LEDVANCE announced Matt McCarron as Vice President of Industrial Commercial Channel for the U.S. and Canada, filling the role held by Mark Corcoran who retired this year but is acting as senior advisor for the trade channel over the coming months.  LEDVANCE is one of the world's leading providers of lamps for professional users and retail customers offering SYLVANIA LED lamps as well as a wide range of traditional light sources, standardized luminaires and connected lighting solutions in North America.

Swedish lighting experts, Aura Light, welcomes Craig Herriott as its new Northern Regional Sales Manager, as the company continues to expand its UK operation.

David Smart has achieved shareholder status at BioStar Lighting, thanks to his success as Vice President of Sales. David has sold over $4 million dollars in LED lighting retrofits within 2 years. His clients include nationally recognized businesses and large commercial property owners such as Hallmark, UMB Bank, Block Real Estate, DST, MC Realty, Tutera Group and US Toy Co. Smart possesses an entrepreneurial spirit and has been passionate about sustainability from a young age.  Selling and managing energy efficient lighting installations comes naturally to him.  He has set himself apart in the industry by providing customer-focused solutions that include best-in-class products resulting in maximum savings for clients.

Wait…..its Wednesday right? So why are LEDinside editors posting this? Due to the upcoming Chinese Moon Festival, we will not be in office from Sept. 15-16, 2016 and will not be updating our site during this time. So we’d like to wish all our readers Happy Chinese Moon Festival in advance, as we battle against natural elements caused by raging Super Typhoon Mernati in Taiwan.

Korea’s LED industry took off at a much later date than Japan or Taiwan, in fact it developed at around the same time as China, but has advanced at an accelerated rate. However, the country’s LED industry plummeted much sharply compared to Japan, China and Taiwan. The Korean LED industry development occurred in three phases the first was started by upstream LED manufacturers EE coined the “double E era”, followed by Samsung and LG’s entry during the peak of the Solid State Lighting (SSL) phase, followed by large scale withdraw from the market, in response to emerging Chinese LED industry.

Fremont, a city located in California, U.S. will be replacing 14,000 streetlights with LEDs in the next few months, as a citywide effort to slash energy costs and make streets safer for pedestrians at night, reported East Bay Times.

Rubicon Technology announced plans to cease all production activities and shut down its Penang, Malaysia facility. Production activities at the Penang facility are expected to cease by Nov. 30, 2016, with the shutdown of the facility to be completed by the end of the year. The Company’s Malaysia facility has been primarily engaged in producing polished and patterned substrates for the LED market and the decision was made in order for the Company to focus on the optical and industrial sapphire market for the foreseeable future.

MLS board recently nominated Guoqing Tang, a seasoned professional in China’s LED industry, as one of the company’s independent director.

Advanced optical material specialist Pixelligent is ramping up its deployment strategy in Asia, and set up a new office in Taoyuan, Taiwan two months ago, said the company CEO Craig Bandes in an exclusive interview with LEDinside.

Veeco Instruments announced that HC SemiTek Corporation, one of China's leading solid state lighting manufacturers, has ordered multiple TurboDisc® EPIK™ 700 GaN (Gallium Nitride) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems and the TurboDisc K475i™ As/P (Arsenic Phosphide) MOCVD System for production of LEDs.

Seoul Semiconductor announced on Sept. 11, 2016 that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit together with its affiliate company, Seoul Viosys, against Kmart in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Kmart is one of the largest global retail companies with approximately 1,000 stores in the U.S., and whose annual revenues total US$25 billion.

LCD display manufacturer Japan Display Inc. (JDI) developed an ultra-thin bezel LCD that is merely millimeters thick, which could greatly increase smartphone makers design flexibility, reported Nikkei.

A Xiamen-based Chinese technology company (厦门市钛科创科技有限公司) has alerted LED manufacturers of a U.S. LED T8 tube light patent that companies should avoid infringing on in its LED patent thread on social platform WeChat.

Unveiling of the iPhone 7 this week has wowed many, it introduced a dual camera system for the first time and a four-pieced LED lighting that raised lighting output by 50%. The LEDs comprises two warm white and two cool white LEDs. Rumors of the OLED screen…well, we’re not seeing it in the phone yet. So the wait for an OLED screened iPhone probably won’t be over anytime soon.

A state backed power company NamPower rolled out a city wide project covering the replacement of 1 million incandescent bulbs with LEDs, and to reduce household power consumption in Nambia capital Windhoek, according to a report from Creamer Media’s Engineering News.

Pune, a city located in western Indian state of Maharashtra, will be replacing 70,000 streetlights with LEDs, reported Times of India.

Material manufacturer Merck announced it has invested EUR 30 million (US $33.84 million) in an OLED materials plant in Darmstadt, Germany recently to manufacture future displays and lighting.

The U.S. Department of Energy has just published the latest edition of its biannual report,Energy Savings Forecast of Solid-State Lighting in General Illumination Applications, which models the adoption of LEDs in the U.S. general-lighting market, along with associated energy savings, based on the full potential DOE has determined to be technically feasible over time. The new report uses an updated 2016 U.S. lighting-market model and extends the forecast period to 2035 from the 2030 limit that was used in previous editions.

The Qualcomm Smart Campus in San Diego is upping its IQ with the addition of smart, digital sensing technology from Current, powered by GE. GE and Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Technologies, today announced that Current’s sensors, microservices and intelligent LED infrastructure will help drive more energy efficiency, operational savings for Qualcomm’s award-winning Smart Campus, all while extending the company’s existing intelligent environments showcase for visiting customers.

Name of Product: ZapBulb mosquito zapper LED light bulbs Hazard: The light bulb's base can separate from the connector, posing an electrical shock hazard. Remedy: Replace

Power management company Eaton today announced a collaboration with CIMCON Lighting, Inc., a company specializing in intelligent, web-based wireless outdoor lighting management systems. The collaboration combines Eaton’s broad range of outdoor light-emitting diode (LED) luminaires with CIMCON’s intelligent, wireless controls, sensors and software to bring powerful connected lighting solutions for smart cities.

To encourage innovative internal and external ideas, Osram has created a captive business accelerator called Fluxunit. In taking this step, Osram has set up a flexible company unit outside its established structures that will promote new and disruptive business ideas. At the same time, Fluxunit will serve as the central point of contact for external and internal start-ups. 

Osram intends to transfer some of the funds it earmarked for a LED chip fab to making IR LEDs for iris-scanning applications as demands from bankers, smartphone makers and VR systems rise, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Xcel Energy has started to roll out a large scale LED streetlight upgrade in Minnesota to cut back energy consumption, reported Startribune.

These days, LEDs are increasingly being used as replacements for traditional lamps and other electronic appliances. This makes sense, since lighting in general is responsible for up to 20% of the world's electricity consumption. As a result, it has become even more crucial to develop advanced LED materials and technology that produce more light while maintaining efficiency and reliability. In many ways, Taiwan is a leader in the LED industry, since it consistently places at the top of global rankings for LED component output value, while continuing to introduce leading-edge technological advancements.

In the green energy sector, solar, wind, and lithium batteries prices all plummeted, which has disrupted markets and transformed existing market orders, leading to new developments.

LG Electronics announced it will be launching a quantum dot TV, along with its lineup of OLED TVs by 2017, reported The Korean Herald.

September 1st 2016, sees Stage 3 of the Energy Related Products Regulation 1194/2012 take effect.

Royal Philips announced the appointment of Sophie Bechu as Chief of Operations and Executive Vice President. Sophie Bechu, who joins Philips as of September 1, 2016 from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), becomes a member of Philips’ Executive Committee and reports directly to Philips CEO Frans van Houten. Sophie Bechu succeeds Pasquale Abruzzese, who left Philips in May of this year for personal reasons.

This week, GE Lighting made an important announcement to its employees regarding its changing market strategy in Asia and Latin America, and the company’s redirecting focus to its more profitable regional markets and products.