LED Display

LED lighting industry development in the post-Olympics era

ivan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:23:14 +0000

Applications of LED during the Beijing Olympics have raised audience's eyebrows. According to non-official statistics from China, the Beijing Olympics has consumed a total of 500mn RMB worth of LEDs at 36 stadiums, excluding other public lighting applications that are installed at the Olympics villages and parks. But as Olympics grand completed, concerns about whether there exists a fundamental demand for LED surfaces.

Landscape lighting is the key demand driver in the China LED industry. LEDinside believes that the recent Beijing Olympics should help encouraging second-tier cities to adopt low-power LED for landscape decoration thereafter. Amid the anticipated demand, corresponding CAGR for LED packaging is estimated to hit 25% during 200X-2010.

Beijing Olympics lights up LED industry

LEDinside estimates that a total of 4mn units of LEDs were adopted during the opening and closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. By including those being installed at stadiums, subway, outdoor billboards, total amount of LEDs that are being installed should have surpassed several million units.

Among all landscape LED lighting applications, the National Aquatics – Water Cube, must be the venue that draws most attention. Built on an investment budget of 51mn RMB, the Water Cube has installed a total 36,000 sets of specialized lighting tools, which include 470,000 of LEDs, to illuminate the translucent bubble-clad exterior.

LED also plays a vital role during the opening and closing ceremony. During the opening ceremony, a LED-powered scroll that composed by 44,000 LEDs, was displayed for performers to dance on. Another 45,000 of LEDs were also being used to illuminate the Olympics' five interlocking rings. After seeing a heavy adoption of LED during the Beijing Olympics and Doha Asian Games, LED should be widely used in decoration lighting and displays at large-scale performances and events.

China government plays prominent role on LED penetration

Underpinning a meaningful LED penetration is the China government. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has identified LED as a prioritized item for energy-saving applications development in the 「Mid-to-Long Term Development Program for Science and Technology for the years between 2006-2020」as announced in 2006.

Two phases of LED lighting infrastructure is planned for 2003-2005 and 2006-2010 periods. In the first phase of construction, the Central government has spent 140mn RMB to activate a joint program among six government departments (including Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Industry and Information) and 14 provincial governments to adopt LED lighting.

Another investment budget of 350mn RMB has been spent on the second phase of the Program already. Of which, 60% of the budget was spent to subsidized corporate that develop LED, and the remainder to institutes, universities and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

There are about 3,500 private enterprises there in China developing LED. Of which, half of these enterprises design LEDs for use in end applications such as landscape lighting, displays and road signs and automotives. More production bases are also being developed for LED industry players. In addition to the existing five bases, the China government has also approved establishment of two more production bases in Yangzhou and Shijiazhuang in 2007.

LED to flourish at World Expo Shanghai 2010

Shanghai World Expo 2010 is believed to mark another climax for LED adoption after the Beijing Olympics as bountiful of LEDs will be applied for flowing lighting sources at core centers and facilities. Three key landscape lighting applications will be seen at: 1, Huang Pu Jiang (river side of Huang Pu); 2, Expo axis and bridges between eastern and western Pudong and; 3, skywalks bridging key pavilions.

Domestic LED makers, especially for those which located nearby Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, should be benefited from the substantial business potential accordingly. Players ranging from the upstream epitaxy wafer production to downstream packaging and system makers should be able to gain full support from nearby partners by maximizing the synergy of consolidation.

Olympics help encouraging second-tier cities to grow LED lighting

Ongoing development of solid-state LED lighting has drawn players' attention after the Beijing Olmypics. As the Olympics has made a good example to demonstrate LED application in displays and billboards, second- and third-tier cities in China are expected to follow by using more LED-powered billboards and displays.

According to a revealed report from the China LED Industry & National Solid-State Lighting Program, landscape lighting for city decoration will account for 37% of LED production value, being the largest application among all. Handset will be the demand driver after with its production value to account for 28% of all.

If each of the 100 mid- to big-scale cities in China to invest 100mn RMB in landscape lighting installation, total market size will hit 10bn RMB, with an approximate of 10-20bn of high-luminance LED required. As of 2007, LED shipments reached at 82bn units. Based on this shipments amount, it is expected that about 20-30% of the LED capacity will go to landscape lighting. As investment budgets among second-tier cities grow, demand for LED will on the rise also.

Production value of the LED packaging industry in China has already reached 16.8bn RMB in 2007. Driven by aggressive expansion among domestic players and consistent growing demand, the value is expected to grow almost double to 32bn RMB in 2010, representing a CAGR of 25%.

Despite a booming market growth is expected, the China LED industry is still caught in a low sufficiency rate of upstream LED chips at the current stage. As of the 82bn LEDs shipped in 2007, only 46% of them were fabricated locally. Many China-based LED makers have to source wafers from third parties (including Taiwan players) for re production. Therefore, how to raise sufficiency rate will be an imperative issue to solve.

Let the "LED shows" begin in the Bejing 2008 Olympic Games

ivan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:13:22 +0000

After a long wait, the Bejing 2008 Olympic Games, and also called the “Green Olympic, High-tech Olympic, and People’s Olympic” established by the Chinese government, has spectacularly opened today. However, one of our major concerns is the “LED Green Illumination” products which will not only be widely used in this game, but also will contribute to the global expectation in relation to the future of energy-saving luminary. During the Olympic Games, we will focus on the news associated with LED and will start from the “overview of the LED application in the Bejing 2008 Olympic Games”.

There are two main applications of LED including “illumination” and “decoration” being used during the Olympic Games. However, the difference is the “proportion” it is used in the application. Besides, the “display” function of LED will be included as well.

We have listed some LED applications, which are probably known to you by news related to the Olympic Games on TV. This includes:

1.Bejing National Aquatics Center- “Water Cube” which is integrated into the competition venue.
2.Illumination device of each venue.
3.The LED billboards which show the messages of various competitions in each venue.
4.The illuminations and decorations of “Bejing Olympic Park” such as the “Golden DRAGON LED”.
5.The outdoor TV wall and the large LED billboard such as the “Morgan” of which the area is 3,400 square meters located in “Bejing Pangu Plaza”, and the “Sky LED” is 7,500 square meters in “The Place” of Bejing.

In addition to the above mentioned applications, we can also connect with others including “advertising billboard”, “street lamps”, and “traffic lights”. However, the Chinese government has already started to carry out the landscape works in each city in order to welcome the Olympic Games. Undoubtedly, LED will be the “key role” in the works.

We will focus on the above mentioned applications of LED in the coming news during the Bejing 2008 Olympic Games.

Mitsubishi Electric Supplies 11 More Diamond Vision(TM) LED Scoreboards to PGA TOUR

Emma — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:08:40 +0000

Mitsubishi Electric, the Official High-Definition Television and the Official Large Outdoor Video Display Provider of the PGA TOUR, is supplying 11 additional state-of-the-art Diamond Vision(TM: 105.66, +0.54, +0.51%) LED high-definition scoreboards for PGA TOUR events. This completes the TOUR's initiative to upgrade the scoreboard technology to provide a better on-site experience for fans.

The Diamond Vision(TM: 105.66, +0.54, +0.51%) LED boards debuted at THE PLAYERS Championship in May 2007, providing an array of new player and course information tied to the TOUR's ShotLink real-time scoring system as well as a variety of videos. The 22 boards at THE PLAYERS were then divided into two traveling sets of 11 and were phased in at subsequent tournaments.

"The feedback we've received about the first set of scoreboards was tremendous," said Tom Wade, chief marketing officer for the PGA TOUR, referring to the original Diamond Vision(TM: 105.66, +0.54, +0.51%) scoreboards. "We originally planned to have 11 boards on the course, but they have been so popular that we're putting one at almost every hole."

The Diamond Vision(TM: 105.66, +0.54, +0.51%) scoreboards bring a new level of interaction and excitement to PGA TOUR tournaments. Thanks to the full-color capabilities of the Mitsubishi Electric scoreboards, fans are treated to animations, personal player profiles including images and action shots, and broadcast-quality graphics just as crisp and brilliant as those seen on Diamond Vision(TM: 105.66, +0.54, +0.51%) stadium and arena displays.

"We are always looking for ways to enhance the spectator experience at our tournaments, and the Mitsubishi Electric scoreboards have become a very important element of this initiative," Wade said. "Not only are we extremely pleased with what we already have been able to provide the fans through the scoreboards, we are excited about developing compelling new elements that we can include. The addition of these 11 scoreboards will further our efforts to inform fans about our players and the competition."

About Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric's US operations include nearly a dozen companies that manufacture and market an extensive line of commercial, industrial and consumer electronics products. These include elevators and escalators; heating and air conditioning systems; semiconductor devices; high-definition televisions, home theater and display devices; large-scale data walls and stadium displays; automotive components, electronics and entertainment systems; factory automation equipment, power products, solar panels and other items.