When you are purchasing display walls for business projects or corporate spaces, you might be confused about whether to choose video walls or LED walls. This article will explain the differences between them from multiple aspects and clear up your doubts.
What Is a Video Wall?
You can think of the video wall as a tiled wall that can display videos, except that the tiles used on this wall are liquid crystal displays, or LCDs.
The LCD has many layers. The middle layer, the liquid crystal layer, is the core structure. Liquid crystal itself does not emit light. Instead, it changes the light transmission rate by varying the voltage. Therefore, it requires a backlight layer to provide a uniform and stable light source, as well as a transistor layer to supply voltage to each pixel.
In addition, it also requires polarizing filters and color filters to provide different grayscales and colors for the image. This multi-layered structure provides the LCD with clearer images, but it also makes the LCD larger in size, heavier in weight, and inevitably causes gaps between different LCDs due to the frame.
What Is an LED Wall?
Your physics teacher might have shown you such an experiment: overlap the light spots emitted by red, blue, and green flashlights. You will find that when two colors of light overlap, they will produce a new color, and when three colors are superimposed, they form white light. This is the principle of the LED display screens.
You can simply understand it as follows: By activating different colored light-emitting diodes, the LED screen gains the ability to display a wide variety of colors. These light-emitting diodes can emit light on their own, so they do not require the backlight layer and filter layer like LCDs. They are lighter, can achieve very high brightness, and do not produce gaps.
LED Walls vs Video Walls: Differences in Image Quality
Difference in luminance
The brightness of indoor LED displays is usually around 1000 nits, and the brightness of outdoor LED displays can exceed 5000 nits, which is much higher than the 500-700 nits of video walls.
This is because each pixel point of the LED is an independent light-emitting diode that emits light directly to the outside. In contrast, when the backlight layer of the LCD used in the video wall emits light outward, it needs to pass through multiple layers, such as the liquid crystal layer, filter layer, and glass, resulting in a loss of brightness.
This enables the LED wall to be used in outdoor environments with strong lighting, while video walls are typically used indoors. And when the indoor lighting is bright, the display effect of the video wall will be affected, resulting in the screen becoming unclear.
Difference in Resolution
The resolution of the video wall is determined by the resolution and quantity of the LCDs. The more LCD monitors there are, the higher the total resolution will be. The resolution of the LED wall is determined by the pixel pitch. The smaller the pixel pitch is, the higher the resolution will be.
Since the LED wall is composed of many small light-emitting diodes, it is difficult to achieve a very small pixel pitch. When viewed up close, the audience will find that the images on the LED wall look quite like a mosaic, while the images on the video wall are much clearer and more detailed. When viewed from a distance, there is no significant difference in the image.
With the advancement of technology, in recent years, many high resolution LED displays have been produced.
Difference in Contrast Ratio
When the display needs to show black, the LED lamps on the LED wall do not emit any light at all, thus presenting you with a pure black effect.
The backlight layer of the video wall is always on, and the light will be emitted from behind the liquid crystal layer and the filter layer. Therefore, the video wall does not display pure black; instead, it shows a dark gray color.
You can judge the contrast ratio of the display by observing its ability to handle black. Because LED walls can make the bright areas in the image brighter and the dark areas darker, presenting vivid and rich colors. When you need to play promotional videos or movies, the LED wall won’t make the images look dull. On the contrary, its bright colors can make the pictures more vibrant and lively.
Difference in Visual Experience 
Have you ever had such an experience: after taking a photo of the display with your mobile phone, when you observed the display with your naked eyes, there seemed to be no problem. However, the photos in your phone album showed irregular stripes. This phenomenon is called the moiré phenomenon.
When you point the camera at the LED wall and the video wall, you will notice that the moiré pattern appears more frequently on the LED wall. This is because there are many small LED lamps on the LED walls. These tiny LED lamps will form a grid structure on the LED wall, and the electronic components in your camera that can sense the light also form a grid structure. When two grid structures interfere with each other, the moiré pattern phenomenon will occur.
Meanwhile, the video wall also has some issues that may affect the visual experience. Unlike the LED wall, which can freely add or remove modules to change the size, the video wall is composed of multiple LCDs connected. Each LCD has a frame to fix the multi-layer structure inside. Although advanced technologies can reduce the width of the frame, gaps are still an unavoidable problem. It cannot be like the LED wall that has no gaps at all. If you use the video wall to display some data, the existence of these gaps will block some of the data.
LED Walls vs Video Walls: Differences in Cost Performance
Difference in Installation Cost
When you install a video wall, you will have to pay more than for an LED wall. Because the video wall has a multi-layer structure, it is heavy and large in size. If the load-bearing capacity of the wall is poor, you may need to change the installation location or add additional sturdy steel structure supports for the video wall.
In contrast, the LED wall is much lighter because it has neither multiple layers of structure nor fragile glass as the screen. Workers can carry more LED screens at one time to the place and install them quickly, like building blocks.
Difference in Maintenance Cost
If you use the video wall for a while, you will be surprised to find that the LCDs on the video wall have changed color. This is because the backlight layer and color filters will age, and the screen’s glass will oxidize and turn yellow.
This might lead to a problem that troubles you: Since each LCD is responsible for displaying different images, after a period of use, the aging degree of different LCDs will vary, and thus, the color differences will also be different. If you replace one of the displays, you may find that there is still a color difference between the new and old displays. You have to frequently adjust the colors of all screens to eliminate the color difference, which will bring more maintenance costs.
The maintenance of LED walls is much simpler. Its light-emitting diodes are cold sources, and it is difficult for them to experience aging problems due to the heat. After replacing the new module, you only need to calibrate the colors once.
FAQ
What Are the Differences in Energy Consumption between Video Walls and LED Walls?
The backlight layer of the video wall is always on, with stable power output and falls within the medium level range. The energy consumption of the LED wall depends on the brightness of the picture. If the brightness is high, then it will consume more energy. If the image contains many dark areas, then the energy consumption of the LED will be lower.
Which Kind of Wall Is More Convenient for Transportation?
LED wall. The video wall features fragile glass screens that require professional wooden frames for packaging. The LED wall’s modules are more resistant to shock and pressure, and they are also lighter in weight.
Which Kind of Wall Would be More Suitable to Create a Visually Impactful Effect?
LED wall. Its high contrast ratio enables the depth of field in the video to be more pronounced, creating a vivid impact.
Which Kind of Wall Is Suitable for Use in Religious Activities?
You can use the church LED display. Its colors are more attractive, and it can be installed flexibly according to the site, such as hanging on the wall or standing alone. Even if there is no other suitable location for the worship ceremony and an LED wall needs to be hung on the ceiling, its relatively lightweight can be easily fixed without causing any damage to the building. Its low-noise cooling technology will not interfere with people’s hearing in a quiet environment.
Do I Need a Maintenance Aisle Behind the Wall?
For the video wall, it is necessary. For most LCDs, the detachable screws and power cords are located on the back of the display screen. For LED walls, however, this is not necessary. You can use the pre-manufactured LED modules and install the LED walls right against the building, and replace or repair the display screens from the front.
Final Thoughts
If you want to customize a high-quality LED wall, then JINGYLED will be your best partner. We possess advanced manufacturing equipment and flexible installation services, which can adapt to various applications and conditions. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
