Notes on the Guangzhou Lighting Exhibition

This edition of the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) was generally felt to be somewhat affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Few international renowned manufacturers exhibited; a few were represented by agents, and their scale was also relatively small. Many domestic manufacturers also missed this exhibition.

Apart from the impact of the pandemic, LED has become the mainstay of lighting. It is technically mature, prices have entered a reasonable range, and application scenarios are already very widespread, leaving little room for further exploration. Therefore, technologies with high maturity will naturally develop at a slower pace, and this is a normal phenomenon.

In contrast, smart homes are constantly evolving, primarily based on new technologies such as communication and networking. Thanks to the rapid development of these latter technologies, foundational conditions for the growth of smart homes have been established. The exhibition features not only the robust KNX system but also the MATTER technology, which has emerged in recent years and brought vitality. This technology also brings new hope, with the potential to break down barriers between different protocols and establish a unified, universal standard.

Traditional power line communication (PLC) technology has also been applied in the smart home sector. In China, this technology was initially widely used in meter reading systems for the power industry. Through continuous technological iteration and updates, it has developed a full series of independently owned intellectual property rights technologies ranging from chips to system applications, and has expanded into the smart home field.

Summary: Mature technologies will not undergo major technological changes; rapidly developing technologies such as communications and networks will bring unlimited development space.