There are many differences between indoor LED displays and outdoor LED displays. If you are an audio-visual engineering company looking to expand your business lines or a facility project manager seeking an LED display supplier, this article will help you better distinguish between indoor and outdoor LED displays.
What Is an Indoor LED Display?
Indoor LED displays can be applied in many indoor environments. For example, the advertising boards in the shopping mall, the backdrop on the stage, the PPT display in the meeting room, etc. Thanks to the indoor lighting, indoor LED displays do not need to have extremely high brightness to be visible.
People usually watch indoor LED displays at a relatively close distance, so the image must be defined and the colors must be vivid. Only in this way can it achieve sufficient promotional effect.
What Is an Outdoor LED Display?
Outdoor LED displays are screens placed in open outdoor environments, such as highways, stadiums, and building exteriors. It must have a very high brightness so that people can still recognize its content even on a sunny day.
Furthermore, the environmental conditions for outdoor LED displays are much more challenging than those for indoor LED displays. It will be exposed to the sun, rain, strong winds, vibrations, and dust. The protection level must be high.
Indoor vs Outdoor LED Display: Difference in Luminance
Indoor LED Display Brightness
The brightness of the indoor LED display should not be overly bright, as this would cause discomfort to the people inside the room, especially when they need to focus on the indoor LED display for a long time, such as in a meeting room. Its brightness must also not be too dim, otherwise people won’t be able to see the content on it.
The appropriate brightness depends on the light intensity of the location where the indoor LED display is placed. In areas with brighter lighting, the brightness should be adjusted to be higher, and vice versa.
Outdoor LED Display Brightness
In order for people to be able to clearly see the content even in direct sunlight, outdoor LED displays must have extremely high brightness. Its brightness is typically several times or even more than ten times that of indoor LED displays. In some areas with intense sunlight, this brightness requirement will be even higher.
However, the brightness is not necessarily the higher, the better. The most important point is that an increase in brightness will lead to an increase in power consumption, which is not conducive to energy conservation.
In addition, high brightness will also impose a heavier heat dissipation burden on outdoor LED displays and shorten the lifespan of the LED lamps. At night, the brightness of outdoor LED displays should not remain at the same level as during the day, as this could disturb the surrounding residents or cause light pollution.
You can set a higher brightness for the outdoor LED display during sunny daytime. However, at night or on rainy days, it is recommended that you reduce the brightness to match the lighting conditions of the surrounding environment.
Indoor vs Outdoor LED Display: Difference in Pixel Pitch
Indoor LED Display Pixel Pitches
The pixel pitch of the indoor LED display screen must be small, such as P5 LED displays. Then it can provide a clear resolution and a fine picture.
You don’t need to pursue the smallest possible pixel pitch. Because some indoor displays don’t require such a small pixel pitch, reducing the pixel pitch not only increases technical difficulty but also raises costs. The optimal pixel pitch depends on the optimal viewing distance of the people.
In some small conference rooms, the indoor LED displays may be viewed closely by people, so they need to have a higher pixel density to prevent people from feeling blurry. However, for indoor LED displays that are used as screens in large auditoriums or as background scenery on stages, there is no need to use pixels with an excessively small pitch, because people will not stare at them closely.
Outdoor LED Displays Pixel Pitches
When it comes to outdoor LED displays, brightness and stability are the issues that should be given more attention rather than picture quality. For those viewers who usually stand several dozen meters away to watch outdoor LED displays, there is almost no difference in visual effect between P16 LED displays and P10 LED displays.
If the high-brightness LED lamps are arranged too closely together, it will make heat dissipation more difficult, and also increase the overall manufacturing cost and maintenance cost of the outdoor LED display.
You can measure the outdoor LED display you need to install to obtain data such as height and the optimal viewing distance. Then, based on these data, determine the most suitable pixel pitch. If the viewing distance is very far, a larger pixel pitch will be more cost-effective.
Indoor vs Outdoor LED Display: Difference in Protection
The Protection of Indoor LED Displays
The indoor environment provides a shelter for the indoor LED display screen, ensuring that it is neither exposed to rain nor subjected to intense sunlight. Therefore, the indoor LED display does not require additional waterproof and sun-proof structures. This can reduce its weight and make it easier for workers to lift it into the room and install it.
However, the dry indoor environment also makes static electricity more common. If no electrostatic protection is provided for the indoor LED display screen, it will not only shorten the lifespan of the LED lamps in the screen but also cause the accumulation of tiny dust, which will affect heat dissipation.
The Protection of Outdoor LED Displays
Unlike the indoor LED displays that are securely installed inside buildings, outdoor LED displays need to confront much more challenging environmental conditions on their own.
The sun will scorch it, heavy rain will pour onto its surface, strong winds will cause it to vibrate violently, and in some areas with significant temperature variations, it may experience extreme temperature changes.
The dust-proof and water-proof ratings of outdoor LED displays must be much higher than those of indoor LED displays. To achieve this protection level, you can apply a waterproof and dust-proof coating made of epoxy or silicone on the outdoor LED display screen surface and install a waterproof enclosure for the entire LED display to provide further sealing and protection.
Indoor vs Outdoor LED Display: Difference in Heat Dissipation
The Heat Dissipation of Indoor LED Displays
The indoor air conditioner can reduce the heat dissipation pressure on the indoor LED display screen. Moreover, the brightness of the indoor LED display screen is relatively low, so it does not have a heavy heat dissipation burden. The main ways it dissipates heat are the natural heat loss and the heat conduction through the metal casing. If the size of your indoor LED display is large, it is still necessary to install heat dissipation devices.
The Heat Dissipation of Outdoor LED Displays
High brightness, high energy consumption, and direct sunlight cause the surface temperature of outdoor LED displays to rise very easily, especially in hot weather. Some outdoor LED displays with inadequate heat dissipation measures may even catch fire. There are two ways to prevent a large amount of heat from accumulating inside the outdoor LED display.
The first approach is to start from the source, reducing the heat generated by the outdoor LED display itself. Experienced manufacturers will adopt more energy-efficient and high-performance circuit designs to prevent more electricity from being converted into heat.
The second approach is to add external cooling and heat dissipation methods to the outdoor LED display screens. For instance, installing cooling fans behind the screens and using materials that can conduct heat quickly as the external frame to transfer the heat to other areas and eventually release it into the environment.
FAQ
How to Select the Brightness of Indoor LED Display Screens for Indoor Environments with Frequent Brightness Changes?
Ask the manufacturer to add an electronic sensor that can sense light to the indoor LED display, so that its brightness can be flexibly adjusted according to the external light conditions.
How to Prevent Outdoor LED Displays from Catching Fire?
You can ask the manufacturer to implement redundant heat dissipation measures for the outdoor LED displays and use fireproof materials.
How Can I Prevent the Heat Dissipation Device of the Indoor LED Display from Making Noise?
Request the manufacturer to adopt a silent design.
How to Prevent Outdoor LED Displays from Being Corroded by Seawater at the Seaside?
You can ask the manufacturer to use corrosion-resistant materials to produce outdoor LED displays and ensure that these materials can pass the salt spray test.
How to Prevent the Indoor LED Display Screen from Appearing Dull When Operating at Low Brightness?
Choose to collaborate with those professional LED display manufacturers and ask them to set appropriate color, gamma, and grayscale for the indoor LED display screens.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a professional manufacturer of LED display screens, then JINGYLED will be your best partner. We have advanced equipment that can meet your requirements. Please feel free to contact us.
