This update from the field highlights the work of one of LuminAID’s NGO partners, Salaam Cultural Museum as they provide aid to newly-arrived refugees in Greece.

Power management company Eaton announced that operating earnings per share, which exclude charges of US $0.01 per share to integrate recent acquisitions, were $0.97 for the third quarter of 2015, down 25% from the third quarter of 2014. Sales in the third quarter of 2015 were $5.2 billion, down 9% from the same period in 2014. The sales decline consisted of 6 percent from negative currency translation and 3% from a decline in organic sales.

Venture Lighting Europe has supplied to a number of street lighting projects throughout the UK as a cost-effective replacement of previous lamps. The company has seen many successful applications of its lamps across London with over 2000 of Venture’s street lighting solutions supplied, and another 1000 in Aberdeen.

U.S. regulators “scared” the LED industry this week, by halting Lumileds sell to Go Scale Capital. The deal has been put on hold by Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over unstated concerns. Lumileds representatives, however, assured the public that the deal is still in progress and will be sealed by next quarter or first quarter of 2016 latest.

The University of Alabama’s Sewell – Thomas Stadium will soon make history as one of the first NCAA baseball fields lit with an LED light source.

MLS announced its revenue for 3Q15 was down 8.62% year on year (YoY) to RMB 887 million (US $139.7 million). The company’s net income attributable to shareholders was plunged 79.32% YoY to RMB 17.19 million (US $2.7 million).

Georgia Power announced it has rolled out a LED lighting upgrade for approximately 12,500 high pressure sodium lights in City of Columbus in Ohio, U.S, reported WTVM.

Soraa, the world leader in the development of advanced lighting products and gallium nitride on gallium nitride (GaN on GaN™) LED technology, announced it will open a new semiconductor fabrication plant in Syracuse, New York. In partnership with the State of New York, the company will construct a new state-of-the-art GaN on GaN™ LED fabrication facility that will employ hundreds of workers. Working in coordination with SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE), the new facility is on pace for shell completion by the end of this year with production beginning in the second half of 2016. Soraa currently operates an LED fabrication plant in Fremont, California, one of only a few in the U.S.

Acuity Brands announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the equity interests of Juno Lighting LLC (“Juno Lighting Group”), a leading provider of downlighting and track lighting fixtures for both residential and commercial applications. Juno Lighting Group, a unit of Schneider Electric, serves customers throughout North America, including electrical distributors, lighting showrooms, homecenters, contractors, architects, engineers, lighting designers and commercial facilities. Juno Lighting Group operates manufacturing facilities in Des Plaines, Illinois, and Fishers, Indiana, and generates current annual revenues of approximately $250 million.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a solid-state lighting (SSL) R&D funding opportunity on October 29, 2015. Under this funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0001364, “Solid-State Lighting Advanced Technology R&D—2016”), a total of up to $10.5 million in funding is directed toward all three existing DOE SSL R&D program areas: 

Supporters of LightFreq, a smart LED bulb integrated with speakers, have not received the product, despite being overdue for eight months, reported TNW news recently.

Toshiba confirmed in a company statement on Wednesday that it will be withdrawing from white LED production by late March 2016, according to reports from Nikkei and other Japanese media.

Today OPPLE Lighting and Seaborough announced the signing of a technical cooperation agreement (TCA) which is the initial step towards the production of the world’s first universally interchangeable LED light tube; the oneTLed. The agreement was signed by Paul van Doorn, CEO of Seaborough and Martijn van Rheenen CEO of Momentum Capital, the Private Equity group behind Seaborough. For OPPLE Jeroen Janssen, Managing Director Europe and group CTO, Qi Xiao Ming, signed the contract. The signing took place during an official state visit dinner in Shanghai in the presence of His Majesty King Willem Alexander and the Dutch Minister of foreign Affairs, Koenders.

Leyard Optoelectronic announced that the company is to launch private placement of 120 million shares to raise about RMB 1.98 billion (US $312 million). The company will utilize RMB 1 billion to obtain 100% of Planar’s share.

HC SemiTek Corporation announced that its subsidiary Suzhou HC SemiTek Corporation received a RMB 56.4 million (US $8.88 million) subsidy for 3Q15 development from committee of Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone.

A national press ad in UK, seen on 24 January 2015, stated “Have you seen the (blue) light? . Did you know that some blue light, from smartphone screens to sunshine, can affect your eyes?...Many modern gadgets, whether it’s a fancy LED TV or your smartphone, as well as sunlight and energy-saving light bulbs, give off a certain kind of blue light that can cause your retinal cells to deteriorate over time. Boots Opticians can help you protect your eyes from harmful blue light, reducing damage to retinal cells. For GBP 70 (US $106.82), new Boots Protect Plus Blue lenses come with a special finish that filters out the harmful blue light and eases eye strain and fatigue”.

Dow Corning Corp. today announced third quarter sales of US $1.39 billion and net income of $72 million. Adjusted net income in the third quarter decreased 1% to $108 million. Through the three quarters, Dow Corning's adjusted net income, which excludes unusual items, has increased 6 percent despite decreased sales impacted largely by the strong United States dollar.

Resta Peth, a region in Pune City in the state of Maharashtra, India, has rolled out its LED bulb distribution scheme, reported The Times of India.

Councillors have approved plans to upgrade street lights across Edinburgh, saving the city an estimated GBP 77 million (US $117.56 million) over the next 20 years.

Financial scandals this year has pressured Toshiba to speed up the restructure of its less profitable businesses. Following the confirmation on Wednesday that it will be selling its CMOS sensor business to Sony, market rumors have pointed to the company’s intention to withdraw its white LED business, which has incurred consecutive losses. The company might withdraw from discrete component businesses, reported Japanese media Asahi Shimbun.

The City of Martinsville located in the state of Virginia in U.S. plans to upgrade LED streetlight and electric water meters, reported WSLS 10. The project will cost the city US $7.9 million in total, and is still waiting for approval from the city council.

Amerlux CEO and President Chuck Campagna has announced a partnership withEnlighted, Inc., the leading provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for commercial buildings and retail applications. The agreement will enable integration of the most intelligent and advanced lighting sensors and controls with innovative LED lighting fixtures from Amerlux.

Philips transfer of its LED component and automotive lighting business Lumileds to Go Scale Capital was abruptly halted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over national security concerns, reported The Economic Times on Monday.

Middle East country Bahrain plans to initiate the second phase II of its LED Traffic Signals Project next month, said Kadhim Abdul Latif, Acting Roads Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning.

The UN and The World Bank Group are seeking alternative clean lighting and solar energy to reduce global poverty, reported UAE media The National.

Soraa’s Chief Scientist Aurelien David shares his insight on LED lighting challenge beam quality in this latest blog entry.

At this week’s Meeting of the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS 2015), imec and CMST (imec’s associated lab at Ghent University) present a novel technology for thermoplastically deformable electronics enabling low-cost 2.5D free-form rigid electronic objects. The technology is under evaluation in Philips LED lamp carriers, a downlight luminaire and a omnidirectional light source, to demonstrate the potential of this technology in innovative lighting applications.

An Israeli design group kicked off a fundraising campaign for a sound activated gaming dice called Boogie Dice on Kickstarter, targeting a US $50,000 fund and has received US $113,842 so far.

v2 Lighting Group, an innovator in the specification lighting market, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Shelly as the Central Regional Sales Manager. His industry experience and knowledge will promote v2 Lighting Group’s continued growth in the region.

Plessey announced today that it will provide CIRCADIAN ZircLight, a global leader in providing 24/7 workforce performance solutions, with an LED package solution for the development of circadian-modulated, smart LED lighting systems and lamps.