The Board of Directors of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) at its meeting on Dec. 3, 2013 appointed Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public & Government Affairs at Philips, as the new chairman of the Board.

For most of us, light isn’t a luxury. It’s a basic need that, with the exception of planned power outages or a blown fuse, is very rarely unavailable.  At the flick of a switch, light illuminates our offices, classrooms, hospitals and homes, enabling us to carry out essential everyday tasks without worry. We dictate its start, intensity and end; we’re in control.

Philips is said to be in talks with Foxconn in regards to OEM light bulb production with orders estimated to reach 10 million a year, according to a report by Apple Daily on the 26th. Foxconn declined to comment to the market rumor.

The market has been focused on whether Taiwan LED chipmaker Epistar’s private placement will draw large international investors. Epistar issued US $250 million (NT $7.5 billion) euro convertible bonds (ECB) to Philips in August 2013. However, the company has denied the transaction.

Philips LED Lighting Campus in Chengdu that has been closely watched by the industry was opened today, in the western campus of the Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone (Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province). On the same day, Philips also unveiled its world-class Lighting Application Center that is located within the facility. 

For its 100th birthday, Entergy Corporation and Entergy Arkansas, together donated $2M to illuminate three bridges in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a new LED lighting solution from Philips Color Kinetics.

Philips has released a new dimmable LED with a radically different shape compared to other LEDs and incandescent bulbs. The new SlimStyle 60-watt equiv. LED, available for retail in one month, has dropped the cumbersome heat sink and flattened out with a flat circle design.

Philips showed off their new smart bulbs Hue at this year’s 25th Taipei International Building, Construction, and Decoration Exhibition. The company  showcased the future trend of LED smart lighting, according to the Economic Daily News on December 13th. The new wireless color tunable LED ceiling lamp can be remotely controlled for mood lighting, with plans of being launched in the beginning of 2014. The already released Dynalite series uses wireless smart lighting concepts to illustrate the company’s innovative thinking as well as the future possibilities for LED lighting

The innovative lamp series “Orbit” from Philips Co. has recently won the Bronze Award of Design for Asia Award (DFA) 2013. Designed with the oriental idea of the sky being circular, the endless round shape of the Orbit Series was created through use of new LED technology. When installed, the lamps look like luminous rings which provide pure lighting impressions by soft, bright light and dimmable luminance.

On December 5th, Philips Lighting gave a futuristic home lighting show titled “Light, Creating and Witnessing Touching Residences” at 800 Show in Shanghai, China. By working with three famous interior designers, Zhang Yi, Bill Yen and Ouyang Hui, Philips expressed how innovative lighting can change residential surroundings through multiple lighting designs. At the show, these designers shared their creation concepts with attendees through three show rooms that displayed minimal, fashionable and neoclassical styles respectively.

Light is an essential element for urban environment, it also represents the culture and image of a city. In order to emphasize on the importance of urban lighting plan, LUCI started running the annualcity.people.light awards in conjunction with Philips Co. in 2003. The 2013 award is the 10th anniversary of this award so we compile all the winners in its history for you to take a quick and amusing glance.

The Rainforest of Canada's pacific coast lights up for the holidays with the illuminated Capilano Suspended Bridge Park.

The First Prize Winner of city.people.light Award 2013 is Rietburg, Germany; there are some excellent cities which also did great lighting masterplans and were rewarded prizes. In the second article of the city.people.light award series, we are offering you a glance on these exceptional cities.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, USA is one of the widest cable-stayed bridges in the world. Named for both the local civil rights activist Leonard P. Zakim and the American colonists who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, the ten-lane bridge spans the Charles River and carries over 200,000 cars each day to and from major interstates on the north side of the city. At night, lit with bright blue light, the Zakim Bridge is an instantly recognizable feature of the city skyline. In an interview with The Boston Globe, bridge architect Miguel Rosales said: “the bridge is supposed to have the feel of a regal entry to Boston, the towers bathed in blue, the cables highlighted in gleaming white."

Created in 2003 by Philips and LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International), the city.people.light is an annual award that is attempting to rehumanize the urban environment through light. It also rewarding cities that are exploring ways to maximize energy efficiency, improve sustainability and livability. The 2013 Awards has been conferred to the following cities: Rietberg, Germany, Seoul, South Korea, Geneva, Switzerland, Zhengzhou, China, and Wuppertal, Germany.

Being opened to traffic on March 29th, 2013, the Dragon Bridge, which was designed by the US-based Ammann & Whitney Consulting Engineers with Louis Berger Group, is the second bridge run across the Hàn River. The bridge is shaped as an eastern dragon and illuminated by Philips luminaires so it looks like a true dragon surfing on the water.

With ‘modest progress’ and a ‘growing sense of realism’ being widely reported to sum up the mood at this year’s climate change talks, Philips is calling for renewed optimism and action. This is based on the energy savings impact the company is seeing from the implementation of energy efficient lighting technologies such as LED.

Philips Ledalite has taken sustainable architectural lighting design to new heights. How you ask? With Jump’s breakthrough advancements in LED optical performance and controls integration, combined with unparalleled design flexibility.

Author: BeLight.com No one can escape from going to a hospital since the very first day we were given birth. Except for seeing doctors, undergoing surgeries and getting prescriptions, some patients have to stay in patient rooms for an extended period of time for further medical examination and better recovery. This is a space that should be as comfortable as your bedroom, but rarely are. BeLight is offering a review on this topic and share some news about lighting ideas for hospitals.

Philips and Desso - global leaders in lighting and carpets respectively - today announce a partnership agreement to develop solutions that combine LED lighting with light transmissive carpet. This innovation will further unlock the potential of LED integration into surfaces and adds an exciting dimension to interior design and space planning. The solution will transform the way people interact with information and their environment in offices, hotels, conference centers and other public buildings.

Royal Philips shared its new brand positioning, which builds on the company’s heritage of creating innovations that matter to people. As part of its new positioning Philips introduced the new brand line “innovation and you”, which is rooted in Philips’ strong belief that innovation is only meaningful if it delivers on people’s unmet needs and desires. At the same time the company presented a new design of its well-known shield on the façade of the company’s headquarters in Amsterdam.

Philips Lighting North America announced that it was recently awarded a 10 year performance lighting contract with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Washington Metro Goes Green & Saves Green with Philips Performance Lighting Contract, Delivering on Sustainability Goals with 15 Million kWh Saved Annually. Innovative new multi-year, turn-key lighting-as-a-service model gives WMATA brighter, safer LED lighting for garages, with none of the up-front cost.

With the continual low price trend of  in the LED market, manufacturers are beginning to consider options for lowering productions costs. LED package free products have become the focal point of the industry in 2013 with many manufacturers actively breaking into R&D and production.

Royal Philips has developed a media enabled luminous ceiling to simulate energizing daylight to comfort critically ill patients. The LED based ceiling has been introduced into clinical use by the Charité Campus Virchow Clinic in Berlin as part of a unique stress-reducing concept called “Parametric Spatial Design”. Hospital staff can enter the desired parameters and the large, sky like area which creates visuals and light moods customized to the situation of individual patients, enabled by software from ART+COM. The Clinic has implemented the concept in two of its intensive care patient rooms to enhance the healing environment for patients who are severely ill.

The global Breast Cancer Awareness Month takes place every October. To help raise awareness on this health issue that affects approximately 1.4 million women around the world, Philips has decorated 100 buildings and landmarks around the globe in pink lights. This is also the first time that Philips Taipei office is joining the showy display and lighting up four Taiwanese buildings in pink.

Phillips Luxeon® LED-based street lighting is being installed in the Garment District, Manhattan borough of New York City, also known as the Fashion District for fashion manufacturing in the United States, and even the world.

“I visited the Philips Lighting Application Center earlier in the year which helped me learn more about the application of LEDs and where they made sense” Steve Kendig, Facilities Manager

Recently Philips in Chengdu announced a new masterpiece: the Master LED bulb. The 7W Master LED bulb has a luminosity equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb with an energy efficiency of around 85 percent. The life span of the bulb is about 15 years with the ability to be switched on and off roughly 50 thousand times. Such a long life span allows consumers to avoid the troublesome task of replacing bulb after bulb.

Light is at the heart of our communities, our technological advances and our sustainable world. Speeding up this new age of digital light will unlock even greater health, well being, sustainability and economic benefits for society as a whole. This is the conclusion of an independent report - ‘The Future of Light’ – published today by think tank PSFK Labs and supported by Philips. The report is available on www.psfk.com, and accessible as a SlideShare slide show and as an iOS or Android app.

Following international lighting giants Philips, OSRAM, and GE shift towards LED lighting, local manufacturers from various countries followed suit. CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets most recent report showed a good outlook for LED lighting market development in 2014 and believes that LED lighting demands will be the driver for LED manufacturing capital expenditures in 2014. They predict that global numbers for new MOCVD units in 2014 will increase compared to 2013, reaching an estimated 390 units.