LED CoB

A CoB LED (or chip-on-board LED) is a single device with many LED chips mounted on a thermally efficient substrate placed below a uniform coating. Anyone who walks through a store or home with recessed or track lighting likely experiences light from a chip-on-board LED (CoB).

These are easier to pack, more powerful and offer more flexility You can make a CoB light hard or soft, panel lights are generally always soft, but will mostly not have the flexibility of a CoB light.

Put a Fresnel or spotlight on the CoB and the light is much brighter (though obviously narrower) and you can get a hard shadow when you need it.