0-10V dimming drivers, and plug-compatible with all standard industrial sensor interfaces. The DLA-V transforms any high-bay or linear LED fixture from any manufacturer into a completely networked-controlled smart lighting node.

Peoples Electric Company, a full-service electrical and building controls contractor, introduced its Unity Connected Building Intelligence smart lighting and building automation solution. Instead of approaching lighting, HVAC and other major building functions separately, Unity offers a single technology platform for HVAC and lighting controls with a front end that can integrate with access control, low-voltage communications, fire alerts and renewables, among other building systems. Unity leverages the latest in money- and energy-saving LED lighting and controls with the data-sharing capabilities and scalability of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Philips Lighting announced a new report jointly produced by Philips Lighting and the World Council on City Data (WCCD) which reveals that cities could make energy savings and CO2 emission reductions of almost two-thirds through the introduction of smart LED street lighting.

Future Lighting Solutions, the leading provider of solid-state lighting and supply chain solutions, and OSRAM Digital Systems, the leader in lighting technology solutions, have announced a new franchise partnership encompassing OSRAM’s comprehensive range of drivers, light engines and controls for lighting applications. The agreement covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

To shift or not to shift, that is the question. At this point within the LED industry, in terms of business transformation, companies are facing a turning point to shift business focus to new niche markets with high gross margins such as UV and IR LED, or to stay at LED lighting, where they began with; and of course, some chose to embrace all.

LpS 2017 (LED Professional Symposium +Expo) are proud to reveal this year’s event program, for what will be the greatest LpS to date. Joining over 1600 delegates and 100 exhibitors in Bregenz this year will be global experts from industry and research, to focus on multiple lighting applications such as Human Centric Lighting, Transportation, Agricultural, Healthcare and many more.

TiL 2017 (Trends in Lighting: Smart Lighting Forum & Show) announces that for their inaugural year, the 2000 visitors will be joined by leading light experts from international companies including Zaha Hadid Architects, Amazon, Philips Lighting, Osram, Zumtobel Group and many more.

Early in March, the Chinese investment consortium- with IDG Capital,LED packaging manufacturer MLS CO., LTD. and Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center as the members- completed the acquisition of LEDvance from Osram. Originally a general lighting business unit of Osram, LEDvance, with the support of its new owners, extended its product line from standardized and traditional light sources to advanced LED lamps and intelligent products for smart lighting.

Smart cities is definitely one of the latest buzzwords, together with the Internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, smart data and visible light communication (VLC). Interesting enough, it is actually the presentation of these factors integrating all together on a scale of a city. Everything in a city–transportation, communication, security, water and power supply, and other community services–through networks, computing, analysing, and data transfer, can be more efficiently managed and improved. This is how a smart city is conceived.

Both of Ledvance’s new products, exclusive to Apple HomeKit, will hit shelves September 1. Consumers can connect the Classic A60 LED lamp and flexible LED light strip for indoors to the Apple Home app in just a few simple steps. They can then use either the app or – even easier – Siri to control the lights. Even better, no gateway or bridge is needed for the standard functions. With Apple TV or iPad (iOS 10 or later) acting as a home hub, owners can control their lights remotely or include them in automations.

Acuity Brands, Inc. announced today that leading enterprise technology providers are leveraging capabilities within the Company’s newly branded Atrius™ Internet of Things (IoT) platform to deliver software solutions to their customers. These technology providers include, among others, Dimension Data, Phunware, Inc., Verve, LocusLabs, Aisle411, Point Inside, GISinc, Gozia Health, Xenia Retail and Arora Engineers, Inc.

Larson Electronics LLC, a leading industrial lighting company, announced the release of a new hazardous area LED light (HALP-48-2L-LED-DNMS) to be added to its expanding catalog of products this week. This LED light fixture has been designed as a lighting solution for hazardous work locations and features a built-in motion and day/night sensor for improved efficiency.

Telensa, the global leader in connected street lighting and Smart City applications, will host a panel discussion at this week’s Smart Cities Connect, featuring case studies from a pioneering City and Utility that have deployed connected LED Streetlights. Wayne S. Martin, the City Engineer for City of Harrisburg, PA will be presenting on how the entire city was converted to connected LED streetlighting, and the impact it has had, and Scotty M. Hutto, Lighting Services Manager at Georgia Power will be discussing the world’s largest connected LED streetlight deployment.

Power management company Eaton will showcase technology for modern lifestyles with its latest residential solutions for builders and home buyers at the PCBC 2017 show, booth 2041, in San Diego, California, on June 28 and 29. Eaton will highlight its portfolio that is helping enable the connected home of the future, including innovative LED lighting, residential energy management, backup power and wiring devices solutions.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is now very much a reality, with new applications appearing daily – from wearable devices to city-wide traffic management systems. Full IoT implementations are often about Big Data analysis of large sensor arrays, giving us deeper insight and better ability to control our environment than previously possible.

Lighting and shade control leader Lutron Electronics today announced that its smart dimmers, occupancy sensors, and battery-powered shades will become standard offerings in the world’s first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED homes from Lennar, one of the nation's largest builders. Through the use of Lutron lighting and shade controls, buyers will enjoy such benefits as never entering a dark home and using lights and shades to mimic occupancy when away from home.

Silver Spring Networks, Inc. today announced its first international utility-led, country-wide smart street light control program with Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS). JPS is an integrated electric utility company and the sole distributor of electricity in Jamaica serving over 600,000 customers. JPS will extend its existing Silver Spring IPv6 platform to connect up to 110,000 smart LED street lights in population centers around the island including Kingston, Spanish Town, Negril, and Falmouth. Silver Spring’s Streetlight.Vision Central Management System (CMS) will also be deployed for JPS through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model to control and manage the networked street lights.