LED Screens
We have known LED signs for years from concerts or football matches. Those large panels on which images of performing artists or animations are displayed. We know them from Picadilly Circus in London or Times Square in New York with the largest “LED Walls” in the world. However, today we see more and more of these screens, albeit slightly smaller (but sometimes not much smaller) popping up in shops and companies. What should you pay attention to to make the right choice?
1. The pitch
The pitch is the distance of the “bright spots”. These points of light consist of a red, green and blue LED lights brought together in a diode, with which all colors can be displayed. If one diode is now 10 mm (1 centimeter) apart from the other, then we speak of a Pitch 10. If they are 6 mm apart, we speak of a pitch 6.
What we certainly don’t want is that when we look at such an LED wall, we can still clearly see those individual points of light. After all, we are used to seeing smooth images on standard screens. That pitch therefore determines the correct viewing distance, the distance from which our eyes and brains do not have to make any more effort to “fill in” the image between those points of light.
The rule is Pitch = viewing distance in meters.
So a Pitch 10 is 10 meters, a Pitch 1.5 is 1.5 meters. Today, stores install P2.5 and P1.5 indoors, while outside this could easily be Pitch4 or Pitch 6. So the smaller the pitch, the finer the image, the closer people can stand to the LED wall and enjoy a beautiful image.
2. The size of the LED walls
The LED wall is an interesting alternative when a large screen or a video wall is no longer large enough. So from the moment you go larger than 2 meters in height or width, an LED wall becomes interesting from then on. After all, if you wanted to bridge such greater distances with standard screens, you would always see that small edge of the screen. With an LED wall you do not see those edges, which then becomes a nice and even surface.
3. Light output
What you should definitely pay attention to with LED walls is the light output, or the amount of light measured on the retina of our eyes. This is expressed in nit or candela. Our screens at home give about 200 candelas, while in stores it is 300 to 700 candelas.
An indoor LED wall has an average light output of 1,000 candela. That is enough to make large surfaces stand out without the risk of overstimulation. When we install LED walls outside or in the shop window, we need at least 6,000 candelas to overcome daylight and even direct sunlight.
4. Mounting LED wall
As mentioned above, a nice smooth surface is absolutely necessary when mounting an LED wall. After all, an LED wall is built with smaller panels that seamlessly connect to each other. Nothing is more annoying than looking at an LED wall where you can still see all those panels, even if moving images are displayed on it.
And just as with the general quality of the light diodes, the difference is clearly noticeable here between cheaper Chinese manufacturers and manufacturers such as Samsung, for example, which are not much more expensive, but offer a much better solution in terms of price-quality ratio. During assembly, a great deal of attention must also be paid to the metal brackets in which the individual panels are mounted, so that they fit neatly against each other to within half a millimetre.
5. The content
By content we mean the images: photos, videos or moving animations. Because an LED wall offers the possibility to deviate from the standard screen format in 16:9 ratio, we can mount these screens in the most deviating shapes. It is important to also tailor the content to these dimensions, so that it has an impact on visitors. ThisPlays2 has years of experience with the installation of LED walls, but also with the creation and programming of perfectly tailored content.
