 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
Samsung Says ASA Ruling allows Use of Term "LED TV" in UK with Explanation |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||
Philips and Lighting Science Group Settle All Litigation
SSLDesign News Staff
September 1, 2009...Lighting Science Group Corporation (“LSG”) and Royal Philips Electronics announced that they have settled all of their commercial and intellectual property disputes. The settlement involves a comprehensive agreement that revives their former commercial alliance. Under the terms of the agreement, trading of LED lighting products between the companies will be intensified, LSG will take out a royalty bearing license to the Philips LED based Luminaires and Retrofit Bulbs licensing program, and Philips will make a limited equity investment in LSG.
The commercial relationship reportedly involves mutual sourcing and supplying of LED components and products. The details concerning the commercial arrangement and the patent license agreement are confidential. The investment of five million United States dollars is in the form of a convertible note that will convert to preferred shares upon LSG’s planned rights offering. The agreement also provides for mutual releases for all claims relative to the past, including all intellectual property and commercial claims and all the pending cases between the companies will be dismissed.
Also during the month of August, Royal Philips Electronics ended its patent litigation against Taiwan LED-maker Epistar that it brought before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Philips reportedly ended the litigation because the patent in question would expire before the ITC could resolve the dispute. Royal Philips Electronics News Release
Energy Focus, Inc. Awarded Additional $0.5 Million to Provide LED Lighting for US Navy Ships
LIGHTimes News Staff
September 1, 2009...Energy Focus, Inc. of Solon, Ohio USA, a maker of solid state lighting fixtures, reports that it has been awarded an SBIR extension grant from DARPA to develop LED-based fixtures for general lighting on navy ships.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded the company $.5 million from the extension small business innovative research (SBIR) grant.
According to the company, the new fixtures will replace 50 and 110 Watt water tight incandescent fixtures now in use. Energy Focus, Inc. says that with the new fixtures it can offer energy efficient, long-life LED lighting alternatives to replace both incandescent and fluorescent systems across the entire Navy fleet.
The fixtures that the company will develop over the next 11 months will reportedly utilize the company's proprietary Ultra Low Distortion Solid State Power Supply technology. Energy Focus News Release,
LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Holiday Inn Hotels Switch to Signage Using GE LED Lighting
LIGHTimes News Staff
September 1, 2009...The Holiday Inn hotels will get new LED-based signage as part of the $1 billion global Holiday Inn brand relaunch. According to Holiday Inn, more than 3,200 of its hotels are being updated to improve quality and consistency of service at
Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels around the world. A redesign of the iconic brand logo required new exterior signage for over 3,200 locations. The signage reportedly incorporates GE Tetra LED lighting systems, which are GE ecomagination certified solutions from Lumination, GE Consumer & Industrial’s LED business. The new signage will reportedly save Holiday Inn an estimated $4.4 million annually over previous neon and fluorescent lighting including $3 million annual maintenance savings and $1.4 million from energy savings.
The Tetra LED lighting systems used in this program include Tetra Power White and Tetra® MAX for channel letters, and Tetra® PowerGrid for box signs. Tetra® Power White is a high-performance LED system that delivers up to 66 lumens of white light per module.
GE Lumination News Release,
LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Mitsubishi Electric Completes Installation of Two Diamond Vision Screens for Nakayama Racecourse
LIGHTimes News Staff
September 1, 2009...Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, reports that it has completed installation of two multi-screen Diamond Vision large-scale display systems, called “Turf Vision,” at the Japan Racing Association (JRA)’s Nakayama Racecourse in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The new screens will be debuted on Saturday September 12, 2009, the opening day of the “Fourth Nakayama Keiba (horse race).”
The displays incorporate LEDs and the latest digital screen controllers. The two Turf Vision screens can provide high-definition video content, and will display a variety of information to race course visitors.
The 40.8 m wide and 9.6 m high “Turf Vision 1” is installed on the left-hand side of the front stand. This screen can reportedly be divided into two parts, to simultaneously display separate contents such as dynamic real-time media streams and race results. The “Turf Vision 2” screen installed on the right-hand side is 14.4 m wide x 8.0 m high, and will feature displays of the race track, paddock and odds.
Similar Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision screens can be found today in many baseball and football stadiums, numerous other racecourses and other venues. Recent installations of racetracks in Japan include the 977-inch screen for the Biwako Kyotei (boat race) in March 2008, the 828-inch screen for the Utsunomiya Keirin (bicycle racetrack) in March 2009, the 587-inch screen for the Maebashi Keirin in April 2009 and the 561-inch screen for the JRA Sapporo Racecourse in June 2009. Mitsubishi Electric aims to further expand its business in large scale displays for racecourses and stadiums. Mitsubishi Electric News Release
Raleigh-Durham International Airport Gets $1.38 Million in Stimulus Money for Change of Runway Lighting and Signs to LEDs
LIGHTimes News Staff
August 27, 2009...The Raleigh-Durham International Airport will receive $1.38 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will provide $1.38 million to the Raleigh Durham Airport Authority for the Raleigh-Durham International Airport to rehabilitate runway lighting on runways 5L/23R. The funding will go towards a $10 million runway lighting and airfield signage replacement project. RDU Airport News Release, LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Ledtech to Ramp Production and Start U.S. Shipments of Low Temperature LED Lighting
August 27, 2009...Ledtech of Taiwan expects to increase its share of the low temperature and refrigerator case lighting market in Taiwan to increase from 60 percent to 90 percent in 2010, company chairman Frank Liu said in a Digitimes article.
A digitimes article cited Liu who indicated that the company plans to begin production of LED light bars at its China plant with a monthly capacity of 40,000.
The company noted in the article that its LED lighting revenues make up more than 50 percent of its total monthly revenues so far in 2009.
Ledtech will reportedly begin shipping 5-foot long LED light bars to the U.S. market in September or October. The company expects that this additional market will help raise revenues during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2009.
The article also stated that Ledtech is working with Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha of Japan for LED light bar production. Orders from the Japan partner started in May, and so far the value has reached NT$10 million (US$3.05 million),
Our news features are reported
by the LIGHTimes staff writers.
For submissions or content suggestions, you can contact us using
editor -at - sslighting.net
For more information and to reserve promotion space contact
Info8 -at - sslighting.net
or call +1 (512) 257-9888
|
Solid state lighting group launches, SSL Summit picking up speed
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
September 15, 2009...A new opportunity to communicate... Solid State Lighting Design has just launched a Linked-In group (this link, might get you there if you already have a Linked-in account, which is free, othewise search groups for "solid state lighting" and you'll spot our logo). Linked-In seems to be a solid tool of choice among a wide variety of professionals, and we're going to use it to assess the value of comments and interaction, as well as the work load it creates for our organization. We've tied in the RSS feeds that chunk up our current SSL Design news stories, which should be the basis of the comment threads. Having taken a look at a few other groups out there, it's easy to see the value diminshers, including unmoderated discussion topics which turn into advertisements for companies or services, some not even directly involved with the industry. The good news is that no one is anonymous on Linked-In, so offenders only embarrass themselves. The bad news is that no one is anonymous, so some of the more "gritty" thoughts we might otherwise get to see won't find their way into words. It's a start. Be sure to check it out.
And for a quick chuckle in about "groups", we came across one in the SSL industry that reminded us how exciting the industry is, in the sense that lots of people might be jumping in without yet having all the tools that it takes to really be "a lighting company". The description of the group sort of speaks for itself (direct cut and paste, misspellings and extra words as they appeared): The [name removed] group wants to hear from business professionals who offer some unique talent to the our firm. The market stienks and securing an opportunity that is geared towards helping the environment that is lucrative is rough. We are mover and shakers and are on a global mission to help rid the planet of mercury infested inneficient lighting. If you are connected and want to contribute, while earning some nice cake, then we look forward to hearing from you! I expect the author isn't the same one putting together their press releases, and we'll claim our share of occasional typos, but when the rubber meets the road there in the sales channel, are lighting decision makers seeing the consistent professionalism that they need to for LED lighting to be a credible industry?
SSL Design Summit is picking up momentum... You would be hard pressed to miss the banners we fly about, so be sure to give a click and check out the current topic agendas to see what's coming up in New York/New Jersey Nov 3-4 and then in Los Angeles Dec 1-2. The fact that there are both East and West coast versions should be a hint that we're regionalizing the conferences to better meet the lighting decision maker audiences where they live. We'd also like to recognize the now-full compliment of co-chairs for the 2009 series, which include Jeff Miller of Pivotal Lighting Design, Kathy Abernathy of Abernathy Lighting Design, Randy Sabedra of RS Lighting Design and now, Andy Powell of Lighting Design Alliance. (Anyone notice a pattern there? Hint: "lighting design"). Jeff and Kathy are, respectively, the President and President-Elect of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), while Randy and Andy are both past presidents of their respective sections of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). All will be speaking, along with a number of their lighting design/engineer/architect colleagues, and one is currently even an LED skeptic, having been burned by some poor quality and service in a somewhat recent attempt to incorporate LED-based lighting in a project.
The Summit series is all about quality... Remember that when theory and reality collide, reality always wins. LED lighting offers the promise of incredible efficiency, capability and performance, but there can still be a bit of a gap here in the real world. Focus #1 will be to educate, inform and connect lighting decision makers with quality LED lighting companies and their thought processes, in order to equip them to make the best business decisions concerning the inclusion of solid state lighting in their projects. To that end, as we've always done for our speakers/topics, we'll also be vetting the reception evening showcase companies, and even our sponsors, to assure that products anyone sees live, hears about in a talk, or companies that are promoted, are pretty highly assured to perform as advertised. (We contend that if the big lighting trade show took this approach, only 20 or so booths there would be showing SSL products... wouldn't that make the lighting decision maker's job easier). Focus #2 will be on educating and informing luminaire manufacturers (great, good and other) with the real needs of lighting decision makers, as well as connecting them to quality enabling technology providers so they can better access the tools they need to implement quality products that serve the customer's needs. Simple enough. For direct conference links, you can visit the NY/NJ, LA or Taiwan sites.
Conferences - Good ones are still incredibly valuable, others aren't... Strictly as an illustration, an announcement for a non-LED or SSL industry conference crossed my desk recently, pronouncing how good things were going, and that if you hurry here at the last minute, you can "register one, bring one free". Seems to us you should get the same deal if you already registered, especially since you showed the commitment to register early, providing the organizer with oft-needed cashflow that is used to better promote an event. Makes you wonder if the commitment of the conference is at all to the industry, or merely to themselves. We always challenge those evaluating their yearly/quarterly conference plan to ask themselves a two-part question: "Does the conference deliver well thought out and organized content, and do they have 'skin in the game' in which their success is linked to helping the industry to succeed , or can they just bail out and do a conference in some other industry?" Two-for-one or other last minute discounts are a hint that the underlying value may not be there, and past attendees are not choosing to be attendees this time around. Exceptions exist of course, as can be the case if an industry consolidation occurs (simply fewer companies around) or if it turned out that something else created a calendar or attention conflict (been there, done that). If those exceptions aren't applicable, challenge your assumption of the value.
An often missed value component - the web... Shhhh, it's a secret: Advertising and sponsorships are about branding and messaging, not about "click throughs". Are TV and radio advertisers so ignorant that they've tossed away hundreds of billions in 30-second ads without a single click-through... or is it maybe really about branding, recognition and messaging? "Calls to action" happen separately, based on PR and news reports in an industry such as ours, especially news concerning a new product introduction or a substantial application/account win. Broadly speaking, what should you get from a Summit conference sponsorship?
1) Association with an event that demands quality from its high-visibility participants. It's a visible testimony to the industry that you are also a company that values substance and quality of performance over hype. (Brand-building by association, and proof that you "made the cut").
2) Branding exposure. While 150-250 people may attend the events, we typically see 50K-100K page views on the conference websites. Premium sponsors logo's and links appear on all of those pages, while smaller sponsors appear on many of them (at the bottom, but where there is still important content). Between all of the events, attendees will likely account for 3000 or less of the page views. The other 47,000-97,000 are still saturated with the branding, and each one helps solidify that quality-association connection. Not everyone gets that concept, but we find the most successful companies in the industry sure do.
And what if you are a luminaire manufacturer and don't (yet) qualify for a high visibility position? No sweat. There's a limited number of such positions, so it's not a ding against you in anyone's eyes, and we're not publicizing who didn't qualify. We just can't offer the implicit endorsement and exposure that comes with a high profile sponsorship. Your mission is to be there to hear from, and network with, the decision makers to really understand their needs, and to grasp the latest from the quality LED and other component suppliers, so you know the latest about the resources and expertise that you need to in order to position your product to qualify in the future.
If you have questions about
the solid state lighting and compound semiconductor industries or
have
news or views to share, we want to hear from you! Feel free to contact
us anytime.
The main office line is +1
(512) 257-9888
Current SecondPage members may access extended content by logging in here
or Sign up for a LIGHTimes SecondPage membership now
Copyright 2001-2008 by CompoundSemi Online Inc.
Some content under license from Veriphos Communications LLC