Everything you ever wanted to know about screen technology

When it comes to the business of lighting up individual subpixels, the majority of desktop and laptop screens use either twisted nematic (TN) or in-plane switching (IPS) technology. Both work in roughly the same way, employing a backlight with a matrix of liquid crystal subpixels in front, each of which can be controlled electronically to block the light or allow it to shine through. As such, both types of display can therefore accurately be referred to as LCD monitors. Similarly, since both use thin-film-transistor technology to control the state of individual pixels, both can correctly be referred to as TFT displays.

Santee Cooper giving away free LEDs to residential customers

Santee Cooper will be giving away highly efficient LED bulbs to its residential customers beginning Monday, Oct. 6, as a way to promote energy efficiency and celebrate Public Power Week and Customer Service Week, both of which occur the week of Oct. 6. In addition, Santee Cooper will greet customers with free refreshments in retail offices on Thursday, Oct. 9.

The LED giveaways will take place at all nine Santee Cooper retail offices during regular business hours. Residential customers can visit any Santee Cooper retail office beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 6, and receive two free LED bulbs per household.

The free LEDs are available on a first-come, first-served basis and quantities are limited.

Santee Cooper is celebrating Public Power Week along with more than 2,000 other community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities that collectively provide electricity to 47 million Americans. 

Customer Service Week is designed to spotlight the importance of customer service throughout Santee Cooper and thank customers for their support.

Fotodiox Packs Powerful LEDs into Flat, Compact Package

Fotodiox just announced some very flat, very compact AC/battery powered LED edge lights for use in video productions. My experience with Fotodiox LEDs has been relatively positive, with strong power and excellent color consistency. The new lights, called FlapJacks look to be an excellent addition to your lighting arsenal. Designed to be lightweight, portable and easy to set up, Fotodiox says the FlapJacks produce soft, even light which would be ideal for impromptu interviews, capturing beautiful portraits or even shooting tabletop food or product photography.

LEDs Are An Important Climate Change Solution

LED bulbs help reduce air pollution, making the air healthier to breathe for kids and others who suffer from asthma, heart disease and many respiratory ailments. Most household energy still comes from coal-burning power plants. About 12 percent of the energy we use at home powers our lighting -- from ceiling fixtures and under-counter lights to table and bedside lamps. An LED bulb uses 70-90 percent less energy than a standard bulb, limiting the need to burn that much more coal.

LED Equipped offers superior emergency vehicle lighting and equipment

For CEO Yehuda Goltche, LED Equipped serves as a distributor of emergency vehicle equipment. He stands behind all the products and offers a three year warranty on merchandise. His company specializes in all police lights, fire lights, emergency lights, warning lights, police LED lights, warning vehicles, construction lights, construction warning lights, strobe kits, visor lights, LED deck and dash lights, LED grill lights, and construction beacons.

Cree Announces New Generation of High Power LEDs to Achieve Better Performance and Lowest System Cost

Cree, Inc. introduces the XLamp MH-B LED, a new generation of high power LEDs that delivers better performance and a more effective way to achieve low-cost systems than mid-power (MP) LEDs. Using Cree’s high reliability ceramic package technology, the XLamp MH-B LED is able to operate at higher temperatures than MP LEDs with no reduction in rated lifetime, enabling an impressive 60 percent reduction in heat sink size and cost. Using up to 26 times fewer LEDs than MP LEDs to achieve the same level of performance, the XLamp MH-B is optimized to simplify LED system designs for applications where multiple MP LEDs are currently used.

Featuring Cree’s EasyWhite technology and a small 5-mm light emitting surface, the XLamp MH-B provides many system benefits over arrays of MP LEDs, including tighter beam angles, simpler optics, a more traditional appearance and easier color consistency. As a single LED, the XLamp MH-B LED delivers up to 830 lumens at 175 mA and can also be used in arrays to address higher lumen applications that require low cost and high reliability, such as high bay, outdoor area and downlights.

Marty McFly’s shoes include LEDs, arrive this month

There's still a dearth over hoverboards, but if you dream of owning Marty McFly's shoes from Back to the Future, you're in luck: the company Halloween Costumes has unveiled a licensed replica pair, complete with LED lights. They're available in a wide range of sizes and not set to release until September 30, but there's one snafu.

Man creates light-up surf board equipped w/ LEDs for night surfing

Night skiing is offered at Snow Summit and Boreal Mountain Resort in Northern California, but a local man has something fun to do in the dark at the beach. Sean Johnson is getting ready for a nighttime surf session. He doesn't have a full moon to light the ocean, but he doesn't really need the help. He's on the "Night Rider," a surfboard with LED lights inside that illuminate the waves he catches. Sean's father, Roy Johnson, has shaped the idea into a reality.

Hammonton plans to update airport lights to LEDs

Town Council is embarking on a project to replace runway, taxiway and other lighting at the Hammonton Municipal Airport with energy efficient LED lights. The council voted unanimously Monday night to introduce an ordinance to bond $86,514 for the town’s 10 percent share of an $865,140 total. The state is providing the remainder of the cost. The new lights are expected to save the town $8,000 to $10,000 per year on the airport’s electric bills, Mayor Steve DiDonato said after the meeting. That’s about half of what the town has been paying to light the airport, he said.

Hubbell Outdoor Lighting adds DLC qualified high-lumen-output LED floodlights

Hubbell Lighting announced the release of two new LED floodlights from Hubbell Outdoor Lighting — the FLL and FXL. The two high lumen output fixtures round out a versatile floodlight offering for office buildings, facades, safety/ security and other applications. Delivering excellent uniformity and shielding options, both floodlights feature vented housings designed to isolate the LED module from the driver maximizing product life and performance. Constructed with a heavy-duty steel yoke with adjustable stainless steel hardware, both floodlights are listed to UL1598 for use in wet locations and are DLC qualified. Additionally, the flat surface tempered glass lens protects the LEDs and allows for quick and easy cleaning and debris removal.

LED evangelist Teddy Lo combines art and commerce in real world

A suggested war cry for those save-the-worlders who have seen the light (and are partial to cold war-era sloganeering): better LED than dead. The proclamation's modern application refers to the light-emitting diode's capacity to slash electricity consumption and bring about our exodus from the greenhouse of doom. No longer simply red readouts on rudimentary calculators, LEDs are the power behind pictures on jumbo TV screens, the transmission of information from remote controls, the intensely annoying scrolling text up the sides of the ICC in West Kowloon, and much more. But first, a taste of the gospel of the holy diode: Planet LED, recently published by Teddy Lo.

Winona Lighting expands offering of decorative LED fixtures

Acuity Brands, Inc. introduces Winona FORMS LED architectural solutions from Winona® Lighting. New traditional, transitional and contemporary styles are offered in a variety of complementary architectural shapes across the brand's pendant, ceiling-mount and wall sconce portfolio.

Winona Lighting has engineered a unique, patent-pending Form Analogous (FA) Optical SystemTM to fully optimize the potential of LED lighting by enhancing visual comfort and reducing energy consumption. The FA Optical System is design-specific by form and source and distributes candela where it is most beneficial, achieving visual uniformity and eliminating component shadowing, pixilation and hot spots. Each FA Optical System has been designed for modularity, allowing for field service or replacement.

County greenlights LED transition

No one has signed anything yet, but the Nodaway County Commission gave an informal nod of approval to a proposal from Brightergy, a company specializing in solar and LED installations, that will transform lighting systems at all four county facilities: the Administration Center, jail, courthouse and Road and Bridge barn. If formally adopted, the project will replace existing fluorescent fixtures with LEDs, a highly efficient illumination technology that Brightergy claims will save the county $10,000 a year over 10 years with no out-of-pocket costs.

Ikea Bends Over for Flexible LED Lighting

Light emitting diodes, better known as LEDs, run cool and use very little electricity. That’s a cost benefit that furniture giant Ikea simply can’t pass up. The company is partnering with Scottish company Design LED Products to incorporate thin, flexible LED tiles on to a range of household products from furniture to bulbless lamps or for television backlighting.

Get the ultimate light experience with the new Philips Hue Beyond

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, introduces Hue Beyond, a breakthrough lamp with two separate light sources that work together at the same time. This means it is possible to have high quality tunable white light needed for everyday functional tasks at home, whilst also changing the mood of the room using colorful light to enhance the space. As the hottest addition to the extensive Philips Hue system, Philips Hue Beyond benefits from all of the popular connectivity features such as the light recipes and interaction with more than 190 third party apps, but with twice the light, doubling the Hue experience.

Philips Hue Beyond has two light sources, an uplight and a downlight, that are both controllable separately via the Hue app using a smartphone or tablet. With Philips Hue Beyond you have the flexibility to create light that works for you; imagine having a relaxing evening ambience in your bedroom from colored light, whilst also having the perfect white light to read tuned to your ideal color temperature. The elegant table light is ideal for a home office, the pendant light is well placed above a dining table and the ceiling light is perfect for a living room – a space that gets used in many different ways throughout the day.

“Most spaces in a home these days are multifunctional and therefore they need to be flexible to adapt to what is needed - this is where lighting can really make a big difference,” comments Leonardo Avezzano, Consumer Marketing Director Hue luminaires. “With Hue Beyond, a kitchen table can go from a place to enjoy dinner with the family to a place children can do their homework without affecting the ambience of the room, but with the added benefit of keeping you connected to the world around you.”

With its connectivity features, Philips Hue Beyond can discreetly alert you to a new email or change in weather via a gentle ‘light notification,’ just like Philips Hue. It also has its own intuitive interface within the Hue app to control its unique features. Select from a range of dynamic new scenes which take advantage of the two unique light sources such as ‘Paris by night’ for romance or ‘Cherry Blossom’ to wind down.

Philips Hue Beyond works seamlessly with all Philips Hue and Friends of Hue products, which makes it easy to add to an existing Hue network, allowing you to blend soft smooth tones across your home. Whether adding Hue Beyond to an existing or new network, the set-up is easy – just make sure the smart bridge is connected to your wireless network, then simply download the app to your smart device, plug in, and switch on.

Lextar and Cree, Inc. Announce LED Cooperation

Lextar Electronics Corp., a vertically-integrated LED company from Taiwan, and Cree, Inc. announced that the companies have entered into an agreement whereby Cree will make an investment in Lextar and the companies will enter into a supply agreement for sapphire-based LED chips.  As part of the agreement, Cree will invest approximately $83 million to purchase 83 million Lextar shares at a price of NT$30 per share.  Lextar and Cree will also enter into a long-term LED chip supply agreement, as well as an agreement for certain Cree LED chip and component intellectual property.  Upon closing of the investment, Cree will own approximately 13% of Lextar, becoming Lextar's strategic customer in lighting market.

Flashing LEDs could create a mesh network for self-driving cars

Engineers are working on all sorts of technologies that could make cars smarter and help drivers stay safe–lasers, radar, ad-hoc WiFi, and advanced image recognition are all on the table. However, these are all complicated and expensive to implement. Intel research scientist Richard Roberts has a different idea. It may be possible to use visible light emitted by LEDs to create a low-cost automobile mesh network. Many cars already have LED headlights that could be used in such a system, so we’re already off to a good start.