Let's get the difference between LED Panel & LED Videowall sorted once & for all

Published on: February 25, 2022

The most crucial decision for firms looking to go into the realm of video walls or even upgrade their existing equipment is whether to choose an LED Panel or an LED video wall. It doesn't have to be a challenging task to figure out which sort of display is best suited for you.

Recently, there has been some debate on whether LED panels are driving the displays today or are the Active LEDs leading the way. Listed below are the features of the two that will help you make up your mind and settle this debate for once and all.

Let's look at how LED Videowall & LED panel fare against each other on the below features

• Viewing Angle

  The viewing angle of a display determines the visibility and clarity factor for the content displayed.

  Active LED displays are usually known to have a range of horizontal viewing angles falling between 120 to 160 degrees. The view field usually falls between 120 to 160 degrees. Hence, if such LED panels are viewed from tight angles ranging up to 180 degrees, the content clarity would still be of a peak standard.

  LED Panels, on the other hand, have a much lesser range of comfortable viewing angles and usually need an unhindered view to be visible.

• Direct View feature

  Direct View is a crucial part of an Active LED video wall. LED videowall uses light-emitting diodes that generate the image themselves without requiring any liquid crystal or polarized glass. Hence, only light-emitting diodes must be affixed to the panel to make the images appear.

  Direct View LED displays are known to either use a discrete oval LED system, which is a system containing one single self-contained diode, or Surface Mounted Device LED system, which includes three individual light-emitting diodes bundled together. Either way, it's the light-emitting diodes responsible for the images you see on screen. LCD video walls don't come with a Direct View feature.

• Bezel-less display

  Active LED walls have no bezels and are made up of small modules on cabinets. Having a bezel-less display system automatically translates to increasing the surface area of the visible and usable LED screen.

  As LED videowalls have wide viewing angles, a bezel-less display is a bonus for having wide viewing angles with a broad viewing area. The bezels for LED panels usually rest between the front and back panel, leading to the covering of screen display at the edges and becoming a hindrance.

• Display Life Span

  LED videowalls are usually known to last for about 100,000 hours which is almost twice as compared to LED panels. This is because LED panels do not use fluorescent lights, which are prone to malfunction with a long passage of time.

  LED panels run on the technology of fluorescent lamps, which act as a backlight to the display panel. These lamps are known to degrade with time and negatively affect the picture quality.

  Moreover, the color output arising out of LED panels also gets involved with time and starts requiring frequent calibrations. Thus, the lifespan of LCD Panels is known to be only close to half of that of Active LED videowall. (Also, Xtreme Media is the only Active LED display manufacturer in the world offering a 7-year warranty)

• Pixel-Level Repairing

  Active LED displays provide the facility of easy maintenance as they can be subjected to Pixel Level repairing.

  LED bulbs employed to create display panels are usually designed to be integrated so that they can be built into multiple electrical circuit boards. This design aspect comes with the advantage that it can be easily replaced if a few bulbs malfunction since the display is made up of cabinets consisting of modules of LED bulbs.

  However, in the case of LED panels, any damage to the LED panels will need the entire display to be replaced.

• Contrast Ratio

  LED videowalls to use LED backlighting distributed across the board, unlike the significant backlight usually deployed on LED panels. Thus, Active LED displays to offer a contrast that is highly superior in quality compared to LED panels. Moreover, LED bulbs can emit the entire RGB spectrum instead of the LED panel backlighting technology, which only shows white and black. Hence, LED videowalls to provide a more profound RGB contrast ratio.

  Since LED panels only have a single backlight that only shows white and black range, the contrast aspect compared to LED panels is significantly lower in LCD panels.

• Maintenance is chip level and module basis

  In terms of maintenance of Active LED displays, the task is more straightforward as maintenance of such RGB panels is done at a chip level with modules as a basis. Whereas the maintenance cost for LED panels is high. The usage of backlight technology in LCD screens shoots up the maintenance cost as any defect would demand the replacement of the entire backlight system.

• Better Picture quality

  An LED videowall provides a much better picture quality than an LED panel screen. The clearer picture quality is due to vast differences in contrast-adjusting rates facilitated by modular light-emitting diodes. Moreover, the quality of clarity regarding whites and blacks is high as it provides RGB contrast in a better and more effective manner.

• Superior picture quality & Long-lasting life span

  Due to having better contrast, crisp display, and wide viewing angles LED videowall displays have twice as long-lasting rich visual experience as LED panels.

Conclusion

After considering all these aspects, you should be well prepared to select a screen for your video wall. The type of display very much depends on the kind of setup you have. LED panels are built for small rooms, are cheaper than Active LED. However, they can't be customized as per your requirements.

On the other hand, an LED videowall allows users to change the size as per the size of the room/hall to meet their specific requirements. The lack of bezels is a super advantage and get to experience a larger-than-life visual experience.

If you want your screen to last as long as possible then make sure you choose Xtreme Media LED videowall which is backed by cloud monitoring technology & auto-ageing technology that ensures the display is long-lasting.

If you're searching for a video wall, we'd love to talk to you about our options!

To schedule a consultation, please get in touch with us.