Indoor LED screens in Dubai: indoor LED displays for shops, malls, halls and mosques

What an indoor LED screen is

An indoor LED screen is a display built from LED modules for use inside a building. Compared with an outdoor screen it has a finer pixel pitch, usually P1.5 to P4, far lower brightness at about 600 to 1,500 nits, no weather sealing, and slim, light cabinets that fix flat to a wall or hang from a ceiling.

People search for it as indoor LED display, indoor LED panel, indoor LED wall and indoor digital display board. They're the same thing.

What sets it apart:

• From an outdoor screen. An outdoor screen indoors is too bright, too coarse and needlessly heavy. An indoor screen outdoors fails in the first dust storm. They aren't interchangeable.
• From a television or LCD screen. A television is one sealed panel of a fixed size. An LED screen is assembled from modules, so it can be any size and shape, has no joints, is several times brighter, and can be repaired a module at a time.
• From an LED sign board. A sign board spells out a name or a scrolling message in lights. A screen shows pictures and video. For lit names and letters, see LED sign boards.

An indoor screen is the right tool when the display needs to be large, bright, an unusual shape, or all three. When it's small and rectangular, an LCD usually wins, which is the next question.

LED or LCD for an indoor display?

Choose by size. Below about 2 metres across, a commercial LCD screen is sharper and much cheaper than LED. From about 2 to 3 metres, either can work. Above 3 metres, or for any shape that isn't a standard rectangle, LED is the better choice, because LCD would need several panels with visible joints.

That matters for anyone searching for a small LED display or a digital display board for a shop or office. In most of those cases, what you want is an LCD screen, and we'll tell you so.

One manufacturer's comparison puts the crossover at about 3 square metres: below that, LCD is usually cheapest (DOIT Vision).

Where a small LED display does make sense

• A ribbon or strip. A long, low display above a counter, along a shelf or across a fascia.
• A shape. A circle, a column wrap, a logo-shaped screen.
• A bright spot. Beside the shop's glass front, where an ordinary screen looks dull.
• A scrolling message. A single-colour or full-colour LED message board for a queue number, an offer or opening hours. See LED scrolling message boards.

For menu screens, see digital menu boards, and for networks of LCD screens, digital signage. We supply both LED and LCD, so the recommendation follows the job.

Types of indoor LED screen

Indoor LED screens come in seven forms: fixed walls, recessed walls, hanging screens, ribbons, column and curved screens, freestanding posters, and transparent screens on glass. They use the same modules. What differs is the cabinet, the frame and how the building carries them.

We supply and install all of these. Separate pages cover flexible and curved LED screens, LED poster displays and transparent LED screens.

Things worth knowing:

• Front service is standard indoors. Modules come out from the face on magnets, so the screen can sit tight against the wall with nothing behind it.
• Slim matters in a shop. A screen and frame under 10 cm deep reads as part of the wall. A deep box looks like equipment.
• Edges need finishing. A trim, a shadow gap or joinery around the screen makes the difference between a fitted look and a bolted-on one.
• Ribbons use standard modules. A ribbon one module high is 160 mm tall. Two high is 320 mm. The length is whatever the fascia needs, in steps of 320 mm.

Choosing size and pixel pitch indoors

Choose the pixel pitch from the nearest viewer and the size from the furthest. Indoors, the nearest viewer is usually 2 to 4 metres away, which points to P2 to P4. One manufacturer gives P2.5 for viewing from 2.5 to 6 metres and P4 for 4 to 10 metres.

The distance bands follow a retail display guide (LED Screen Board), and the P2.5 and P4 ranges are from Linsn's indoor screen guide.

Size

• For text and detail, keep the furthest viewer within about six times the picture's height. A hall 18 metres deep needs a picture about 3 metres tall for slides and recitation text to be read from the back.
• For video and images, eight to ten times the height is fine.
• Check the pixel count. Multiply the width in metres by 1,000 and divide by the pitch. A 3-metre screen at P2.5 is 1,200 pixels wide, which is plenty for images and enough for a few lines of large text.
• Sizes move in steps of the module or cabinet. We'll give you the nearest buildable size before any opening is formed.

Shape

• 16:9 takes standard video and presentations with no adjustment.
• Wide and tall shapes need content made for them. That's fine for brand content, and awkward if you planned to play television or a laptop.
• Decide what you'll show first. The content should choose the shape.

Our LED modules and pixel pitch guide explains pitch, module sizes and resolution in full.

Brightness for the room

An indoor LED screen should be bright enough for the room's worst light and then run as low as is comfortable. Manufacturers' guides give about 600 nits for meeting rooms and dim spaces, 800 to 1,500 nits for shops, malls, exhibition halls and places of worship, and 2,500 nits or more for a screen that faces out through a window.

The ranges are from EagerLED's brightness guide and Linsn. The atrium row is our working range for spaces with strong daylight.

• Too bright is a real fault. As the first guide puts it, "a 1,500-nit indoor wall can be uncomfortable in a dark room." A screen that dominates a restaurant or a prayer hall is turned down or switched off by the people who have to sit near it.
• Buy headroom, use less. The same guide's advice is to "buy enough brightness for the worst realistic condition, then operate at the lowest comfortable level."
• Use presets. A day setting and an evening setting at least, or a light sensor that does it automatically.
• Glass fronts and skylights raise the light level by day. Stand where customers stand at the brightest hour and judge from there.
• Spotlights on the screen wash out the picture. Aim track lights away from it.
• Low-brightness quality. A screen that looks good at 100% may lose its shading at 20%. Ask to see it dimmed, since that's how it'll run most evenings.
• Black face. Black LEDs and a matt black mask give contrast in a lit room, and contrast matters more than raw brightness.

Indoor LED screens in a shop: where they go

In a shop, an LED screen works in five positions: the feature wall, behind the counter, on a column, as a ribbon along a fascia or ceiling, and just inside the glass front. Each has a different audience and distance, so each needs a different pitch, brightness and kind of content.

The feature wall

The largest and most visible position. It pulls people into the shop, since the eye goes to the brightest thing in the room. Put it where it's seen from the entrance, keep merchandise fixtures below its bottom edge, and give it calm, slow content. A wall of fast-cutting video makes a shop tiring to be in.

Behind the counter

People stand still here for a minute or more, at 2 metres. That calls for a finer pitch and content with something to read: an offer, a loyalty scheme, a product to add. It's also the easiest position to wire, with power and data at the counter already.

Columns

A structural column in the middle of a floor is dead space that a wrapped screen turns into a display seen from every aisle. It needs flexible modules and a frame built to the column's size. Protect the lower part, where trolleys and bags hit it, with a coated surface or by starting the screen above hand height.

Ribbons

A ribbon is a narrow LED strip that runs along a fascia, a bulkhead or a ceiling line. It carries department names, prices and running offers, and it can be very long for little money, since the area is small. One module high, 160 mm, is enough for a line of text read from across a shop.

The glass front

A screen just inside the entrance facing in works like any interior screen. A screen facing out through the glass has to beat daylight and reflections, which takes several times the brightness. Use a high-brightness window display or a transparent LED screen, and check whether it counts as advertising visible from outside.

What a shop screen shouldn't do

• Block sightlines to the tills or the stock, which security and staff need.
• Fight the lighting. A screen beside spotlit merchandise changes how the products' colours look.
• Replace the price tickets. A screen sells the idea. The shelf still needs the price.

By venue: malls, restaurants, gyms, mosques, halls and schools

Each kind of venue has its own distances, light and rules. A mall unit works within the mall's design guide, a restaurant wants atmosphere without glare, a mosque needs legible text and calm, and a hall needs a screen sized from the back row.

Mall units and atriums

The mall's retail design team approves every screen visible from the common areas, and often limits its size, brightness, motion and sound. Get their criteria before designing. Atrium screens hang from the structure and are seen from several floors, so they're sized from the furthest balcony and may be double-sided. Installation happens at night, with method statements and permits to work.

Restaurants and cafés

A screen wall can set a mood: slow scenery, a kitchen camera, a brand film. Keep it dim, keep it slow and keep it out of diners' direct line of sight, or it becomes the television nobody asked for. Menus belong on menu boards at the counter. Keep screens clear of kitchen heat and grease.

Gyms and studios

Screens for class schedules, instructor-led video and motivation. Viewing distances are long across a gym floor, so P2.5 to P3.9 is enough. Humidity and the odd stray ball are the risks: choose a coated surface and mount above reach in sports areas.

Mosques and prayer halls

A screen in a prayer hall shows prayer times, recitation and khutbah text, translations, announcements and, in large mosques, a camera view of the imam for worshippers in side halls and upper levels. We supply the screens and prayer-time display systems, and connect the two.

• Legibility first. Arabic text with full vowel marks needs more pixels per line than plain Latin text. Size the screen and pitch for the longest line you'll show, read from the back row.
• Position. To the side of the mihrab or on side walls, never where it distracts from the qibla wall. The mosque's committee and, for public mosques, the responsible authority decide what's acceptable.
• Calm. Still pages and slow changes. No animation during prayer.
• Brightness. Halls are softly lit. The screen should be dimmed to match and should dim smoothly without flicker.
• Prayer-time displays. These show the five prayer times, the iqamah countdown, the Hijri date and announcements, either on a dedicated display or as a page on the main screen.
• Women's halls and overflow areas often get a screen carrying the camera feed and the text.
• Silent operation. Fanless cabinets.

Halls, ballrooms and auditoriums

A fixed screen behind the stage replaces a projector and works with the lights on. Size it from the back row, at P2.5 to P3.9. Hotels and wedding halls use wide screens for backdrops and names. Plan the inputs: a laptop point at the lectern, a camera feed and a media player, through a video processor. Our LED video walls page covers control and inputs.

Schools and universities

Assembly halls, sports halls and entrance lobbies. Tough surfaces, mounting above reach, and simple control that a teacher can run. A lobby screen for notices is usually an LCD.

Clinics, banks and offices

Waiting areas want a queue display and information, at short distances, which is LCD territory. A reception feature wall is LED. For electronic display boards in offices, the choice follows the size rule above.

Showrooms

Car, property and furniture showrooms use large screens as a backdrop to the product. P1.9 to P2.9, with the screen set back so the product is lit by the showroom's lights and not coloured by the screen.

Mounting an indoor screen

An indoor LED screen is mounted in one of five ways: fixed to a wall, recessed into it, hung from the structural slab, stood on the floor, or wrapped around a column. The first question is always what will carry the weight, because plasterboard walls and false ceilings can't.

• Weight. An indoor screen with its frame weighs roughly 25 to 40 kg per square metre. A 3 × 2 metre screen is around 150 to 240 kg. We give the figure for the product chosen.
• Plasterboard and partitions. Fix through to the structure behind, or build a frame that stands on the floor and ties to the slab. Plasterboard alone won't hold a screen.
• False ceilings. A hanging screen is never fixed to the ceiling grid. The hangers pass through the ceiling to the slab above, which needs access, coordination with ducts and sprinklers, and making good afterwards.
• Hanging over people. Use rated fixings with a safety factor, a secondary safety wire, and an engineer's sign-off. Malls insist on it, rightly.
• Flatness. The frame must be true to a millimetre or two across its width. Any twist shows as lines between modules.
• Ventilation. A recessed screen needs air above and below. Sealed into joinery, it overheats.
• Access. Front-service modules need nothing fixed across the face. Leave a clear floor area in front for a platform or ladder.
• Cable routes. Power and data concealed in the wall or ceiling, with the controller in a ventilated cupboard nearby.
• Sequence. The screen goes in after dusty and wet trades have finished.

We build frames, brackets and hanging structures in our own workshop and coordinate with the fit-out contractor, the mall and the building's engineer.

Screens in a leased shop: planning for the move

If your shop is leased, plan the screen so it can come out and go with you. An LED screen is built from modules and cabinets that unbolt, so a wall installed today can be taken down, resized and rebuilt in a different unit, as long as it was designed with that in mind.

• Read the lease and the fit-out guide. Most malls and landlords require the unit to be handed back as it was received. Anything fixed to the structure has to be removed and the fixings made good.
• Use a freestanding frame where you can. A frame that stands on the floor and ties back to the wall at a few points leaves far less to repair than a recess cut into the landlord's wall.
• Avoid building the screen into joinery that can't be reused. A surround that unscrews is better than one that's glued and plastered.
• Choose a standard cabinet size. A screen made of 500 × 500 mm or 640 × 480 mm cabinets can be rebuilt wider, narrower or as two smaller screens in the next shop. A one-off custom size can't.
• Keep the drawings, the specification sheet and the spares. Whoever rebuilds the screen will need the module model and batch, and extra modules of the same batch if the new wall is larger.
• Plan the downtime. Taking a screen down and rebuilding it is a few days' work. Fit it into the move, with the new frame ready first.
• Tell us at the start. A screen meant to move is specified a little differently, and it costs no more.

For owned premises none of this applies, and a recessed, built-in screen is the better-looking choice.

Power, heat, noise and fire safety

An indoor LED screen draws about 100 to 300 watts per square metre in normal use and up to about 460 watts at maximum, gives nearly all of that off as heat, and should run silently. In an occupied room, those four things, power, heat, noise and fire safety, need as much thought as the picture.

One manufacturer gives 100 to 150 watts per square metre at average brightness (Linsn), and another's module tables give 280 watts average and 460 maximum (Colorlit). The real figure depends on brightness and content.

• Power. A dedicated circuit sized for the maximum load. A 6-square-metre screen needs about 2.8 kW at maximum. Tell the electrician before first fix.
• Heat. A 10-square-metre wall running at 200 watts per square metre adds 2 kW to the room, like a small heater left on. Include it in the air-conditioning load, especially in a small shop.
• Noise. Indoor cabinets should be fanless. Check, because a wall of small fans is audible in a quiet shop or prayer hall.
• Fire safety. Ask for the fire rating of the modules, masks and cabinets, and use aluminium cabinets and fire-rated cable. Don't block sprinkler heads, detectors or exit signs, and keep the screen clear of escape routes. In malls and public buildings the fit-out is approved under the UAE Fire and Life Safety Code, and the screen is part of that submission. Your fit-out contractor or fire consultant will say what documents are needed.
• Emergency behaviour. In some venues the screens are required to go blank or show an evacuation message when the fire alarm sounds. Ask the mall or consultant, and we'll link the controller.
• Electrical safety. Earthing of the frame, a properly rated breaker, and no exposed low-voltage wiring within reach.
• Switching off. A schedule that turns the screen off outside opening hours saves power and extends its life.

Content and control

An indoor screen is run from a media player for scheduled content, or from a video processor when it also has to show laptops, cameras and live sources. Either way, the content should be made at the screen's exact pixel size, and somebody has to be responsible for keeping it fresh.

• Media player and software. Playlists, schedules by time and date, and remote updates from a browser or phone. Enough for a shop or mall screen.
• Video processor. Scales any input to fit the screen and switches between sources. Needed in halls, mosques and anywhere a laptop or camera is plugged in.
• Several screens. A ribbon, a column and a wall in one shop can run from one system, in step with each other.
• Make content at the screen's resolution. A 1,200 × 800 pixel wall needs artwork at 1,200 × 800. Stretched television adverts look soft and wrong.
• Slow it down indoors. People are in the room for minutes, not seconds. Calm, slow content is easier to live with than fast cuts.
• Dark backgrounds look richer, glare less and use less power.
• Sound. Most indoor screens run silent. If you want sound, plan speakers and check what the mall allows.
• Arabic and English at equal size.
• Refresh it. A screen showing last season's campaign tells customers nobody's paying attention. Decide who updates it before you buy.

We design content for the screens we install, set up the software and train your staff, and can update content on a monthly plan.

What an indoor LED screen costs

An indoor LED screen is priced per square metre, and pitch is the main factor. A Dubai supplier's published guide puts standard indoor screens at P2.5 to P3.9 at about AED 2,900 to 5,500 per square metre and fine-pitch screens at P1.5 to P2.0 at AED 5,500 to 9,000, for the screen alone. The frame, controller, installation and content are extra.

Those ranges are from UP2's price guide. At those rates, the screen for a 3 × 2 metre shop wall at P2.5 comes to roughly AED 17,000 to 33,000 before the frame and installation.

Our own guide prices, supplied and installed:

What moves the price

• Pitch and area.
• Shape. Curves, columns and odd shapes need flexible modules and custom frames.
• Mounting. A wall frame is simple. A hanging structure with an engineer's design, or a recess with joinery, costs more.
• Surface. A coated or COB surface for screens within reach.
• Control. A player is cheap. A processor with several inputs costs more.
• Night work and mall requirements.
• Content.

Running costs

• Electricity. A 6-square-metre screen averaging 200 watts per square metre for 12 hours a day uses about 5,300 kWh a year.
• Maintenance. A retail display guide suggests budgeting 2 to 5% of the purchase cost a year for modules, power supplies and visits (LED Screen Board).
• Content, if someone else produces it.
• Software licence, where the player software is subscription-based.

See our LED screen price guide for a fuller breakdown.

Maintenance and lifespan

An indoor LED screen in an air-conditioned room is the easiest LED screen to own. Manufacturers quote 50,000 to 100,000 hours, which at 12 hours a day is more than eleven years. What it needs is gentle cleaning, protection from knocks, and matching spares.

• Cleaning. A soft dry brush or anti-static cloth every month or two. No sprays or wet cloths on an uncoated screen. Coated screens can be wiped with a barely damp cloth.
• Knocks. Most dead pixels indoors come from ladders, trolleys, shop fittings and cleaning. Brief staff and cleaners, and protect any screen within reach.
• Failed modules are swapped from the front in minutes.
• Spares. Keep spare modules, a power supply and a receiving card from the same batch.
• Recalibration every couple of years keeps the screen even as it ages.
• Static images. A logo left in the same place for months ages those LEDs faster. Move things around.
• Dust from building work. If the shop is refitted, cover the screen or take it down.
• Warranty. Our screens carry a 1-year warranty, and we offer maintenance contracts afterwards.

Mistakes to avoid

Most indoor screen problems are decided before the order.

1. Buying LED where an LCD would do, for a small rectangular display.
2. A pitch too coarse for the counter or the queue.
3. A pitch far finer than the room needs.
4. Too bright for the room, with no dimming.
5. An interior screen placed facing out through glass.
6. Fixing to plasterboard, or hanging from a false ceiling.
7. A recess built before the screen's size was confirmed.
8. No ventilation around a recessed screen.
9. An unusual shape with no content made for it.
10. Forgetting the mall's approval.
11. Exposed modules within reach of trolleys and hands.
12. Nobody responsible for content.

How we deliver an indoor screen

An indoor screen project takes five steps, and on a fit-out the early ones matter most.

1. Survey. We measure the wall or ceiling, the viewing distances and the light, check what will carry the weight, and ask what you want to show.
2. Proposal. LED or LCD, the size, pitch and brightness, a drawing of the screen in the room, the mounting method, the control system and a price.
3. Coordination. A drawing for your fit-out contractor, electrician and mall showing the opening, fixings, loads, power, data and ventilation.
4. Installation. Frame, cabinets, cabling, controller and calibration, at night where the venue requires it.
5. Handover. Content loaded, brightness presets set, staff trained, spares and documents handed over, warranty started.

Lead time is typically 3–6 weeks from order.