Via Inhabitat:

Calling all architects, interior designers and lighting designers! Do you have a spectacular architecture or interior project that uses LED lighting? Share it with the world today in our Lighten Up! An LED Lighting Design Competition. We’re looking for the best and the brightest examples of residential and commercial interior lighting designs that make use of energy-efficient LEDs. Exceptional designs will be put up to a popular vote, and the top 15 entries in both categories will be reviewed by a panel of expert judges who will determine which two winning submissions should be awarded a $1000 gift certificate for use towards Elemental LED products. Judging will be based on aesthetics, creativity, innovation and how well LEDs have been employed a project’s space. Enter your work in either the residential or commercial categories (or both!) by Monday, April 22, 2013.

Check out this great article from Fast Company on an amazing new source of wi-fi transmission:

Who needs wires when you’ve got lightbulbs? The Fraunhofer’s Heinrich Hertz Institute has uncovered a way for LED light to transmit broadband data, without the broadband wires, Gigaom.com reports.

The Institute claims it discovered a way to turn consumer quality LED lights into data transmitters capable of sending 3 Gbps. Simply putting a PC or internet enabled device beneath a radiant LED light will allow them to stream data at a high speed. Unfortunately, however, it only goes one way, so you can’t send information. Great for streaming video though.

Go to full article here!

Hubbell Lighting is getting ready to hit the big time – literally! Hubbell’s massive booth will debut at Lightfair 2013, featuring lots of new products from Hubbell Lighting’s top brands. We’re excited about being a part of this booth and having the opportunity to showcase our products as well as utilize the interactivity employed throughout the booth.

Registration for Lightfair 2013 is now open! Book your hotel and travel to Philadelphia – a city rich in culture and art! We look forward to seeing you at HLI Booth #1745 – Lightfair April 2013!

Light can be so comforting. The glow from windows of homes as you drive through your neighborhood, or from the next room at night while your family gets ready for bed. That warm, comforting feeling is exactly what the Good Night Lamp is all about. When the Big Lamp turns on and off, so do the Little Lamps it’s connected with. Whether you’re on a trip or live around the world, something as simple as turning on a lamp could make you feel more connected with friends and family. At first, I wasn’t so sure, but the idea is beginning to grow on me. Would you use the Good Night Lamp?

Image Graphics: Architectural SSL

Columbia’s LLHP 2′ LED Premium High Bay was honored as one of the award winners in the High Bay category of the third annual Architectural SSL magazine Product Innovation Awards! Fixtures were judged on a 1-10 scale with judges scoring entries in composite sections varying from an initial grade, to scores for technical merits, as well as scores for specific attributes such as replacement policies.

Jim Crockett, Editorial Director of Architectural SSL magazine said, “Now in our third year, the process of judging the Architectural SSL Product Innovation Awards should be on auto pilot right? Wrong. This year, more than ever, things were tough, as frankly, the competition has cranked up, and our judges have also ramped up the criteria as to what impresses them. The good news: there was plenty to be impressed by.”

We are proud to receive this award and be featured online and in print (digital version) by Architectural SSL. Congratulations to the other lighting brands that also received recognition in this year’s Product Innovation Awards!

Images: (L) Alan McAteer (R) Amano Studio

NVA, a registered Scottish arts charity, tours it’s living exhibit Speed of Light to different countries, collaborating with a unique team of choreographers and runners in each country it visits. This vibrant and captivating display of movement, light, and sound was created to inspire runners of all abilities, making non-elite level running extraordinary. This living (and moving!) exhibit also encourages people to take another look at their surroundings with a new perspective as their normal surroundings serve as backdrop to this unique display. As explained on the Speed of Light website, “The 120 suits worn by runners are individually controlled from a central system which can instantaneously change colour, flash-rate and luminosity, producing the stunning light patterns made by the choreographed actions of massed runners.” The LED suits are powered by the runners’ hand movement as they run or move along their routes. In what other ways do lights make us see things from a new or different perspective?

Image: Tourism Ireland

This St. Patrick’s Day, you may have seen many famous landmarks turning green! Tourism Ireland (responsible for marketing Ireland internationally) has put a campaign into place over the past several years to encourage more and more famous destinations to “go green” for St. Patrick’s Day by using green colored lighting. These include Niagara Falls, The Sydney Opera House, and The Sphinx to name a few! Bernard McMullan, a spokesman for Tourism Ireland told NBC News, “St. Patrick’s Day is our one day when we are front and center in the world’s consciousness and we’re very, very lucky in that respect … we try to make sure that we maximize that from a tourism and cultural perspective.”

See if your favorite landmark was one of the many to “go green” this year!

Image: Mercedes-Benz USA

An interesting article from The New York Times delves into the growing role of dramatic lighting in the auto industry. In the past, lighting use in cars was more about function and less about form, but according to many car manufacturers including Ford, Mercedes, and Range Rover, this is no longer the case. As noted in the article, “…manufacturers are shaping headlights to help establish a signature for their brands, much as grilles’ shapes have in the past. The main headlamps and high beams, daytime running lights and turn signals have become increasingly complex parts of cars’ faces”.

3-D printing is beginning to influence ideas about what is possible for small-run manufacturing and conceptual pieces. A lovely example of this is French designer Patrick Jouin’s 3-D printed Bloom Table Lamp. Jouin has been called “one of the major protagonists of contemporary design on the French and international scene.” One glance at this beautiful ‘objet d’art’ and you can immediately see why. The Bloom lamp is more than just a light source: it an artistic expression of nature that also happens to provide illumination. Because 3-D printing allows complex production of moving plastic parts the lamp, which can be opened and closed in the manner of a blooming flower, is actually comprised on a single, linked piece of material. The ‘blooming’ motion allows the user to control the amount of light that the lamp emits. To learn more about this incredible little product go here or here!

Craving lighting news? Here are three interesting posts that we thought you might enjoy!

3 Myths About LED Lighting

Artist Prepares to Light Up San Francisco’s Bay Bridge Like Never Before

LED Lighting Can Save 12.78% of the Energy Used in Taiwan