Van Wagner Communications recently chose Daktronics Inc. to design and manufacture a new, light emitting diode (LED) display as a component of a spectacular new sign for its client, DB Climate Change Advisors, an institutional and alternatives climate change business of Deutsche Asset Management, a business division of Deutsche Bank AG. The curved LED display functions as the world's first scientifically valid, real-time carbon counter.

Samsung Electronics, currently the world’s top TV supplier, is estimated to buy US$7.5 billion worth of components from Taiwan this year for its LED backlit LCD TVs, according to the company, reported The Taiwan Economic News. Samsung plans to ship 2,000,000 units of LED TVs by the end of 2009, a volume estimated to account for 10% of its total TV shipments of the year. The company has delivered 400,000 units in three months after the launch in April, snatching up 90% of the global market.

Cooper Lighting has expanded its range of Axent LED downlights with the introduction of a new model that delivers energy savings of over 54% when used in place of a 1 x 32W or 2 x 18W compact fluorescent luminaire.

Recently, several efforts have been made in a number of U.S. cities to reduce energy consumption by converting street light bulbs to light emitting diodes (LEDs). In San Francisco, utilities and companies have been working with city governments to implement smart controller technologies. In March, the first 50 LED street lights were installed in the city. Helping make the city smart lights a reality are the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Pacific Gas and Electric, BetaLED and the Echelon Corporation.

Two new lamps from GE Consumer & Industrial—a 7-watt GE Energy Smart® LED PAR20 lamp and a 10-watt GE Energy Smart® LED PAR30 lamp—enable restaurants, retailers and other commercial customers to make significant strides toward general lighting with white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These products of ecomaginationSM, available as spots or floods, feature advanced optical control to concentrate the white LED light on the targeted area and effectively diminish wasted extraneous light.

A massive Anolis architectural LED lighting installation has been completed by A.C. Special Projects Ltd. at London's iconic Somerset House venue. This was designed by Patrick Woodroffe, who was commissioned by Somerset House's director Gwyn Miles.

Sanyo is jumping on the bandwagon of LED lighting development. Its new Eneloop Lamp is incredibly versatile: in addition to serving as a desk lamp, it can double as an emergency lamp, and there also a “Healing Light” mode that emits a blue glow.  

Streetlamps are the focus of Palo Alto's latest bid to lighten its load on the environment. The city announced Wednesday it will replace some traditional lights with low-maintenance induction lamps and light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, as part of a pilot project expected to last at least one year. Nine LEDs and five induction lights will be installed near City Hall and on the residential Colorado and Amarillo avenues. Both are designed to last longer and use 40 percent less energy that traditional sodium vapor lamps, according to the city.

Japan’s OKI Electric Industry (TOKYO:6703) and OKI Data Corp., which markets under the OKI Printing Solutions brand recently announced that the OKI Group will increase its LED (light-emitting diode) production for print heads used in its non-impact printers, and enhance new LED-related businesses. This will be achieved by acquiring an LED production facility in Japan’s Takasaki City in Gunma Prefecture with a ‘clean room’ that is approximately twice the area of the room used currently.

Cree, Inc. announces that Illinois’ Joliet Junior College (JJC) is joining the LED University™ program. College officials recently renovated 12 restrooms on campus, replacing compact fluorescent and tube fluorescent fixtures with six-inch LED recessed lights, LR6s, from Cree. Energy consumption was reduced by 50 percent, from 3,384 watts to 1,692 watts. A total cost of ownership analysis, done by JJC, shows that the college expects to save more than $53,000 over the estimated 25-year life span of the LED fixtures.



OSRAM Opto Semiconductors’ Golden DRAGON Plus LEDs are used by Guangzhou Zhonglong Communications Technology Co. Ltd. for the Yangzi River tunnel luminaire project in mainland China. With an internal diameter of 12.7m, the tunnel is 8.9km long in a twin-tunnel complex and each of the bores with 3-lane of traffic. 5,886 tunnel luminaries with over 410,000 pieces of OSRAM Golden DRAGON Plus LEDs will be installed in two bores. The Yangzi River tunnel will be the longest in the world to have brilliant LED light.

Barco, a global leader in creative LED technology, has recently announced the world's first transformable LED screen for U2's latest world tour. With its 360° shape, the LED screen surrounds the band while performing and can change shape in all directions during the concert. The screen has 500,000 pixels of video, making it the biggest LED screen ever used in concert touring.

A historic light-art concert in Jena, Germany, featured a color-changing performance by 170 LED-illuminated weather balloons in a custom installation engineered by a team assembled by Future Lighting Solutions. Super-sized balloons hung throughout the concert hall changed color on a pre-programmed schedule paralleling the mood and tempo of the music, utilizing RGB LED modules built with LUXEON® Rebel LEDs as well as a closed-loop color and brightness management system to achieve color consistency from balloon to balloon.

Taxpayers could save millions if governments replaced incandescent traffic signal bulbs with LEDs according to an audit released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The audit found that the City of Binghamton, which replaced all incandescent bulbs with LEDs in 2002, has produced average annual savings of $49,800 since 2002.  Binghamton is now paying 59 percent less for traffic signal operation than it did before 2002. The audit is part of DiNapoli's efforts to help identify ways that local governments can save energy and reduce costs.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has today begun marketing an LED-UV (ultraviolet ray) ink-drying system using light-emitting diodes (LED) which enables significant energy saving in printing. The system, which MHI has commercialized, leveraging its know-how as a leading printing machinery manufacturer, is suitable for installation on larger sized (DIAMOND V3000 Series) sheet-fed presses that can accommodate sheets up to 1,050mm (41-11/32 inches) wide.

LSI Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:LYTS) yesterday announced the following two developments:

Albeo Technologies announces the retrofit of the Renaissance on Turtle Creek (Dallas, TX) parking garage with the company’s C-Series solid-state light fixtures. Albeo's C-Series LED fixtures replaced 175 Watt HID fixtures, providing a long-term sustainable lighting solution.

ON Semiconductor has introduced the NCP5680 supercapacitor-optimized LED flash driver capable of delivering up to 10A for photo flash and video light in ultra-slim camera phones and compact digital cameras.

LEDtronics last week added the T8/bi-pin LED lighting tubes to its green-technology lineup. The series LED48T8-288-001W bi-pin LED fits into standard G13 bases and is designed to directly replace conventional T8 fluorescent tubes that provide general lighting for commercial, residential and architectural lighting applications, according to the company.

Brighter, less costly and more efficient, LEDs (light emitting diodes) are making their way into a wide variety of automotive applications, ranging from center high-mount stop lamps (CHMSLs) and turn signals to vehicle cockpits and headlights. "More and more automotive functions are using LEDs," says Viren Merchant, engineering manager for exterior electronics at Visteon Corp., a tier-one automotive electronics supplier. "In the beginning, it was just CHMSLs. Now it's everything from backup lights to rear fogs to daytime running lights."

LG Electronics is fighting back against Samsung's growing grip on the crucial new growth engine in the LED television market, according to an article on The Korea Times. Kwon Il-keun, senior VP of LG's LCD Technology Lab, spent most time of a 20-minute presentation talking of the merits of the company’s LED TVs.

Opto Tech Corp., a Taiwan-based LED manufacturer, has recently won the order to supply over 30,000 LED (light emitting diode) streetlights for the LED streetlight project in Guangzhou, China. As part of its energy-saving program, China is to install over 1.4 million streetlights nationwide by the end of 2009, which will cost an estimated RMB 20 billion. (US$2.9 billion at US$1:RMB6.7).

LG Display Co Ltd announced that it has formed a strategic alliance with Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd, a Japanese provider of OLED materials, to develop high-performance OLED displays. The two companies have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) which includes technology development and cross licensing of patented OLED-related technologies.

In Bangor, Maine, the U.S., the city councilors have recently approved the recommendation to replace more than 300 streetlights in the downtown area of the city with LED lights, according to an article in the Bangor Daily News. The switch will cost $523,000. Broken down per light, it will cost the city an average of about $1,600 for each LED conversion. The new lights will be paid for with a combination of federal stimulus funding and downtown tax increment financing dollars. After the switch, an estimated $34,000 could be saved every year in electricity.

LG Electronics (LG) on Thursday unveiled two new ultra-slim "full LED" LCD TVs in Seoul. And the company said it was aiming to sell as many as 5 million units in 2010.

Axiom NZ announced this week that it has started shipping its AX24 line of LED T-Bar Ceiling fixtures for false grid ceiling applications. The AX2424 is 24" by 24" (2'x2') and the AX2448 is 24" by 48" (2'x4'). Both are designed to be direct replacements for commonly used fluorescent fixtures.

As LED backlight is increasingly being used in LCD televisions, the new lighting source is also becoming common in portable pocket, or pico, projectors. Earlier this year, LED made its first debut in home theater projectors.

Vizio’s previously released 55-inch 1080p/240Hz full-area LED backlit TV, model VF551XVT ($2,200 suggested retail), will ship to retail this September, according to John Schindler, the company’s new product development VP.

Samsung Electronics Co said it aimed to sell 2 million light-emitting-diode (LED) TVs this year, bringing the share of the ultra-slim and power-efficient TVs to 10% of its overall LCD TV shipments, according to Taipei Times. The figure would be two times higher than the current 3% average in the global market this year, according to the latest forecast by a market researcher released recently.

With an eye toward aesthetics and architectural enhancement, Amerlux Lighting Solutions has introduced its new Linear Wall Grazer, a polished extruded aluminum fixture housing 8 or 12 watt LED’s per linear foot, created specifically to enhance outstanding architectural surfaces and materials.   Optically and thermally engineered, Amerlux’s recessed LED Wall Grazer features a discreet 2-inch aperture, uses high-output white LEDs, and consumes less than 12 watts per foot with visually stunning results.