SMG Experiences a Successful Prolight + Sound

Peter Johansen, managing director of the newly independent SGM A/S, declared, "Looking at the sales figures, Prolight + Sound has more than doubled our wildest expectations."

Describing the four days of Prolight + Sound as "exhausting but 100% positive," the Danish entrepreneur said, "I have been attending trade shows since the late 1980s -- including all the years we were building Martin Professional -- but I have never experienced a reaction like this."

SGM launched no fewer than 19 LED-based products within their White Room. Running in parallel were back-to-back distributor meetings designed to redraw their global distribution landscape.

"We set out a clear, point-by-point strategy that all SGM resellers need to comply with -- and this will determine who will represent the brand around the world," Johansen continued.

"The era of moving heads has gone and it was really encouraging for most of the distributors to hear me say that," continued Johansen. "The big problem is that each lighting company has 20-25 moving heads and they are bringing out five to ten more every year which is scaring the pro guys. Our focus is on the future products and accommodating the wishes from the rental companies."

"We will have three LED moving heads maximum, and that message was very well received. The spot, wash, and beam will become our workhorses."

While SGM's game-changing strobes -- the X-5 white strobe and XC-5 color -- are now in production, along with the P-5 powerful wash light, LED balls, and TLD-612 pixel driver, it was the Six Pack that captured attention.

This pixel array replaces the traditional halogen with RGBA LED source and combines six outputs of powerful 50W color mixing with built-in electronics, and individual DMX control over each lamp, and allows the creative lighting designer to paint light canvasses displaying animated text or programmed patterns. The housing itself is trapezoidal-shaped so that multiples can be hung in vertical or horizontal matrixes or clustered into an array, the company says.

The overview from the market was clear. As one distributor put it, "Peter Johansen is back, big-time."