Direct view LED (DVLED) video walls represent a major investment from businesses, so finding the right LED video wall supplier and partner to provide the ideal viewing experience for your company is a big step.
Here are five key considerations that will help buyers make well-informed decisions.
Pixel pitch — or the distance between adjacent LED lights — is a buzzword manufacturers flaunt, but what exactly does it mean for your project?
In simple terms, the finer the pitch, the closer viewers can be without seeing the individual LED lights. A common guideline is that a comfortable viewing distance equates to 8 feet for every millimeter of pitch. So a 1-millimeter pixel pitch display looks good as close as 8 feet away, whereas a 2.5-millimeter LED display is best seen from 20 feet or further back. When viewers are closer than the optimal minimum viewing distance, our eyes start to see the individual LED lights, and the viewing experience is degraded.
If your audience’s vantage point for your LED video wall is 20-plus feet away, you can opt for a larger pixel pitch. But if your LED video wall is an integral part of your space, such as the display in an executive boardroom or one on the floor of your retail store, a video wall like the Samsung All-in-One LED IAC, which has a 1.5-millimeter pixel pitch, is ideal.
No DVLED project should get underway until there is a clear sense of the type of content to be shown, and what that means in terms of resolution. Display technology has evolved a lot in the past few years. Now, 4K has become standard, while 8K is stepping up as the next-generation viewing experience.
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Pixel pitch and resolution, or how many pixels are arranged in a specific area, tend to go hand in hand. If your audience is looking at the LED display from a distance, you may opt for a 2K (also known as Full HD) or 4K resolution. If you want to deliver a jaw-dropping viewing experience from any angle, 8K may be your preference.
But there are other factors that can affect how images appear on your LED video wall. MicroLED, the leading LED technology on the market, is made of light-emitting pixels that create clear, crisp visuals regardless of the resolution. Advanced picture features, such as HDR image enhancement and Ultra Chroma technology, help deliver true-to-life colors that pop, while AI processing refines and enhances resolution for optimal viewing.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of LED video wall suppliers, display manufacturers and resellers globally. A small fraction are well-established global consumer and professional electronics brands, and another percentage are well-established specialty display companies that have long put a focus on LED. Many others are small overseas companies that focus on low cost above all else.
In choosing an LED supplier, buying on price alone is seductive, but risky. Here’s why: When there are problems, customer support could be as many as 12 time zones away and potentially unavailable in fluent English. Some of these companies may have offices in North America and Europe, but even when they exist, these are frequently sales offices not staffed by technical experts who can provide help.
The lower price inevitably means corners are cut to keep costs down in the manufacturing process, and that’s reflected in the quality of components used. LED experts often refer to something called binning: the classification of the tiny LED lights by their light output, voltage and color properties.
Top manufacturers use lights from narrowly defined bins so there’s uniformity across the display modules and any replacement modules will match up. Low-cost manufacturers select from much broader bins and use lower-quality LEDs, resulting in displays that don’t look as good from the start, and can look particularly rough when replacement modules are added and match up poorly with the original display setup.
In most commercial installations, space is at a premium because of the cost per square foot. Setting up an LED video wall that requires access from the rear to get at the electronics and connectors means the video wall has to be bumped out a foot or two from a structural wall so technicians can do the initial installation and servicing. That space is no longer usable for anything else.
If a rear-serviced wall is built and then pushed in to adjoin with a structural wall, that video wall will need to be partially or fully dismantled to get at the electronics whenever problems arise — causing lengthy outages and substantial disruption to the environment.
By comparison, front-serviceable displays allow the individual LED modules to be removed using a magnetic tool that pops them out individually, in a matter of seconds, with no disruption. Front-serviced displays also minimize the necessary footprint of a direct view wall, with just enough clearance required in the rear to allow airflow for cooling.
Another way offshore companies keep costs down is by ignoring certification processes for electronics, most notably the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations that require electronic equipment, such as DVLED displays, to be tested to ensure they’re not radiating interference that exceeds specified levels.
That interference can affect everything from cellphone networks to mission-critical operations like airport control tower communications.
The FCC has been cracking down on LED manufacturers and resellers who are marketing products without certification, or whose certification is fabricated. Recently, several companies have been issued substantial fines. Well-established manufacturers, by comparison, have any necessary certifications fully in place. Plus, many have systems in place to help with any permitting required to install the display.
There are other considerations that can affect decision-making, but starting with these five can help set buyers on the right path.
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The LED market is “Outsized”, there are hundreds, even thousands of LED video wall manufacturers and re-sellers globally, estimating that there are about 1,000 direct-view LED suppliers in China alone. A small fraction is well-established global consumer and professional electronics brands, and another percentage are well-established specialty display companies that have long put a focus on LED. Many others are small overseas companies that sell primarily on price and have no real presence outside their own countries.
At present, the LED industry is undergoing step-by-step changes. Now the vicious competition in the LED market has led to the closure of LED companies every day. The so-called old ones do not go to the new ones. There are also new LED manufacturers established every day, and now the LED display market is a bit confusing, then it is very likely that some customers do not know how to choose when buying LED displays, so customers must understand a few points when buying LED displays You can buy a reliable LED display.
When choosing to work with LED there are a few details you need to know to find the right screen for your project. We’ll walk through the different factors that play a role when selecting the best option.
Once you have your venue, you need to consider how you’ll be using the screen, the demand for the project and the future development plan in detail, require the seller to provide the best implementation plan, and even the expandable function of the project and expand the budget and plan to avoid unnecessary waste of resources because the project is not suitable for future development needs.
An LED video wall is a screen where the image is formed by means of LEDs. A big plus point of LED displays is no "loop" effect. Besides, the number of on-off cycles does not affect their performance. What is more, under direct sunlight, images on LED displays are much better in terms of contrast and viewing angle than on other types of displays.
LED modules are elements from which LED video walls are assembled. All LED displays are composed of individual modules. The larger the display, the more modules you will need for it. Each producer has its own standard size for LED panels, but if necessary, you can order non-standard size modules.
In choosing an LED video wall supplier, buying on price alone is attractive, but very risky. Here’s why: when there are problems, customer support will be as many as 12 time zones away and potentially unavailable in fluent English. Some of these companies may have offices in North America and Europe, but even when they exist, these are frequently sales offices not staffed by technical experts who can provide help.
LED screens and walls are created with individual LED panels tightly connected together. It’s important for these to fit perfectly with each other because any slight variation can disrupt the entire screen. The panel size options can vary, but the current, most common size is 1.6ft by 1.6ft.
The pixel pitch varies much more. What is the pixel pitch? Pixel pitch is the distance from the center of an LED pixel to the center of the next LED pixel, measured in millimeters.
An LED panel’s pixel pitch is shown as “4.8mm”. The most common sizes being used at corporate meetings and events today are 3-6mm and 4-20mm for outdoor events.
We’ll walk through the different factors that play a role when selecting the best option:
1. DISPLAYING CONTENT
If you’re using an LED video wall as the centerpiece with high-res graphics in an indoor space, you want a smaller pixel pitch, like a 1-6mm. The overall appearance of the screen will be better and will ensure your graphics appear more vivid.
In addition, if you use a LED screen with a larger pixel pitch, the closer your audience is to the stage the more likely they are to see the space between pixels in this type of setting. This is not ideal for conveying high definition imagery. However, for outdoor, you can usually use a larger pixel pitch LED like a 3-20mm. Often the audience will not be as close to the screen and that pure distance is very forgiving to the audience’s eyes when it comes to the space between pixels. If you want to ensure a higher definition appearance at your outdoor project, a 3.91mm LED is a great option.
2. LED SCREEN SIZE
How you want the graphics displayed on a screen is important when configuring the size of your screen. For instance, if you want true HD and have a 2.5mm LED the screen has to be 4800 long before it is truly HD (1920 times 2.5mm equals 4800mm). If the pixel pitch is 10mm the screen would have to be 19,200mm long before it would be HD.
3. Viewing Distance
Pixel pitch — the distance between adjacent LED lights — has been a focus of a lot of the marketing done by manufacturers in a hyper-competitive market, but the increasingly minuscule gap may not even be relevant to many digital signage projects that use direct-view LED.
In simple terms, the finer the pitch, the closer viewers can be without seeing the individual LED lights. A common guideline is that a comfortable viewing distance equates to 10 feet for every millimeter of the pitch. So a 1mm pixel pitch display looks good as close as 10 feet away, whereas a 2.5mm LED display is best seen from 25 feet or further back. When viewers are closer than the optimal minimum viewing distance, our eyes start to see the individual LED lights and the viewing experience is degraded.
All of this means that if a typical audience — such as shoppers, employees, airport travelers, hotel guests or whoever else — is about 30 feet away from the LED display location, investing in a 1mm, 1.5mm or 2mm LED display is unnecessary. Finer pitch means more LEDs — which means more cost — so these businesses can save a lot of money by using a 2.5mm LED setup, without affecting the visual experience. To untrained eyes, from 30 feet away a 1mm will look the same as the 2.5mm.
If your sign will be viewed from long distance by people in the car driving fast then you need a big character size to make it readable. As a rule of the tomb, you need at least 2 inches of character height for each 100ft of viewing distance to make it readable. For full-colour sign with image and video support, you may need a bigger size to make a better impact on the viewer.
Another important factor in the size of digital signage is traffic patterns. If your sign will be viewed in by people in relatively close distance (like shopping centers) you can choose a smaller size with higher resolution (pixel pitch).
4. Required Resolution
No direct-view LED project should get underway until there is a clear sense of the type of content to be shown, and what that means in terms of resolution. While 4K is top of mind for many or most consumers these days
Since LEDs are very specific when it comes to displaying pixels, it's also important to keep in mind the size and resolution of your graphics as it relates directly to the size of your screen. so if you want a 4k resolution (3840x2160dots) for your LED screen you will also want to be sure your graphics are created to those specifications (3840x2160dots, aspect ratio 16:9). Scaling graphics up or down on LED can lead your images and videos to appear pixelated, so you always want your content to be as close to the final, desired screen resolution as possible. This also pertains to the orientation of the screens. If you have a portrait, LED accent wall, you'll want to build your graphics in the same layout. When trying to use landscape graphics on a portrait screen these will have to be scaled down much smaller to fit.
5. BRIGHTNESS
An LED screen’s brightness is measured by the number of nits (cd / m2). To decide on brightness requirements, it is important to know where and under what conditions the display will be used.
Let us look at several examples of LED display use and the brightness level they need. To ensure decent display operation indoors, the screen has to be approximately 600 nits. However, for displays used outdoors, you may need a higher brightness level. For example, displays used on the street should be at least 2,000 nits. For a message on the screen to be bright and readable under direct sunlight, the display brightness should be at least 6,000 nits. A display of 12,000 nits will allow you to see the picture at a great distance. The brighter the screen, the higher the audience coverage.
When choosing an LED display, pay attention to its ability to automatically adjust the brightness level at twilight.
6. Look at components' quality. The old adage that you get what you pay for is even more true in the direct-view LED market, you need to make sure your manufacturing partners are using quality parts and components.
LED experts often refer to something called binning: the classification of the tiny LED lights by their light output, voltage, and color properties. Top manufacturers use lights from narrowly-defined bins so that there’s uniformity across the display modules and any replacement modules will match up. Low-cost manufacturers select from much broader bins and use lower-quality LEDs, resulting in displays that don’t look as good from the start and can look particularly rough when replacement modules are added and match up poorly with the original display setup.
7. What manufacturing standards exist? In many cases, relatively cheap alternatives are inexpensive for a reason. We suggest integrators look closely at direct-view LED manufacturers to ensure that you have mandated quality standards.
8.MAINTENANCE
To maintain an LED screen, you must have access to the front or back. Front maintenance LED displays are expensive and have a complex design. Such a display can be installed as close to the wall as possible because access to its rear part is not required. Rear access screens are best used in places where there will be constant access to the rear of the screen.
In most commercial installations, space is at a premium because of the cost per square foot. Setting up an LED video wall that requires access from the rear to get at the electronics and connectors requires the video wall to be bumped out a foot or two from a structural wall, so technicians can do the initial installation and servicing. That space is no longer usable for anything else.
If a rear-serviced wall is built and then pushed in to adjoin with a structural wall, that video wall will need to be partially or fully dismantled to get at the electronics whenever problems arise — causing lengthy outages and substantial disruption to the environment.
By comparison, front-serviceable displays allow the individual LED modules to be removed using a magnetic tool that pops them out individually, in a matter of seconds, with no disruption. Front-serviced displays also minimize the necessary footprint of a direct-view wall, with just enough clearance required in the rear to allow airflow for cooling.
There are many other considerations that can affect decision-making, but starting with these eight will set buyers on the right path.
To consume clearly, to use it easily, I wish every customer who needs to use a large screen to buy a product that he is satisfied with and also to wish that the large-screen display industry, under the constant demands of users, go from inferiority to superiority to achieve a higher level of quality.
Do you think the above 8 points for choosing LED display are helpful to you? Welcome to adopt me, or add me as a friend to discuss, you can also contact me through the following contact methods:
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