Started from last week, New York’s night skies were lit by up to 2,000 pigeons flew with LEDs strapped to their legs. The performance held in Brooklyn Navy Yard, named “Fly by Night”, was launched by artist Duke Riley. The massive flock followed the artist’s whistle, circled in the sky for 30 minutes over the deck of a decommissioned U.S. Navy ship.

Swedbank’s new international headquarters by architectural firm 3XN is an innovative interpretation if the core values of the organisation: openness, simplicity and care. These have been translated into a modern architectural space with an emphasis on transparency and the creation of a good social environment. Stretching across an entire block, the building takes the form of a triple V structure – a design concept intended to both break up the volume and make it easier to connect both people and spaces. The largely transparent facades bring in plenty of daylight, highlighting the spectacular semi-public atrium spaces.  Natural wayfinding is another key part of the design, with two spiral staircases providing key orientation points.  Social spaces are placed around a central axis facilitating interaction and good internal communication for employees.

It has been confirmed that Philips Lighting will be issuing an IPO instead of being put up for sale, Philips will gradually sell more than 25% of its stake in the lighting business. Additionally, the company’s IPO announcement will disappoint several investors, such as Go Scale Capital, Melrose, and Apollo to name a few that had previously been interested in submitting bidding proposals. The company’s lighting arm in Thailand has also decided to shut down its fluorescent bulb factory as market penetration of LEDs escalate in the local market to more than 34%.

India’s national LED program Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA), will be implemented nationwide by 2019, said the country’s Minister for Power and Coal, Piyush Goyal recently.

MLS released its 1Q16 earnings last week, reporting the company’s revenue of 9.15% year on year (YoY) growth at RMB 819 million (US $125.8 million).

The market for automotive LED components has grown rapidly in recent years. In the interior automotive lighting application market, the penetration of LED products has reached 70% to 80%. The number of vehicles using LED headlamps has also increased considerably.  Among Taiwan-based LED package suppliers, EVERLIGHT has been the most active in the automotive LED market. As one of the leading LED manufacturers worldwide, EVERLIGHT has overcome technology barriers to achieve mass production capability to provide a wide range of automotive LED products. In a recent interview with LEDinside, Torrent Chin, Associate Vice President, Product R&D Marketing, EVERLIGHT, discussed in detail the company’s developments in the automotive LED market and trends observed.

Cree announces that Darren Jackson, most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Advance Auto Parts (AAP), a position he held from January 2008 to January 2016, has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective May 3, 2016.

In this blog entry by Monique Cousineau Social Media Manager for Philips Lighting North America, she interviews 2nd prize winners of CLUE 02 Competition Antonis Athanasiou and Maria–Chrysoula Akrivou about their award winning lighting design.

Acuity Brands announced Olessence™ luminaires by Peerless®, a new high-performance architectural linear suspended lighting solution for commercial and professional office spaces. Olessence luminaires balance OLED and LED lighting technologies to maximize beauty and performance in lighting while optimizing energy savings and cost.

Sengled, a leading manufacturer of innovative smart lighting solutions for the smart home, announces the availability of multi-room streaming and lighting system Pulse Flex. The new LED light bulbs have integrated JBL® speakers and not only ensure individual lighting but also great sound. Thanks to the WiFi interface, the Sengled Pulse Flex connects with the home network and plays music from the users' personal libraries as well as from streaming services or internet radio stations. By means of a smartphone app (iOS™, Android™), lighting and music settings can be operated and zones for playback can be defined. In addition to the Pulse Flex, Sengled also places the lampshades Horn and Onion on the market. They complement the LED light bulb and turn it into a true designer piece for modern homes.

Tri-State LED, a division of Revolution Lighting Technologies, today announced it has recently completed an LED lighting retrofit for The Blue Book Building & Construction Network (The Blue Book Network), the nation's largest commercial construction network. The retrofit occurred at the company's Jefferson Valley, NY corporate headquarters and involved the complete replacement of all existing fluorescent lighting to reduce lighting energy use by 60%.

As pioneers in entertainment lighting, Osram and Clay Paky are once again being entrusted to provide exceptional lighting effects for the shows staged at the Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Stockholm from May 10 to 14, 2016. Around 1,000 moving heads equipped with state-of-the-art light sources will be used to present, in the best possible light, the contestants from 42 countries during the semi-finals and the final. “We are really pleased to be back at this prestigious event with our lighting products”, said Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO of the Specialty Lighting business unit at Osram. Frederik Jönsson, the lighting designer for this year’s contest added: “For lighting designers the Eurovision Song Contest is like the Holy Grail. It attracts an enormous number of viewers from all over the world, and it's a huge challenge: to do it and to do it right.”

The global average sales price (ASP) of 40W-equivalent (equiv.) LED light bulbs fell 5.9% in April compared with the prior month, arriving at US$9.7, while the ASP of 60W-equiv. LED light bulbs fell 7.2% to US$13.1. LED light bulb prices in China have been on a downtrend because of sales activities related to the Chinese Labor Day holiday period, said Allen Yu, analyst for LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. ASPs of LED light bulbs in other Asian regional markets have also dropped due to promotional pricing of some newly arrived products. Prices have also kept falling in Europe and the U.S.

Today Lumileds and Arrow Electronics announced a strategic agreement for the global distribution of Lumileds comprehensive portfolio of application optimized LEDs including high power, mid power, low power, CoB, color and UV LEDs as well as the infinitely configurable Matrix Platform. The agreement aligns with both companies’ dedication to providing customers with responsive, accelerated service and reliable, high performance solutions.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) latest sustainability campaign is offering discounts of up to 25% to selected brand LED bulbs to urge local residents to switch to more energy efficient and environmental friendly lights, reported Gulf News.

The result of financial probe of the extravagant lighting show held by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was revealed, reported Bangkok Post.

Rings of LED lights circle the cylinder pillars of Shanhai Metro’s Hanzhong Road Station and brings to it a natural touch. The columns are now wrapped up in light beams that resemble sunlight. Schools of lit-up 3D printed butterflies took over the walls of the hall way. Jiayu Liu, an artist who is known for its digitalized art installations presented his latest lighting project, Magic Forest.

A senior Samsung Electronic TV business official reaffirmed plans that the company would not be making OLED TVs in the near future, and will be focusing on quantum dot (QD) TVs next year, according to a Korea Herald report.

 Revenues of $78 million, down 21% compared with the same period last year GAAP net loss per share of $0.40 and Non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.15 Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of negative $2.1 million

Scientists from the Light-Matter Interactions Unit, led by Professor Síle Nic Chormaic at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), have developed a new technique to fabricate glass microlasers and tune them using compressed air. The new technique, published in Scientific Reports, could pave the way for the simple serial production of glass microlasers and could be used in a wide range of applications, such as optical communications, chemical or biosensing.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C78 reaffirmed ANSI C78.42 High-Pressure Sodium Lamps. This standard sets forth the physical and electrical requirements for HPS lamps, to ensure performance and interchangeability. The data given also provides the basis for the electrical requirements for ballasts and ignitors, as well as the lamp-related requirements for luminaires.  

The flow of shipments, distribution deals, and retail purchases occurring at Snap Light, LLC headquarters is a clear indication that availability of their new LED Light Case, the SnapLight™ Case, has filled a welcomed gap in the tech industry’s cell phone accessories market. International demand including deals across three continents, orders from lifestyle and fashion giants and negotiations with top buyers from other notable big box tech retailers have placed the SnapLight™ Case among the tech industry’s 2016 must-have list and other top products: All in less than 30 days.

    A U.S.-based startup launched crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for its personal outdoor illuminating gadget, ONE8Ø. The team has secured US $111, 153, which is almost 10 times of their pledged goal, from 1,777 backers.   One80 got its name from the semicircular design, offering both headlamp and waist light for selection.   The 180 degree light, which is also the origin of its name, enable wider view during outdoor activities. The semicircular light strip set the user free from repeatedly turning one’s head for illumination. ...

Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, a leading global supplier of silicon carbide (SiC) power products — including best-in-class SiC MOSFETs, Schottky diodes, and modules — has introduced a free online circuit simulation tool that allows power electronics design engineers to simulate and evaluate the performance of SiC-based power circuits, and to aid in the selection of the optimum SiC devices for each application.   

Maven Optronics successfully developed patented advance thin film coating technology that can be applied in semiconductor manufacturing and even in white LED phosphor coatings that can be made to develop phosphor film products and CSP LEDs. The company is currently rapidly expanding in the European and Asian market. Based on LEDinside observations of flip chip LED and CSP LED market developments, Maven Optronics phosphor film product range is very unique. In an exclusive interview with LEDinside, the company founder and President Dr. Chieh Chen spoke to LEDinside about the company’s phosphor coating technology and related CSP LED applications.

Royal Philips announced on Tuesday its lighting business’s “historical” Initial Public Offering (IPO), which will result in the listing of the lighting business on the Dutch bourse , and aims to sell at least 25% of its shares in the lighting company. The announcement ended contending Chinese and foreign investors takeover bid of the lighting business.

Demand of LED has resumed in the second quarter. Leading Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar reached full production capacity in AlGaInP LEDs. Meanwhile, Unity Opto is expected to see two-digit growth in the second quarter as its order visibility rose to two months.

As the dress code goes by “Tech white tie” under the theme “Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology” for Met Gala 2016, many Hollywood celebrities naturally opt for shining, metallic and sleek textures for their nightgowns.

Shawn Hakim and Jacqueline Gallardo recently launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise money for solar-charging LED lamps for people resident in off grid area deep in Dominican jungles.

Philips confirmed on Tuesday it will be spinning off its Philips Lighting through Initial Public Offering (IPO), reported Reuters.