The Japanese government announced their budget for 2014 on December 22, 2013 of 95.88 trillion Japanese yen (US $920 billion), a new record high. The budget is mainly for increasing support in social welfare, national defense, and public buildings. The Japanese government increased tax fund and reduced bonds in order to reach their target of halving the current financial deficient of around 50 trillion Japanese yen.

Philips India and Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) have teamed up to give the Gateway of India a spectacular lighting makeover on January 24th.

Philips Lumec blogger Jean-François Duquette highlights how industry insiders can learn and get new ideas from trade shows and conferences. Below is the blog entry:

Network based lighting controls have failed to gain much traction over the last 5 years despite the benefits that they can deliver for improving operating costs and reducing CO2 emissions. So why will the influx of LED lighting into the commercial building market open up new opportunities for controls?

Cree, a market leader in LED lighting, announced revenue of US$ 415.1 million for its second quarter of fiscal 2014, ended December 29, 2013. This represents a 20 percent increase compared to revenue of US$ 346.3 million reported for the second quarter of fiscal 2013, and a 6 percent increase compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2014. 

Today’s retail and industrial lighting design continues to evolve with GE’s new Lumination™ IS Series LED Luminaires, which deliver high light output coupled with energy efficiency in a sleek, streamlined fixture for low bay, open ceiling environments.

Digital Lumens announced today that it has brought the Internet of Lights to more than 100 million square feet (10 million square meters) of space across more than 1,000 large-scale commercial and industrial facilities worldwide. In the Internet of Lights, a lighting-based category within the Internet of Things, every intelligent LED fixture is wirelessly networked and gathers sensor and meter data that is used for ongoing operational optimization.

Ace Victory Energy Co.(AVE), an LED manufacturer, uses only the best quality chips in its lamps to assure excellent optical effect. The company is good at identifying optimal balance between thermal design and exterior design, and provides its products with durable, efficient power drivers.

At Lighting Japan 2014 that took place at Tokyo Big Sight last Wednesday to Friday, LEDinside editorial team spoke to various designers at the show. For some, this was the first time they worked with LED designs, while others were seasoned veterans. Tony Yu, Design Director, Design Department for WOW LED Lighting, an Everlight Group subsidiary, speaks about his experience working with lighting.

ADATA™ Lighting has announced the launch of the Tulip LED desk lamp, a practical and gorgeous lighting solution that combines safety with energy efficiency. The Tulip desk lamp provides 1000 Lux of illumination that is free of harmful ultra-violet radiation, and features three-stage brightness adjustment along with a convenient and comforting nightlight.

The earthquake that shook Japan in 2011 drove up LED bulb market demand. Unlike other countries, Japan first developed LED lighting in the residential market which substantially increased market demand as a whole. The lighting market continued expanding LED products in 2013, targeting indoor lighting including residential and commercial lighting, and launching tube lighting, panel lighting and ceiling lamps. LEDinside continues to observe commercial lighting market developments in 2014. As commercial lighting continues to expand, tube, panel, and niche market candle lighting are gradually maturing.

How can light be measured to better improve spatial lighting and brightness? Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic introduces a new 3D lighting spatial measurement “Feu” targeted at architects and lighting designers during the seminar “‘Quality of Lighting’—Brightness and Efforts to Improve the Quality of Lighting” that took place on Jan. 17, the third day of Lighting Japan 2014.

LED chip manufacturer Epistar’s Chairman B.J. Lee during the company’s year-end dinner on the 18th announced that the company is currently the largest LED chip manufacturer globally and hopes to become a first-class company in the future, according to Economic Daily News. The company’s LED lighting shipments have doubled this year and Epitar anticipate 2014 to be a better year than 2013 for the company.

Osram officially spin-off from parent firm Siemens AG of Germany in July 2013, becoming an independent firm in order to fully provide for their clients. Lighting Japan 2014 invited Osram to give a keynote speech in their smart lighting conference to elaborate on the changing trends in the LED industry. During the conference, Osram mentioned having a complete supply chain including chip, package, module, lamp, solution, and after sales services in order to fully develop the LED lighting market. How to use the advantages of LED products and technology to develop energy management systems is consistently a deeply discussed topic.

One of the oldest and largest Romanesque churches in Europe, the Saint-Gertrudis Church in Nijvel, Belgium needed a new interior lighting solution that would emphasize its detailed architecture and artwork. Philips Color Kinetics provided the church with a LED lighting solution and helped it achieved its goal.

The Graphene Research Centre (GRC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Science and the world’s leading chemical company BASF have partnered to develop the use of graphene in organic electronic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLED). The goal of this collaboration is to interface graphene films with organic electronic materials for the creation of more efficient and more flexible lighting devices

TCP International Holdings LTD, the parent company of Ohio-based Technical Consumer Products, Inc. (“TCP”), announced it entered into a patent license agreement with Philips. This agreement provides TCP with access to Philips’ LED-related patents for certain LED luminaire and bulb technologies. As part of this agreement, the two companies have agreed to settle and dismiss the patent infringement lawsuit that was pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Everlight Electronics Co. proudly announces that its laboratory in Tucheng, Taipei received the highest standard recognition by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that works to protect human health and the environment. Simultaneously, EVERLIGHT’s laboratory was also qualified to use the ILAC-MRA mark on its laboratory reports, the signet for Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Soraa launched today the first line of high color and white rendering, high light output LED GU10 230V dimmable lamps. Uniquely, the company has released a 10 degree spot version, not available in halogen or from other LED manufacturers, as well as a 25 degree version that has a peak intensity higher than halogen and all other LED GU10 products. Now customers can buy transformer-free, full visible spectrum Soraa LED GU10 lamps that spectacularly render colors and whites; without beam striations, artifacts or multiple shadows visible in other manufacturer's LED products

OSRAM SYLVANIA continues to deliver technology innovation in the LED power supply market with the introduction of the linear constant current OPTOTRONIC™ programmable 0-10V power supplies and OPTOTRONIC Step-DIM  power supplies. Designed for the OEM market, these LED power supplies offer tremendous design flexibility for a variety of general lighting applications.

Considering Lighting Japan 2014 is a trade show focused on LED and OLED industry, it is probably no surprise that Philips featured a couple of OLED products at its booth from Jan. 15-17, 2014 at Tokyo Big Sight. In fact, the company has highlighted more OLED products at its booth this year than LED products. 

LED lighting demand is a key player for Taiwan LED package manufacture growth in 2014, according to a recent report from Morgan Stanley. Everlight’s goal is to increase lighting revenue percentage to 30 percent in 2014. Morgan Stanley estimates that the company’s lighting operations will double, but that increase in product inventory still requires a lot of attention.

Jason Wu, chairman of Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Edison Opto, is optimistic about lighting demand growth in 2014 and the opportunity for operations to rebound in March. The company expanded PLCC and COB production capacity in 2013 as LED lighting demands continued to rise. The company plans to further expand PLCC in 2014 and estimates that monthly production will increase to 800KK in 2014.

South Korea-based Dageon Technology founded in 2000, the president Mr.Son previously had worked for LG Silitron for 12 years. For most manufacturing machines have to be imported from abroad, Dageon began to research and develop manufacturing machines, in order to contribute to the sapphire substrate market development.

Chinese LED manufacturer Elec-Tech released a report on January 19th announcing the company’s various businesses’ preliminary estimated data for 2014. The company anticipates sales revenue in 2014 to increase by 50 percent compared to 2013, including sales revenue for their LED business which is estimated to increase 100 percent from 2013.

Tucked in the far corner of Lighting Japan 2014 show grounds last week, Philips Lighting booth attracted a huge crowd of visitors with its colorful Philips Hue LED bulb display. The company delivered a clear message of continuing its global strategy of promoting the colorful bulb at the show through a large cargo box display installed with 150 Philips Hue bulbs.

Seoul Semiconductor participated in Lighting Japan 2014 Exhibition which was held in Tokyo International Exhibition Center from January 15th to 17th. With LED lighting applications gradually maturing and limited space for LED dropping prices, HV LED products with advantages in simplified electric current module design are increasing in popularity. Seoul Semiconductor displayed their new Acrich series of products during this year’s Lighting Japan exhibition.

UBS: LED chip supply and demand has balanced out, increase in shipment volume and gross profit possible in the future.Expansion of chip production in 2013 was limited and around 20-30 percent produced was invalid. With LED lighting rapidly growing, supply and demand for the domestic LED chip industry has already balanced out. We anticipate that LED chips will increase both in shipments and gross profit in 2014. Leading manufacturers with advantages in scale and cost and with government backing have the potential  to increase competitiveness.

Nearly 1,000 American Electric Lighting®Autobahn LED luminaires from Acuity Brands, Inc. were installed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to address safety and maintenance challenges on a 19-mile stretch of Highway 98. The previously unlit roadway in Santa Rosa County is now illuminated with new LED luminaires to help increase visibility and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. 

Spanish Architect and Designer Roque Pena Pidal is the 3rd prize winner of the 2013 CLU Foundation Contest for his project 10577 Rays in Helsinki. The jury selected his project because it uses light as an event and it would bring people together. His proposal to have an assembly of reflectors to make the winter solstice as bright as the summer solstice would help the population by increasing their serotonin levels. It is created for a specific location and resembles a big public event.