At NAB 2017, Zylight, a manufacturer of LED lighting partnered with Chimera Lighting to show off, and this is mind boggling, Active Diffusion, Zylight’s patented electronic diffusion technology. Yep, you read that right Active Diffusion meaning light diffusion is now tunable.

Built as a flexible, electronically-controllable LCD screen that can be utilized with fluorescents or any other cool lights, like LEDs, Zylight’s Active Diffusion panel will affix to gel frames or precisely-sized Chimera softboxes.

Available in a variety of dimensions, Active Diffusion should be a great asset for gaffers, cinematographers, video professionals, and photographers. The adjustable opacity of the Active Diffusion panel can help speed up the set-up process since no grip has to change out different sheets of diffusion. Now a crew member can instantaneously dial in the diffusion from 0-100% through a remote control handset.

The idea to be able to dial in light quality is pretty darn amazing. First, they gave us LED lights which pull less power. Then the smarter than I engineers gave us full RGB control of some LED lights allowing us to throw any color onto our subjects and now we can change the quality of that light. All of this from either a smartphone, remote control, or on the back of a lighting fixture.

As for price? I do not have a fix on the final price just yet. Through, like an Arri Skypanel, the cost to be able to dial in light quality, and the speed it allows, seems like it may well be worth the cost.