September 12, 2012 was the day that SGM’s Peter Johansen did his darnedest to upstage the launch of Apple’s new iPhone 5 and ECB banking reforms in one fell swoop.
Declaring after taking over lighting company SGM last February that his days of producing moving lights were finished forever, word leaked out during the PLASA 2012 show in London this week that his R&D team had in fact been feverishly developing radically different LED spot, wash, and beam fixtures from their skunk works in Århus, Denmark.
“We had wanted to keep this under wraps,” stated Johansen, “but then someone got hold of our product pipeline and leaked it. When one of our key distributors heard about it, they placed an order for more than 2,000 fixtures — even though we will not be launching the range until the Prolight+Sound show in Frankfurt next April.”
Up to that point, SGM had been denying rumors that they were about to re-enter the moving head arena. And although full details will continue to remain secret, the product’s big USP is that it will be IP65-rated and promises to boast the most compact form factor in the market; it will also incorporate only essential features in a low-weight chassis, outputting 850W, the company says. “This spec was put together after many discussions with rental companies,” said Johansen.
When his old R&D team at Martin Professional, headed by Finn Kallestrup, produced the iconic Mac 600 25 years ago, Johansen felt he had delivered the defining moving yolk washlight. “This was the perfect fixture for the market, and I felt I never needed to do it again,” he said. But now — with the genius of Boffins, Kallestrup, and Jan Pedersen, at work again — he believes he is on the verge of repeating his pioneering exploits in the brave new world of LED.
“The market is flooded with moving heads — but no-one is really catering for the vast outdoor market with an IP65 product such as this.”
According to the company, the new heads have not only been designed with typical Danish swagger, but Johansen is determined that the nomenclature will also send customers into paroxysms of ecstasy. For the G-Wash and G-Beam will, of course, be joined by — the G-Spot! Anyone still searching for the G-Spot come next April will surely experience that paroxysm of pleasure in Hall 9 at Messe Frankfurt.
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