The city of Phoenix in Arizona, U.S. is asking for public input on the appearance and use of energy-efficient LED technology for street and park lighting.

NEMA’s Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America surged in March, climbing to 64.7 from 44.4 the previous month as more panelists reported conditions improved than eroded. Compared to February, a larger share of the survey panel reported that business conditions improved (41% in March compared to 22% in February) and a smaller share reported that they deteriorated (12% in March compared to 33% in February). Forty-seven percent claimed conditions were unchanged in March, similar to the share holding this view a month ago.

As LED lights are generally considered to be an ideal replacement for conventional HPS lamps for its high efficiency and low maintenance, complaints about these overtly bright energy-saving lights from residential areas across U.S. has been quite common.

Stirling Council is set to save GBP 31 million (US$44.57 million) over the next 30 years by installing energy saving streetlights.

Smoke and flame shot from Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar’s plant in Northern Taiwan last night. The source of the fire was located at the waste water tank next to the parking lot at B2 (second level in the basement) in the company’s N3 plant. The fire started at around 6 PM and was soon under control. There were zero casualties, no one was wounded. The fire has no impact on the company finances and sales.

Investor lawsuits have caused Foshan Lighting’s net profits to plummet 79.93% in 2015 to RMB 53 million (US $8.15 million), while annual revenue dropped 6.26% YoY to RMB 2.88 billion, according to a company statement.

ETI announced recently that the company board’s Independent Director Jing Guo Jiang has resigned, due to personal reasons.

Shanghai Felio Acoustics rebutted misleading reports claiming its affiliated company INESA is building a new LED plant in France that could create 200 to 300 new jobs in the country.

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it won a patent infringement lawsuit regarding LED backlight lens technology against Japanese lens maker Enplas.

Lawsuits, lawsuits and more lawsuits. Basically sums up Nichia’s activities this week. The leading Japanese LED chip maker announced it filed three suits in one week, two of the lawsuits were against U.S. TV manufacturer Vizio, respectively in Eastern court of Texas and Central district court of California. 

The Zhaga Consortium, a global association of lighting companies that is standardizing LED lighting components, has published its eagerly-awaited specification on chip-on-board (COB) LED arrays. The specification, known as Zhaga Book 12, can be downloaded from the Zhaga website (//www.zhagastandard.org/books/book12).

Global leading LED manufacturer Nichia has filed another patent infringement lawsuit against U.S. TV manufacturer Vizio in Central California Court, just one day after filing a lawsuit in the Eastern Texas. Moreover, the Japanese company is enforcing its YAG patents in China, and filed a lawsuit against Everlight subsidiary and distributor in China earlier this month. Below are Nichia’s statements related to the cases:

Veeco Instruments Inc. announced today that it sold its first Predictive Analytics solution to a major data storage customer. Incorporating Rudolph Technologies, Inc.’s (NYSE: RTEC) proven fault detection and predictive maintenance software, the new platform delivers increased Veeco system productivity for maximum efficiency resulting in reduced maintenance costs.

Nichia has filed a complaint in the Eastern Court of Texas in U.S. court against American TV manufacturer Vizio for infringing its LED patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,530,250), reported Law 360 magazine.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) Emerging Technologies Program is seeking information from the public regarding lamps in general illumination applications.

Prospects of the LED lighting market in Indonesia is promising and set to soar this year, due to growing electrification ratio in the country, reported Indonesia Investments.

If you have been following LEDinside news, India has been a booming market for massive streetlight retrofit projects over the last two years. Progress of LED streetlight projects in the region have been mixed, with some states and municipalities successfully implementing plans, and others lagging behind due to political, financial or technical difficulties. 

This recall involves GE Lighting high intensity discharge (HID) LED lamps. The lamps are used in lighting fixtures for warehouses, schools and gymnasiums. The lamps are 5 1/2 inches in diameter by 11 1/2 inches long and weigh about 3 pounds. The lamps were sold in a blue and white carton with “ED37/EX39 base” on the front and “PC:21259” on the back above the bar code. 

As previously announced, Bang & Olufsen a/s ("Bang & Olufsen") initiated a review to identify strategic and structural options to increase scale and further reduce complexity within Bang & Olufsen.

With the industry’s biggest biennial lighting event, Light+Building 2016 running for the whole week at Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Center in Germany, the show hosted by Messe Frankfurt has resulted in a deluge of new lighting product releases. To make things easier for readers, and those who were unable to attend the show, we’ll pick a few highlights.

Heliospectra, a world leader in intelligent lighting technology for crop cultivation and plant research, have together with Gothenburg University and biotech companies CropTailor and OlsAro, successfully grown cereals (oat and barley) in a controlled environment under sole source LED lighting. The report entitled “Growth and development of cereals in a controlled environment with sole source LED lighting” demonstrate the potential to cultivate staple foods in a closed environment anywhere in the world. 

NanoLumens and Navori have revealed a new partnership and the development of a unified strategy to provide digital signage networks to end users and system integrators.

On the biennial Light+Building 2016 organized by Messe Frankfurt, Samsung Electronics (SAMSUNG) and Wellmax Lighting (WELLMAX) jointly showcased their collaboration on LED technologies. The smallest 810lm full-beam-angle LED A50 bulb—the Ultron—is firstly released and gained tremendous attention from visitors worldwide.

Indian city Varansi’s ambitious project to replace old streetlights with LEDs in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency has been delayed, 33,000 streetlight replacements scheduled for completion in September 2015 is long overdue, reported Times of India.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Daintree Networks®—the leader in open networked wireless control, sensing and Enterprise Internet of Things™ solutions for smart buildings—are collaborating on joint solutions involving Samsung’s smart lighting module (SLM). Samsung’s SLM, which will be integrated with LED luminaires from lighting OEMs, enables greater intelligence through device-level processing, as well as enhanced connectivity through multiple embedded communications technologies, including the open standard ZigBee® protocol.  Combining Samsung’s SLM technology with the Daintree Networks ControlScope® networked wireless control solution makes new Internet of Things (IoT) applications possible for smart buildings.

The Fegime Group, the European-wide collaboration of 230 electrical wholesalers, has added the Aurora Group, global manufacturer of energy saving LED lighting solutions, as a preferred supplier of Lighting products in Europe. The agreement will see Aurora Group products being made available to electrical contractors via Fegime’s 1,150 sales points across 27 countries.

Xenics USA, Xenics North and Latin American office covering the full spectral range of Xenics' advanced infrared imagers, cores and cameras, has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Laser Components’ North American sales, marketing and distribution office. With this new agreement, Laser Components USA, Inc. will become the partner to sell and market Xenics in-house developed SWIR line-scan imagers with rectangular pixels. This partnership will further extend Xenics position in the North American IR spectroscopy market. The agreement was jointly signed on February 12, 2016 at the Photonics West Trade show held in San Francisco.

Essex County Council in UK projects it will be able to save about GBP 24 million (US$ 34.23 million) over 20 years with new LED streetlight installations, but despite energy savings it still plans to implement its part-night lighting scheme, reported local paper Dealer Offers.

China officially released13th Five-Year Plan, a crucial document that not only underpins China’s development in the following five years, but clearly demonstrates the country’s economic deployment that could create booming investment opportunities. But exactly which market sectors and emerging trends will follow the newly- released plan? Should LED display vendors invest in the right market, their revenues could potentially soar.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C136 revised ANSI C136.15-2015 Roadway and Area Lighting Equipment—Luminaire Field Identification. This standard provides a simple, uniform method for identifying the type and wattage rating of luminaires used for roadway and area lighting. Types include high-intensity discharge, fluorescent, compact fluorescent, light-emitting diode/solid state lighting, induction, and plasma technologies.