The Nila Lighting System is a modular, energy efficient LED lighting system designed for film and television. Created by Nila, Inc. the Nila Lighting System uses 50% to 75% less electricity and generates 75% less heat than tungsten or HMI lights.
In 2008, the Nila Lighting System was awarded the Green2Gold Live Design International Debuting Product Award. The judges stated that “the Nila Lighting System is a new lighting solution for the entertainment industry, setting an unprecedented environmental standard for low-energy consumption, while delivering unmatched lighting performance and product versatility”.
Nila has been used in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace and the upcoming film Armored as well as the 2009 Tom Hanks film Angels & Demons, the 2009 Disney movie Race to Witch Mountain, and on CNN.
In 2007 Nila, Inc. won the Energy Efficiency Prize in the California Clean Tech Open, following their 2006 runner up in Energy Efficiency. In 2008 Nila was awarded the alumni award in the same category. In an interview with Clean Tech Open, creator Jim Sanfilippo stated:
"I spent 21 years behind the camera, lighting scenes for movies and television and was a frustrated with the inefficient lighting instruments...Tungsten and HMI are horrible for the environment. "
"I became aware of the advances in LED lighting and so I experimented with it. I found it to be extremely efficient, using much less electrical load. I could see the potential, but I needed to make LED lighting perform like traditional studio lighting—meaning it would need to have the full color temperature range as well as produce enough quantity of light with an acceptable spectrum of light. My original concept was to develop a few portable LED lights for my own lighting kit."
In June 2009, Business Week recognized NiLA as one of the 50 Best Tech Startups.