The ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve will shine into 2012 with LED lighting. The almost 12,000 pound aluminum ball made its debut with LEDs in 2008.

LED lights are light-emitting diodes that are quickly replacing incandescent and fluorescent lighting.

By using LED rather than the halogens of old, the ball uses 88 percent less energy and enables the creation of different designs in 16 million colors across its surface.

Philips (News - Alert), a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions and provides the LEDs for the Times Square ball. Inside the sphere there are 32,256 individual LED lights behind 2,688 triangles made of Waterford crystal.

Philips said the LED ball is part of the transition to a more energy-efficient lighting set to begin next year.

The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, the organizers of Times Square New Year’s Eve, have launched the 2012 official Times Square Ball app along with their partners, Toshiba and Livestream.

The app is specially designed for Apple and Android (News - Alert) mobile devices, and is designed to put fans up close and personal with the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square, no matter where they are in the world.

Within a two-week period, the app was downloaded more than 174,000 times across 163 countries.

In recent news, Amerlux has unveiled SmartSite, the world’s most technically advanced street lighting system, which integrates energy efficient LED lighting technology with a robust, bi-directional mesh network control system. The system manages lighting, audio, video and energy usage throughout urban, suburban and college environments.