Nanoleaf has always offered unique, interesting smart lighting with all of its products, but the company’s new Screen Mirror feature takes it to the next level. Screen Mirror takes the idea of ambient screen lighting and expounds on it. A simple LED setup can reflect the ambient light onto the wall behind the screen, but Nanoleaf’s Screen Mirror takes the colors and hues of your screen and transforms them into a light show that enhances the overall experience.
Screen Mirror works with Nanoleaf Aurora and Nanoleaf Canvas light panels and features four different modes: Match, Palette, Melt, and Fade. Match is a “direct match of what you have on screen” — the colors on-screen are reflected in your light panels as accurately as possible. Palette is a fade-in of the colors on-screen that happens every few seconds.
Melt is described as the “dominant color of your screen gradually melts into the next,” while Flow is the same as Melt — except the “dominant color of the screen smoothly melts into the next.”
Nanoleaf has also added a desktop app to give more precise control of your setup. You can choose specific parts of the screen to synchronize your lights with, which has multiple implications for gaming. For example, choose to sync your screen with where your health bar is displayed and you’ll have a more visual indicator when you need to pop a health pack.
The panels shift colors rapidly, which makes Screen Mirror great for both gaming and movie-viewing applications. Nanoleaf calls this added sensory input a “4D experience.” The app has an offline mode so you can control your lights even if the internet is out. The downside is that Screen Mirror requires a connection from your TV to your computer to operate. Also, while the desktop app works on both Mac and Windows machines, Netflix on Mac is not compatible with Screen Mirror.
Screen Mirror is available now to all Nanoleaf customers that have a light panel system. If you’re interested in creating a panel setup, it will set you back a pretty penny, but Nanoleaf is the go-to company for aesthetic lighting. The thought of Screen Mirror in a great home theater setup is enough to make anyone green with envy.
