DONGGUAN, China, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — QCY, a globally renowned brand in wireless audio technology, is proud to announce that its QCY H3 Pro Adaptive Noise Cancelling Headphones have received the Red Dot Design Award 2025, one of the most prestigious honors in the global design community.
This new award joins the H3 Pro’s increasing number of international awards, including the VGP Design Award and the IDEA Award, thereby further reinforcing its reputation for sophisticated aesthetic, user-centric design, and innovative forward thinking.
QCY H3 Pro Wins Red Dot Design Award 2025
Red Dot: The Universal Standard for Design Excellence
The Red Dot Design Award has been one of the most renowned design awards in the world since its establishment in 1954. An international jury of design professionals evaluates products based on design quality, innovation, usability, and functionality. The H3 Pro was distinguished because it features a premium industrial design, a user-friendly interface, and outstanding sound quality.
QCY H3 Pro: A Design and Sound Award-Winning Leap
The QCY H3 Pro is a premium over-ear headphone for immersive, high-resolution sound. Featuring adaptive noise cancellation by up to 50dB and a dual-chip architecture—a main audio chip and a dedicated amplifier chip—it delivers deeper, more powerful bass with better clarity.
The product’s ergonomic shape ensures long-lasting comfort throughout extended listening periods. With support for the LDAC codec and being Hi-Res Audio certified, the H3 Pro delivers detailed sound over a wide frequency band. In addition, the implementation of spatial audio technology allows for a multi-dimensional, cinema-like soundstage, while individual EQ settings through the QCY App allow users to tailor their hearing experience based on their personal needs.
A Commitment to the Future of Design.
This recognition mirrors QCY’s unwavering commitment to design excellence and empowering users. QCY aims to make high-quality audio accessible by merging intelligent technology, eco-friendly values, and considerate design that enriches everyday life.
Regarding QCY as a top global audio brand owned by Dongguan Hele Electronics, it is committed to expanding the possibilities of wireless audio through technology and intelligent design. With more than 16 years of experience in the field and millions of users across the globe, QCY is still venturing into the future of consumer electronics. Stop by qcy.com to learn about the newest products.
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM – Media OutReach Newswire – 9 May 2025 – Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus proudly announces the Best Young Sommelier Competition by Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus – Asia Edition 2025, a landmark event designed to cultivate and celebrate the next generation of sommeliers talent throughout Asia. This prestigious competition will serve as a crucial stepping stone for candidates, preparing them for future success on both local and international stages. This year, Vietnam will have the honor of hosting the competition, welcoming aspiring sommeliers from numerous regions, including China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
The Jury Panel for the Best Young Sommelier Competition by Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus – Asia Edition 2025
Nurturing The Future of The Sommelier Community
Dedicated to nurturing the next generation of wine professionals, the competition provides a platform for young sommeliers aged 18 to 30 to demonstrate their expertise and passion. Candidates will progress through three rigorous stages: preliminary selection, semi-finals, and finals. This year competition is particularly honored to have a distinguished judging panel of 8 renowned wine experts presiding over the semi-finals and finals.
Competition Timeline and Structure
The preliminary selection round has successfully concluded across regions in March and April, indentifiying the top 10 young talents who will be representing their nations in the semi-final and final rounds, taking place in Vietnam from May 20th to 21st, 2025, at Mai House hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Top 10 candidates competing in the semi-final and final rounds for the Best Young Sommelier Competition by Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus – Asia Edition 2025
On May 20th, the semi-finalists will participate in a private event featuring a thorough written examination and educational workshops to assess and elevate their knowledge and skills. The top three performers will proceed to the public final on May 21st. This final round will be a dynamic public showcase where finalists will demonstrate their expertise through live performances judged on wine region knowledge, sensory analysis, food pairing, and service technique.
The winner will receive a special prize package: a five-day immersive experience in Bordeaux, exploring the prestigious Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus estates; a Château Montlabert gift box; and a bottle of Château Beychevelle. The winning association will also be awarded a case of Castel wines and an exclusive online masterclass.
A Commitment to the Asian Sommelier Community
“We are thrilled to host the Best Young Sommelier Competition – Asia Edition 2025, bringing together talented young sommeliers from across the region” stated Mrs. Stephanie Voy, APAC Senior Marketing Manager at Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus. “This initiative underscores our commitment to fostering strong connections within the Asian sommelier community and empowering the next generation of wine professionals. We aim to provide an enriching and unforgettable experience, offering valuable knowledge, insights into Bordeaux wines, and unparalleled networking opportunities for the candidates.”Hashtag: #BestYoungSommelier
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Castel Châteaux & Grand Crus
Castel’s Family Estates have traditionally been based in the Bordeaux region, although the family have made acquisitions in 3 other major French winemaking areas: the Loire, the Languedoc and Provence. This means that the family can offer a range of red, white, and rosé wines built around 11 AOCs and 1 PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) area. This collection is made up with more than 60 exclusive wines from the 20 Family Estates.
These Great Wines’ standards are extremely high, inspired and upheld by the family’s commitment to excellence. Teams of experts are constantly at work to ensure that the products capture the quintessence of each one of these terroirs, hand-picked by the Castel family. One of the fundamental values close to the heart of the business as a whole is the preservation of the terroirs, reflected in Castel Estates and Vineyards’ growing commitment to sustainability. To date, 1000 hectares of vineyard are either Terra Vitis accredited or certified organic.
About Apron Fine Wines & Spirits and Celliers d’Asie Vietnam
Red Apron Fine Wines & Spirits and Celliers d’Asie Vietnam proudly serve as the official platinum sponsors for the competition, demonstrating their shared commitment to empowering the next generation of sommelier talent across Asia.
Red Apron Fine Wines and Spirits is a leading wine company in Vietnam, offers over 3,000 wine and spirit selections, including renowned brands, estates, and chateaux, along with premium accessories. With 16 stores nationwide, they consistently aim to provide the finest wine experiences.
Celliers d’Asie Vietnam is a leading wine importer and distributor in Vietnam and serves as the direct supplier for Red Apron Fine Wines & Spirits. Their sophisticated selection and premium accessories make them a comprehensive resource for wine enthusiasts, contributing to Vietnam’s evolving wine culture.
About Lucaris
Lucaris is a world-renowned premium crystal glassware brand produced in Thailand, joining this year’s competition as the official glassware sponsor.
With world class quality and design, inspired by modern Asian cities lifestyle, Lucaris evokes the wining senses, enabling the wine to develop its full aromas and tastes, and creates an emerging paradigm in the art of pairing wines with modern Asian Cuisine.
About KadeKa
As the official wine chiller sponsor for the competition, KadeKa represents quality and innovation in wine preservation. Established in 1998, KadeKa revolutionized Singapore’s wine chiller industry by introducing the first-ever 30-bottle wine chiller, catering to the evolving needs of a burgeoning wine-drinking community. With continual effort, KadeKa expands its product line, aiming for seamless home integration and an elevated lifestyle.
Underpins De Beers Group’s commitment to natural diamonds Element Six to retain exclusive focus on industrial applications for synthetic diamonds
LONDON, UK – Media OutReach Newswire – 9 May 2025 – De Beers Group today announces its intention to close its lab-grown diamond (“LGD”) jewellery brand, Lightbox, reinforcing De Beers Group’s commitment to natural diamonds in the jewellery sector. As part of the closure process, De Beers Group is discussing the sale of certain assets, including inventory, with potential buyers.
Lightbox, which was established in 2018, has highlighted that LGDs are a distinct product from natural diamonds, with different attributes and different value. The business was launched with transparent linear pricing of $800 per carat. Since then, LGD prices in the jewellery sector have fallen 90% at wholesale, tracking closer to a cost-plus model as they have diverged from natural diamond prices. Reflecting this sharp price decline, De Beers Group intends to discontinue the Lightbox business. The evolution of LGD values in the jewellery sector underpins De Beers Group’s core belief in rare, high-value, natural diamond jewellery as a separate category from low-cost, mass-produced LGD jewellery.
The proposed closure of the Lightbox business reflects a key executional milestone in De Beers Group’s Origins Strategy, as set out in May 2024, to focus on high-return activities and streamline the business. The closure will enable De Beers Group to reallocate investment to initiatives focused on reinvigorating desire for natural diamonds through category marketing.
De Beers Group will work closely with employees, retail partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders to ensure a smooth process over the coming months. Customers will continue to receive support for existing purchases, including warranties and after-sales services, during the closure process. Demand Growth for Synthetic Diamonds in Industrial Applications
Element Six, De Beers Group’s subsidiary that previously produced lab grown stones for Lightbox, maintains its exclusive focus on industrial solutions using synthetic diamonds. Building on its world-leading status developed over more than seven decades, Element Six is well-positioned to seize the rapidly growing potential for synthetic diamond applications across a range of future-facing technologies and applications. By centralising CVD (chemical vapor deposition) synthetic diamond production at its state-of-the-art facility in Oregon, US, Element Six will work with its growing global network of partners to accelerate cutting-edge technologies for high growth industries, such as semiconductors and quantum technologies. With a track record of growth and profitability, Element Six is favourably positioned to drive the future of synthetic diamond solutions in industrial and high-tech applications.
Al Cook, Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Group, said: “As we move towards becoming a standalone company, we continue to optimise our business, reduce costs and build a focused De Beers that is positioned for profitable growth.
“The persistently declining value of lab-grown diamonds in jewellery underscores the growing differentiation between these factory-made products and natural diamonds. Lightbox has helped to highlight the fundamental differences in value between these two categories. Global competition continues to intensify with more low-cost lab-grown diamond production from China. In the US, supermarkets are driving down lab-grown diamond jewellery prices. Overall, we expect both the cost and price of lab-grown diamonds to fall further in the jewellery sector.
“The planned closure of Lightbox reflects our commitment to natural diamonds. We are also excited at the growing commercial potential for synthetic diamonds in the technology and industrial space.”
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About De Beers Group
Established in 1888, De Beers Group is the world’s leading diamond company with expertise in the exploration, mining, marketing and retailing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers Group employs more than 20,000 people across the diamond pipeline and is the world’s largest diamond producer by value, with diamond mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. Innovation sits at the heart of De Beers Group’s strategy as it develops a portfolio of offers that span the diamond value chain, including its jewellery houses, De Beers Jewellers and Forevermark, and other pioneering solutions such as diamond sourcing and traceability initiatives Tracr and GemFair. De Beers Group also provides leading services and technology to the diamond industry in the form of education and laboratory services via De Beers Institute of Diamonds and a wide range of diamond sorting, detection and classification technology systems via De Beers Group Ignite. De Beers Group is committed to ‘Building Forever,’ a holistic and integrated approach for creating a better future – where safety, human rights and ethical integrity continue to be paramount; where communities thrive and the environment is protected; and where there are equal opportunities for all. De Beers Group is a member of the Anglo American plc group. For further information, visit www.debeersgroup.com.
SEOUL, South Korea, May 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Coway Co., Ltd., the “Best Life Solution Company,” today reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2025.
Coway Financial Results
“Coway achieved solid results across both domestic and global markets,” said Soon Tae Kim, Coway’s Chief Financial Officer. “These achievements were driven by our continued rollout of customer-centric, innovative new products, as well as the strengthening of our strategic marketing activities. In the second quarter, we will continue to remain agile within an ever-changing market while enhancing our products and service competitiveness and accelerating the expansion of our elder care business, Coway Life Solution, in order to ensure stable, long-term growth.”
* The reported figures are taken from the consolidated K-IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) statement.
Coway’s domestic business recorded a first-quarter revenue of KRW 678.6 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 10.8%. This growth was driven by a 63.0% year-on-year rise in net rental account additions, totaling 103,000 in Q1. It was also driven by the strong sales of such new product launches as the Looloo Double Care Bidet 2 and the NOBLE 2.0 Air Purifier series, as well as the continued popularity of key product lineups including the Icon Water Purifier series and the BEREX lineup of mattresses and massage chairs.
Coway’s overseas subsidiaries posted a first-quarter revenue of KRW 446.7 billion, up 25.8% from the same period last year. The company’s Malaysia subsidiary achieved an impressive KRW 328.9 billion in revenue, marking a 22% year-on-year increase, while the United States and Thailand subsidiaries also sustained steady growth, recording revenues of KRW 60.0 billion (+33.7% YoY) and KRW 42.9 billion (+43.9% YoY) respectively.
Coway also announced its plan to repurchase KRW 110 billion worth of treasury stock this year as part of its Corporate Value-Up Plan. The repurchased stock is expected to enhance shareholder value through actions such as cancellation.
For additional details about Coway’s financial performance, please visit the company’s Investor Relations page.
About Coway Co., Ltd.
Established in Korea in 1989, Coway, the “Best Life Solution Company,” is a leading environmental home appliances company making people’s lives healthy and comfortable with innovative home appliances such as water purifiers, air purifiers, bidets, and mattresses. BEREX, the company’s sleep & wellness brand, aims to improve the quality of life through cutting-edge mattresses and massage chairs. Since being founded, Coway has become a leader in the environmental home appliances industry, with intensive research, engineering, development, and customer service. The company has proven dedication to innovation with award-winning products, home health expertise, unrivaled market share, customer satisfaction, and brand recognition. Coway continues to innovate by diversifying product lines and accelerating overseas business in Malaysia, the USA, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Europe, based on the business success in Korea. In 2025, the company launched Coway Life Solution, a premium elder care platform offering personalized care solutions tailored to different life stages. For more information, please visit http://www.coway.com/ or http://newsroom.coway.com.
BEIJING, May 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Sohu.com Limited (NASDAQ: SOHU), a leading Chinese online media platform and game business group, will report its first quarter 2025 unaudited financial results on Monday, May 19, 2025, before U.S. market hours.
Sohu’s management team will host a conference call on the same day at 7:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, May 19, 2025 (7:30 p.m.Beijing/Hong Kong time, May 19, 2025) following the quarterly results announcement.
Conference Call Preregistration
Participants can register for the conference call by click here, you will be led to the conference registration website. Upon registration, each participant will receive details for the conference call, including dial-in numbers and a unique access PIN. Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin.
The live webcast and archive of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Sohu’s website at https://investors.sohu.com/.
About Sohu
Sohu.com Limited (NASDAQ: SOHU) was established by Dr. Charles Zhang, one of China’s internet pioneers, in the 1990s. Sohu operates one of the leading Chinese online media platforms and also engages in the online game business in the Chinese mainland. Sohu has built one of the most comprehensive matrices of Chinese language web properties, consisting of Sohu News App, Sohu Video App, the mobile portal m.sohu.com, the PC portal www.sohu.com, and the online games platform www.changyou.com/en/.
As a mainstream media platform with social features, Sohu is indispensable to the daily life of millions of Chinese, providing to a vast number of users a network of web properties and community based products, which offer a broad array of content such as news, information, text, picture, video and live broadcasting. Sohu also attracts users to be highly engaged in content generation and distribution, and actively interact with each other on the platform. Sohu’s online game business is conducted by its subsidiary Changyou which develops and operates a diverse portfolio of PC and mobile games, such as the well-known Tian Long Ba Bu (“TLBB”) PC and Legacy TLBB Mobile.
Lao-Swiss Cooperation meeting on dam safety. (Photo supplied)
Laos and Switzerland have reaffirmed their commitment to safer hydropower development with the successful convening of the Steering Committee meeting for the Dam Safety Technical and Institutional Assistance (DSTIA) project in Vientiane.
The meeting, held at the DoubleTree by Hilton on 8 May, brought together key government officials, technical experts, and development partners to review progress and set priorities for the year ahead.
Co-chaired by Bouathep Malaykham, Director General of the Department of Energy Industry and Safety Management under the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and Björn Schranz, Head of the Climate Change and Natural Resource Management Program at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in the Mekong region, the session marked another step forward in the growing partnership between the two countries.
Since its launch in 2022, the DSTIA project has received CHF 5.36 million (around USD 6.5 million) in funding from the Swiss Government, with implementation led by Helvetas Laos.
Working closely with the Lao government and partners such as the National University of Laos, the Lao Association on Dams, and Electricité du Laos Generation (EDL-Gen), the project has made notable progress.
Lao-Swiss Cooperation meeting on dam safety. (Photo supplied)
It has supported the implementation of the 2022 Dam Safety Law, helped build the capacity of the newly established Department of Energy Industry and Safety Management, and improved monitoring, reporting, and emergency planning systems.
A major milestone highlighted at the meeting was the launch of Laos’s first-ever Dam Engineering Course at the National University of Laos in February 2025.
This course represents a significant achievement in developing homegrown technical expertise and reducing long-term reliance on external specialists.
The project also serves as a platform for connecting Lao institutions with Swiss experts to find sustainable, long-term solutions for dam safety. The overarching goal is to ensure that the country’s growing hydropower infrastructure is managed safely and responsibly, protecting more than 1.5 million people living downstream.
During the meeting, the Steering Committee reviewed the main achievements of 2024 and formally endorsed the operational work plan for 2025.
This plan focuses on enhancing safety protocols, advancing professional training, and continuing institutional reforms to ensure that dam development is both secure and sustainable.
In his remarks, Bouathep Malaykham emphasized the vital role DSTIA plays in strengthening the country’s dam safety institutions and expressed appreciation for Switzerland’s ongoing support.
Schranz echoed this sentiment, noting the importance of combining Swiss technical expertise with Lao leadership to build a more resilient energy sector.
The Steering Committee also adopted several recommendations to guide the next phase of work, including improved cooperation across sectors, increased capacity-building support for local agencies, and greater transparency in how data is shared and used.
Looking ahead, an independent Mid-Term Review of the DSTIA project will provide insights into its effectiveness and ensure alignment with both national development goals and international standards.
SURABAYA, Indonesia, May 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — NEC Indonesia joins the 21st Indonesia City Expo (ICE), taking place from May 7 to 10, 2025, at the Exhibition Hall of Grand City Convex, Surabaya. This year, NEC Indonesia is collaborating with fellow strategic partners Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Juniper Networks showcasing versatile solutions to support municipal governments in realizing smart city.
At ICE 2025, NEC Indonesia is presenting a range of smart city solutions designed to support the realization of intelligent city concepts across Indonesia. One key solution on display is the Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC), which aims to enhance city management efficiency, particularly in emergency and disaster situations.
Joji Yamamoto, President Director of NEC Indonesia, stated, “As a leader in IT solutions and a trusted transformation partner, NEC Indonesia remains committed to advancing the implementation of smart city visions in Indonesia. Through our cutting-edge solutions like the ICCC, we aim to improve the quality of life for Indonesians by creating safer, more comfortable, and well-managed cities.”
The ICCC is a central command hub integrating various Internet of Things (IoT) devices and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to support urban security management. It acts as a center for collaboration, communication, and coordination in emergencies, enabling swift responses to critical incidents such as natural disasters. This solution provides real-time data visualization for decision-makers, assisting in areas such as traffic management, air quality monitoring, flood risk detection, and other environmental challenges.
Marko Kanadi, Head of Business Incubation at NEC Indonesia, added, “The NEC ICCC solution showcased at ICE 2025 is a concrete response to the growing complexities of urban management. With the latest technologies, the ICCC enables rapid and effective responses and empowers city governments to formulate and implement data-driven policies, helping to create safer, more efficient, and sustainable urban ecosystems.”
NEC Indonesia joined the National ICT Workshop on May 7, 2025, and is hosting an interactive booth from May 8 to 10 to showcase its smart city innovation. The 21st Indonesia City Expo is held as part of the 18th National Working Meeting of the Association of Indonesian Municipalities (APEKSI). The event aims to strengthen collaboration between city governments and various stakeholders, including the private sector, to encourage investment and accelerate the development of innovative and sustainable cities.
About PT NEC Indonesia
NEC first established its representative office in Jakarta in 1968. To this day, PT NEC Indonesia continues to play an important role in providing innovative ICT solutions to promote safety, security, and improve the quality of life for individuals and communities. As a leading provider of information and communication technology, PT NEC Indonesia provides world-class services and technology including telecommunications networks, biometric identification, intelligent solutions for Banks and other Financial Services, Public Transportation and Logistics, Manufacturing, Smart City, as well as government applications and infrastructure and business enterprises to support the digital transformation journey. For more information, visit us at http://id.nec.com/.
SINGAPORE, May 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Arcfra is proud to announce that it has been named as a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Full-Stack Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software.
According to Gartner, “Hyperconverged infrastructure software continues to increase in popularity. Infrastructure and IT operations leaders can use this research to determine if an HCI solution consisting of server, storage and network infrastructure management capabilities is a good fit for their organization.”
Arcfra is committed to help enterprises effortlessly build robust on-premises cloud and AI infrastructure. The flagship product offering, Arcfra Enterprise Cloud Platform (AECP), is designed to unify compute, storage, networking, security, and disaster recovery capabilities into a single, modular stack. AECP supports both traditional virtual machine-based workloads and modern containerized applications on Kubernetes, with enhanced support for AI/LLM applications. The platform includes built-in automation, observability, and API integrations to simplify management across hybrid environments.
“We are excited to be recognized by Gartner in the 2025 Market Guide for Full-Stack HCI Software,” said Wenhao Xu, Co-founder and CEO at Arcfra. “We believe this recognition reflects our vision of delivering agile, cost-effective, and future-ready infrastructure to enterprises navigating the post-VMware era.”
“The ongoing evolution of full-stack HCI software has positioned it as a potential path for not just replacing incumbent HCI vendors, but also as a method of changing virtualization providers in the face of disruption in the broader virtualization market,” says Gartner.
A lot of I&O leaders are considering moving away from VMware due to the acquisition by Broadcom. Gartner report, A Guide to Choosing a VMware Alternative in the Wake of Broadcom Acquisition, also identified Arcfra as one of the Sample Vendors for Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI).
Discover how Arcfra can help simplify your cloud and AI infrastructure at www.arcfra.com .
Disclaimer
Gartner, Market Guide for Full-Stack Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software, April 30 2025.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.