Philips declare a loss after announcement of lighting split.

Philips has posted a £81 million net loss on its third quarter earnings only three weeks after its announcement of intentions to split from its lighting division.
Philips has blamed this loss on slowing markets in China and Russia and a £290 million patent law suit in its healthcare division.
Comparably,lighting sales declined 1% Year on Years but LED based sales increased by 28%. This was counteracted by a 14% decrease in overall conventional lighting sales. The LED lighting division in Philips now represents 40% of total lighting sales, compared to 30% this time last year.
On the 28th September, the dutch giant made public its decision to split off its lighting business to focus on its high margin consumer and healthcare divisions. The separation will result in the creation of two new companies, Lighting and HealthTech, but these will both continue to use the Philips brand.
A Philips spokesperson for Philips has denied that the announcement of the split was to distract shareholders from the disappointing third quarter losses, 'We are talking about two separate things', stated the spokesperson, 'One is the strategic announcement to do something that we think is in the best interests of both entities of the business. And the results are a snapshot of something that we do every quarter as a listed company you have to.'
They continued, 'As our CEO said, we're not satisfied and if you look at the numbers it's clear that you cannot be satisfied. But having said that, if you look at the numbers there are lots of incidents in there. If you exclude those, we do see some improvement in the underlying business.'
The growth in LED sales and the considerable fine for the Philips healthcare division might seem ironic given Philips has decided to move away from lighting to focus on healthcare.

The Physics Nobel Prize 2014 Awarded for the Invention of Blue Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)!

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 has been awarded jointly to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, Shuji Nakamura, "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." 

The Nobel prize is awarded for an invention of the greatest benefit to mankind, the invention of the blue LED has fundamentally transformed lighting technology, red and green LEDs have been around for some time but without the blue LED, a white light could not have been created.

The first ever blue LEDs were made by the Nobel Prize winning trio in the early 1990s, enabling a new generation of high energy bright blue light, the basis for the new era of light bulbs. In addition to this, the development  of colour LED screens that most of you probably have in your televisions at home and your smartphone currently in your pocket.

The winners of this groundbreaking invention succeeded where everyone else had failed, in the industry and in the scientific community. They will share prize money of £0.7 million between them and will also be added to the prestigious list of 196 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901 when the Nobel Prize was first established.  Professor Olle Inganas, a member of the prize committee commented that this invention "would make Alfred Nobel very happy".

LEDs (literally) outshine traditional incandescent and fluorescent lamps, delivering better quality of light as well as a reduction in energy consumption. This improvement is as simple as this; traditional lighting whilst converting electricity into light  creates a wasteful mixture of heat and light whereas LEDs convert electricity directly into photons of light. 

One fourth of the world's electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, so the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth's resources. Materials consumption is also diminished as LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent lamps and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights. 

To make your contribution in saving the Earth's resources please visit http://theledspecialist.co.uk/ and see this revolutionary invention light up your home and your planet. 

Wembley Stadium Arch Illuminated With Colour Changing LEDs.

Thorn Lighting has rejuvenated the lighting on the arch of Wembley Stadium with a colour-changing LED lighting system in order to provide intense colours and moving light effects.

The new system has been designed for Wembley Stadium sponsor and digital communications company, EE and will be visible on the London Skyline. The lighting system can be programmed to change colours for national holidays, football matches and other special events.

Managing director of Wembley National Stadium, Roger Maslin, said "We can now use the arch to make big, bold and entertaining statements which can be seen right across London. With so many lighting scenes the possibilities are fantastic. From the St George's Cross and team colours to highlight goals for big games, to solid and moving colours for event lighting, to the corporate colours of our sponsor EE and charity partners, the lighting is transformational and exciting." Maslin is certainly thrilled with this exciting new venture, which is sure to make an outstanding impact on the illumination of the stadium.

Senior lighting designer at Thorn Lighting, Pat Holley, who created the lighting design scheme commented that, "The arch's lighting system consists of a dynamic floodlight with red, green, blue and white LED chips. Fifty per cent of the LED chips are white and the remaining are equal quantities of red,green and blue." Thorn also designed and created a custom bracket to allow the existing fittings to be used which sped up the entire process significantly.

Kevin Stubbs, UK technical manager, reported that, "Importantly, Wembley wanted the new 'whiter' LED white to match the white achieved with the old metal halide system. We therefore had to tune the LED white to achieve this consistency."

The Arch itself is the longest single span roof structure in the world, standing at 133, tall with a span of 315m and a diameter of 7.4m. It is so large that it could fit the London Eye beneath it and can be seen from as far as 13 miles away on a clear evening, so look out for those colours in the London skyline!