One of the first major product lines to emerge from SGM since its acquisition by Golden Sea in 2025 is the POI range of outdoor architectural luminaires. Developed completely from scratch in a remarkably compressed timeframe of just 12 months, this new family of fixtures represents an impressive and significant addition to SGM’s architectural lighting portfolio. Lighting designer and industry expert David Morgan takes a closer look at the corporate evolution behind this release and the technical merits of the hardware itself.
Companies, much like people, travel along many different paths during their commercial lives. Some enterprises continue under the same family-based ownership structure across multiple generations, while others rapidly pass through a variety of different owners, corporate strategies, and geographic locations over the years.
SGM firmly falls into the latter category of dynamic corporate transitions. Having been originally founded in Pesaro, Italy, in 1975, the company built its early reputation on a colourful catalogue of disco-era products. These vintage offerings included illuminated dance floor modules, atmospheric smoke machines, and dedicated lighting controllers that defined an era of nightclub entertainment. After changing Italian ownership in 2009, SGM underwent a major corporate restructuring in 2012 under the leadership of former Martin Professional founder Peter Johansen. Johansen relocated the company headquarters to Aarhus, Denmark, and successfully relaunched it as SGM A/S, decisively shifting its core focus toward advanced entertainment and high-performance architectural lighting systems.
The company’s next major historical turning point occurred in August 2024, when it was acquired by Golden Sea, a major Chinese lighting manufacturer. This strategic buyout conveniently coincided with SGM’s 50th anniversary milestone in 2025. Under the umbrella of Golden Sea’s ownership, SGM has successfully retained its historic Aarhus headquarters, its dedicated research and development team, and its distinct Danish operational identity. At the same time, the brand now benefits immensely from the robust backing, expansive supply chain, and manufacturing muscle of a much larger global lighting group.
Golden Sea commands impressive commercial scale, with group sales currently in the region of $170 million and approximately 1,600 employees stationed around the world. The broader corporate group also includes Ayrton, the prominent French entertainment lighting company that was acquired by Golden Sea in 2017 when it was still a relatively small operation. Under Golden Sea’s stewardship, Ayrton has grown steadily into a major industry player.
Today, the reorganized SGM business is driven by a fresh management team headed by industry veteran Jessie Lilly. Lilly brings deep sector experience to the role, having previously worked for Martin Professional, as well as renowned practices and manufacturers such as Speirs Major Light Architecture and Lumenpulse. Under this new leadership, SGM has carefully rationalized both its entertainment and architectural product ranges, and the company is currently in the middle of developing a wave of entirely new and heavily revamped luminaires tailored for both markets.
Within this structure, Willem De Plus takes direct responsibility for architectural product management. The initial stages of all new product development are undertaken collaboratively in Denmark, keeping the design ethos close to SGM’s traditional roots. Once the core design approach and engineering parameters are fully resolved, the experienced Golden Sea manufacturing team takes over production engineering, scaling the products through to full commercial launch.
The very first tangible result of this comprehensive corporate and product revamp is the POI—standing for Permanent Outdoor Installations—range tailored specifically for the global architectural lighting market. Industry observers have noted that the entire POI range was designed and developed from scratch in a mere 12 months. This accelerated timeline is an impressive technical achievement that underscores the vast engineering and financial resources now readily available within the wider Golden Sea group.
The comprehensive POI range comprises wide wash, narrow beam, and linear luminaires. Notably, all of these diverse fixture types are built around a standardized platform utilizing 45mm diameter colour mixing lenses, multi-chip LED RGBW light engines, and sophisticated internal driver systems. To achieve optimal optical performance, some of these specialized lenses have been developed entirely in-house by the SGM and Golden Sea engineering teams, while others rely on industry-standard high-performance components sourced from LEDiL.
The wash light luminaires all share a robust rectilinear aluminium die-cast construction. The series currently features five distinct sizes, starting from the smallest single 15-W light engine housed in a compact square format measuring 88 by 88 mm, scaling all the way up to the largest 250-W variant in a rectangular format measuring 280 by 470 mm, which incorporates an impressive 32 individual light engines. Furthermore, technical documentation on the company’s website indicates that two even larger sizes are currently under development. Among these is a massive 850-W luminaire size that utilizes active cooling systems and incorporates 36 distinct light engines.
In terms of performance, the wash fixtures offer beam angles ranging from a tight 10 degrees up to a wide 100 degrees, alongside versatile elliptical options of 10 by 60 degrees and 60 by 10 degrees. Lumen output varies correspondingly, starting from a modest 421 lumens—measured with all LEDs operating at full power—for the 15-W size, and reaching up to 11,822 lumens for the powerful 250-W model.
Parallel to the wash fixtures, the narrow beam luminaires all feature a circular profile aluminium die-cast construction. This family also spans five distinct physical sizes, beginning with the smallest single 15-W light engine housed in a 90-mm diameter body, up to the largest 250-W variant featuring a 372-mm diameter body that packs in 30 individual light engines. The standard native beam angle for these focused fixtures is 7.5 degrees. However, installers can utilize an external optical film accessory to modify the standard beam angle up to a broad 80 degrees, with additional elliptical distributions of 7.5 by 40 degrees and 7.5 by 60 degrees also supported.
Lumen output for the narrow beam series starts at 407 lumens, with all LEDs driven at full power on the 15-W model, and climbs to 10,192 lumens on the flagship 250-W model. It is worth noting that applying the optional add-on beam-shaping film naturally introduces a minor optical loss, reducing total luminous output by 10% to 12% depending on the specific film variant selected.
The linear grazers in the POI line represent a thoughtful reworking of the earlier i1 Linear luminaires that were previously reviewed in 2023. These updated fixtures now incorporate the exact same 45mm colour mixing lenses and multi-chip light engines found across the newer wash and beam variants. By contrast, the original legacy versions relied exclusively on single-colour light engines paired with non-colour-mixing lenses.
The smallest linear grazer in the current lineup runs at 25 W utilizing five light engines, built from an 87 by 84 mm aluminium extrusion finished with cast aluminium end caps. The largest current production size operates at 100 W, delivering up to 3,630 lumens with all LEDs driven at full capacity, and measures 1,220 mm in length. Available beam angles for the linear range span from 10 degrees up to 60 degrees, complemented by a dedicated 10-by-60-degree elliptical lens option.
Physical examination of sample units provided for testing reveals that they perform admirably. The fixtures produce a well-blended, uniform coloured light output across the entire spectrum, despite exhibiting some minor colour separation when viewed at extremely close range. Mechanically, the luminaires are exceptionally well-detailed and robustly constructed. Significantly, up to 60% of the ADC 12 aluminium utilized for the die-cast housings is sourced from recycled material. Furthermore, SGM has engineered these luminaires to facilitate straightforward dismantling at the end of their operational lifespan, allowing them to integrate neatly into a modern circular economy model.
While the Beam and Wash variants within the POI range do not project a uniquely radical visual identity—sharing a clean, contemporary design approach that aligns closely with a number of other high-end architectural lighting brands—the fixtures genuinely distinguish themselves by incorporating several highly innovative technical features under the hood.
Perhaps the most intriguing technical incorporation is a proprietary feature branded as DryTech. This is a patented active dehumidification system designed to combat internal moisture accumulation. Any moisture that manages to find its way inside the sealed luminaire housing is actively removed via an electrolysis-based dehumidifier. This system relies on a solid-state polymeric ionic membrane sandwiched neatly between a porous anode and a porous cathode.
Equally impressive from a controls and commissioning standpoint is that every single luminaire is factory-calibrated. The system utilizes an advanced onboard algorithm to ensure perfectly consistent white light and colour mixes across large combinations of interconnected luminaires. When multiple luminaires are commanded to display a specific colour, they will match seamlessly because the intelligent system automatically adjusts individual colour levels without requiring tedious manual calibration on-site. While the system natively offers only standard 3000K and 4000K white options within its RGBW LED array, SGM’s proprietary software allows the mixed white colour temperature to be adjusted smoothly anywhere from a warm 2000K all the way up to a cool 10,000K using standard DMX control protocols.
Rounding out the feature set are several other technical capabilities that, while also available from select competing high-end manufacturers, add substantial practical value. These include a dynamic thermal control system and an integrated colour boost system. The latter dynamically maximizes overall light output depending on the precise blend of whites or saturated colours requested, pushing performance right up to the maximum thermal and electrical safety thresholds of the luminaire hardware—a capability typically reserved for advanced, high-end external drivers.
Ultimately, the rapid conceptualization, engineering, and manufacturing of the POI range stands out as a remarkable technical and organizational achievement for the newly revitalized SGM. The project clearly demonstrates the synergy possible when an established European lighting brand combines its design heritage with robust international industrial backing, setting the stage for what the company will accomplish in the years ahead.
David Morgan runs David Morgan Associates, a London-based international design consultancy specializing in luminaire design and development, and is also managing director of Radiant Architectural Lighting.
