Lao Hong Takes You Through GILE: Decoding Innovation Trends in the Lighting Industry

On June 10, the 2026 Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition entered its second day. The "Lao Hong Takes You Through GILE" column under China Light Media launched a live on-site tour of the exhibition halls. This edition of GILE gathered 2,802 exhibitors from 18 countries and regions worldwide, showcasing achievements by lighting companies in intelligent connectivity, green low-carbon solutions, healthy living environments, and emotional experience spaces.

Hong Bing (Lao Hong), Editor-in-Chief of China Light Media and Executive Dean of Ming Classroom, leveraged his 30-plus years of industry expertise to lead online viewers through six representative exhibitors with a style that avoids superficial glances and focuses on substantive insights, deeply exploring cutting-edge products, core technologies, and scenario-based solutions to comprehensively present the innovation vitality and development direction of the current lighting industry.

Qicheng Electric

The first stop of this visit was Zhejiang Qicheng Electric. This national high-tech enterprise, with 32 years of deep cultivation in outdoor street light control and smart interface fields, is also a veteran exhibitor at GILE (Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition), with its booth filled with various interface standard parts and certification certificates.

The company adheres to the dual strategy of "Standards + Customization". Its products have won multiple international authoritative certifications such as UL, Zhaga, and TUV, selling well in mid-to-high-end markets globally. Based on general products, Qicheng Electric can provide personalized customization services for different regional climates and application environments. The hardware design features highlights such as a three-layer silicone waterproof structure, PC anti-UV material, IK10 impact resistance rating, and anti-drop design, fully adapting to harsh outdoor environments; the original 360-degree rotating installation structure allows flexible adjustment of the light controller angle, significantly improving installation adaptability. In addition, its integrated control box focuses on the US standard system, capable of centrally controlling dozens of street lights per unit, with core components like circuit breakers independently developed, securing its position in the North American and surrounding markets thanks to solid quality. Mr. Ye stated that the company always guides by technological iteration and customer needs, continuously consolidating its advantages in smart streetlights and urban remote control fields.

In terms of industry standard construction, Zhejiang Qicheng is an industry benchmark. Mr. Ye Dewei, General Manager of Qicheng Electric, told Lao Hong that Qicheng is a full member of the Zhaga Consortium, deeply involved in the implementation of outdoor LED lighting interface standards in China, and is also one of the main drafting units for the national standard of domestic smart single-lamp controllers. "Only when interfaces are unified can equipment from different manufacturers interconnect, which is the prerequisite for the scale of smart cities," said Mr. Ye.

Manlux Technologies Inc.

Subsequently, the exhibition exploration team arrived at the booth of Shenzhen Zhongshi Optoelectronics (Manlux). This LED packaging enterprise, branding itself as the "Creator of High Luminous Efficacy", has a considerable booth area. Founder Wen Jianhua led a cross-continental team to receive visitors on site. With its headquarters in Silicon Valley, USA, Manlux integrates technical and supply chain advantages from both China and the US. Established only 6 years ago, its core team members all possess 15-20 years of deep industry experience. Relying on two core technologies: high luminous efficacy and low blue light, it has become a new rising force in the global LED bead field.

High luminous efficacy is the core label of Manlux. Its 5050 Plus series achieves a luminous efficacy of 260 lm/W under 2W drive and up to 270 lm/W under 1W drive, perfectly suited for high-intensity outdoor lighting scenarios such as stadiums and highways. The entire product line features multi-country patented packaging technology, offering excellent dust and water resistance, with outdoor lighting reliability exceeding 5 years.

Addressing global ecological lighting needs, the company has launched the "Echo Amber Low Blue Light Series." Its blue light hazard rating is far below international safety standards, with color temperature controlled within the 1800K-2200K range, balancing ecological protection and human centric lighting (HCL) requirements. The series has a CRI range of 70-90, with premium versions reaching 94. It is suitable for ecologically sensitive areas such as wildlife parks and sea turtle reserves, as well as museums and high-end retail spaces, achieving "near-zero blue light radiation" while maintaining a high luminous efficacy of over 70 lm/W.

Manlux's global layout also left a deep impression on Lao Hong. Relying on an international team, Manlux precisely matches diverse global needs, such promoting low blue light products in the European market to comply with ecological regulations, and providing ultra-high luminous efficacy products in Brazil and India to meet public lighting access standards.

Night Sun Technology Group

The third stop of the tour takes us to a particularly "photogenic" area of this year's exhibition – Hall 1.1 of Zone A, dedicated to Cultural Tourism Lighting. Occupying the prime location C10, Guangdong Night Sun Technology Group is a leading enterprise in China's night tour lighting and stage lighting sectors. For this event, Night Sun has created the viral exhibition zone "Visual Magic Box 2026 · Light Meets Intangible Heritage," using light and shadow to interpret intangible cultural heritage content such as Cantonese Opera and Hani dance, making it a hot spot for check-ins at the exhibition.

Wang Zhijun, General Manager of Ye Taiyang, told us that the "Water Light and Shadow Robot," developed over three years, is a major highlight. This product features autonomous driving technology, supports 360° omnidirectional rotation and precise formation on the water surface, and can operate in water depths of only 50 cm. It also supports full-dimensional non-standard customization, thoroughly overcoming pain points of traditional water performance equipment such as difficult positioning, short battery life, and complex formations, thereby opening up a new form of light and shadow for water cultural tourism. In addition, the newly exhibited 1500W 4-in-1 moving head spot light integrates beam, gobo, color, and prism functions, with an IP66 ingress protection rating suitable for complex outdoor environments, making it a key equipment for cultural tourism projects.

On site, Lao Hong also used an imaging luminance meter APP developed by Professor Yao Qi of Fudan University to detect luminance. He took a photo of the stage scene, and within seconds, a luminance distribution heat map and a one-click inspection report were generated. Compared with traditional professional equipment costing hundreds of thousands, this significantly lowers the threshold for light quality detection.

Hengyuan Fountain

Founded in 1999, Jiangsu Hengyuan Fountain has been deeply engaged in the field of water feature performances for 26 years, always adhering to the development concept of "technology first," with multiple innovative technologies leading industry development. Its self-developed "water-fire fusion patent technology" was applied to the torch lighting ceremony at the opening of the Chengdu Games, breaking the traditional perception that "water and fire are incompatible."

The star product exhibited this time, "Water Cube," occupies only 200 square meters, integrating fountain, stage, and multimedia performance functions. It adopts a safe voltage design and comes with its own water tank, requiring only flat ground for deployment, and can be quickly deployed to squares, commercial complexes, and streets.

Addressing the industry pain point of thousands of idle water screen movie systems nationwide, Hengyuan Fountain has developed a smart interactive system. Using motion capture technology, it enables real-time interaction with the audience, transforming passive viewing into an immersive experience. The retrofit cost is only about one-tenth of the original project investment. In actual tests at a Changzhou tourism project, daily interactions increased by 300%, revitalizing a large number of idle cultural and tourism devices. "On the surface, it's water plus lights; in essence, it's the control system," stated Jiangsu Hengyuan Fountain. Furthermore, the company's 240-meter large fountain technology offers advantages over international competitors in energy efficiency, ease of management, high performance, and low cost, securing orders for multiple top-tier global waterscape projects.

Jiangsu Hengyuan Fountain stated that the company does not rely on low prices to win orders, but rather wins large projects through the three-dimensional integration of integrated equipment, digital control, and content creativity. At the same time, it maintains an open attitude, sharing patent technologies to promote the common progress of the entire waterscape performance industry.

MOSO Electronics

Returning to the "hardcore components" zone of lighting, Lao Hong entered the MOSO Power booth. The signal MOSO conveyed this year is very clear: not just LED driver / power supply, but moving towards intelligent control and system synergy. This exhibition focuses on LED driver / power supply and intelligent control systems, launching several iterative new products for细分 scenarios such as industrial, sports, horticultural lighting, and lightning protection. Meanwhile, its subsidiary Xinshen Technology brings full-scenario smart lighting / intelligent lighting solutions, forming a synergistic advantage of "power + control".

The outdoor lighting PA-HF series prominently displayed on site supports D4i Dimming, NFC batch programming for entire boxes, and AC metering with ±1% accuracy. The sports lighting NS-V series supports five-in-one Dimming via D4i, DMX/RDM, 0-10V, PWM, and resistor, with an innovative flip-cover design that makes high-altitude installation safer and features anti-loose screw structures for easier outdoor maintenance. The horticultural lighting NP-MC series adopts a four-channel output design, supporting flexible power transfer to adapt to the Spectrum requirements of plants at different growth stages.

The lightning protection solution is Sungrow's flagship product, equipped with core components from Japan's TDK. It supports Class I/II compatibility and multi-voltage coverage, adopting a complete "power supply + SPD" scheme to effectively extend the service life of lighting equipment. Currently, it holds a leading market share in China and is accelerating its overseas expansion.

Xinshen Technology, under Sungrow, offers a smart lighting control system that covers scenarios such as overall lighting control, single-luminaire control, circuit/zone control, and tunnel follow-car lighting. It has particular advantages in tunnel lighting, effectively addressing core pain points related to driving safety, energy saving, and operation and maintenance in tunnels.

Inventronics

The final stop of this exhibition tour was Inventronics, which highlighted the company's systematic capability extending from a complete portfolio of lighting products to diverse application scenarios. They transformed their booth into immersive slices of eight major application scenarios: roads and areas, industrial, sports, retail/hotel/residential, commercial, horticultural, architectural, and signage/non-lighting. Each area can be lit, controlled, and interacted with.

For example, in the field of road and area lighting, Inventronics launched the Ready2Go smart Zhaga lighting system solution, which relies on Bluetooth Mesh networks and a mobile app, allowing staff to directly adjust luminaire current and color temperature. It is suitable for scenarios such as residential areas, parks, and parking lots. In the field of sports lighting, it combines with the Synapse wireless control system to achieve atmospheric effects such as strobing, matching the current market trend of integrating culture and sports. In the retail, hotel, and residential areas, various track head solutions adapt to multiple track lighting systems in supermarkets and residences, and can connect to wireless lighting systems to achieve multi-scenario linkage. The horticultural lighting area showcases multi-spectrum system solutions, supporting output in multiple bands such as red, blue, far-red, and white, and equipped with power transfer functions to optimize spectrum energy utilization efficiency, matching the photosynthetic needs of plants at different growth stages... In short, each scenario solution precisely addresses corresponding pain points and adapts to various market demands.

Addressing industry pain points such as incompatibility between controllers and power supplies, and poor thermal matching of light sources, Inventronics has improved overall equipment energy efficiency by 15%-20% through full-link optimization. Additionally, during the exhibition, its GaN LED driver received UL8750 Class P international certification, with product safety and reliability gaining authoritative recognition.

We observe that Inventronics' core intention in participating in this exhibition is to clearly declare to the industry the company's deep strategic leap from a single LED driver accessory manufacturer to a provider of smart lighting system solutions for all scenarios. This represents the core development direction of the lighting industry, shifting from single-product competition to system value competition.

Industry Observation

From Qicheng's base standard components, to Manlux's effort to extract every bit of luminous efficacy per watt, to Night Sun's innovation of driving robots into water to create new scenarios, and Hengyuan's approach of letting water tell the story, and finally to Sansun and Inventronics' evolution from drivers to systems—when viewed together, the lighting industry is collectively accomplishing one thing: shifting from selling luminous efficacy to selling light quality, from selling light quality to selling systems, and from selling systems to selling scenario value. Currently, the domestic lighting industry has completely moved away from extensive price competition, with technological innovation, standard leadership, deep scenario cultivation, and system services becoming a consensus across the entire industry.

Represented by the enterprises visited this time, Chinese lighting companies are completing a comprehensive upgrade from "product output" to "technology output, standard output, and solution output," relying on continuous R&D investment, solid technical accumulation, and precise market insights.