LED poster displays in Dubai: LED posters, digital standees and LED A-boards

What an LED poster display is

An LED poster display is a tall, slim, freestanding LED screen, about 640 mm wide and 1,920 mm high, that plugs into a wall socket and needs no installation. It has its own stand or base, a built-in player, and Wi-Fi or USB for loading content. Think of it as a roll-up banner that shows video.

It's sold as an LED poster, poster LED screen, smart LED poster, digital LED poster and LED banner display.

One manufacturer's figures for the standard indoor model (Unilight):

• Size: 640 × 1,920 mm, and 33 to 45 mm thick.
• Weight: about 30 to 50 kg.
• Pixel pitch: P1.25 to P3.
• Brightness: 800 to 2,000 nits.
• Control: Wi-Fi, USB, HDMI and network.
• Fixing: floor-standing, wall-mounted, hanging, or joined side by side.

What makes it useful:

• No installation. No frame, no electrician, no fit-out contractor. It arrives assembled.
• It moves. From the entrance to the back of the shop, from one branch to another, to an exhibition and home again.
• It's bright. Two to four times as bright as an LCD standee, so it holds up near a glass front.
• No bezel. The picture runs to the edge, which is what lets several posters join into one screen.
• It's yours to keep when the lease ends, with nothing to make good.

And its limits:

• The shape is fixed. One part wide to three parts tall. Ordinary video doesn't fit it.
• Up close you see the pixels, unless you pay for a fine pitch.
• It costs more than an LCD standee of similar size.
• Indoor models aren't weatherproof.

LED poster, digital standee or A-board?

Choose an LED poster for a bright, bezel-free moving display that can join with others. Choose an LCD digital standee for a sharper picture at close range and a lower price. Choose an LED A-board for a small lit sign on the pavement outside your shop. Choose an illuminated poster frame when a printed poster with a light behind it will do.

How to choose in practice

• Will people stand within a metre or two and read detail? An LCD standee. Text on an LED poster at P2.5 is coarse at that distance.
• Is it near a glass front, in a bright atrium or under strong lighting? An LED poster. An LCD washes out.
• Do you want it to look like a screen wall for a launch or an event? LED posters, joined.
• Is it for the pavement outside a shop or café? An A-board. A full LED poster is too costly and too delicate to stand on a pavement.
• Does the message change once a month or less? An illuminated poster frame. No software, nothing to crash.
• Does it need to travel? A folding LED poster in a flight case, or a light LCD standee.

We supply all four, so the recommendation follows the job. For touch screens and wayfinding, see digital kiosks and totems.

The standard LED poster in numbers

The standard LED poster is 640 × 1,920 mm, which is 1.23 square metres and about 80 inches on the diagonal, in a 1:3 shape. Its resolution depends on the pixel pitch: 256 × 768 pixels at P2.5, 320 × 960 at P2, and 512 × 1,536 at P1.25. Those figures decide what it can show and how close people can stand.

What those numbers mean:

• At P2.5, the poster is 256 pixels wide. That's fewer than a 1990s computer screen. A headline of two or three words per line, a product image and a logo work well. A paragraph of text doesn't.
• A 55-inch LCD in portrait is 1,080 pixels wide. For anything read up close, LCD wins by a wide margin, at any poster pitch.
• Finer pitch costs sharply more. A P1.5 poster costs far more than a P2.5 one and looks the same from 4 metres.
• P2.5 and P2 are the usual choices, matched to people 2 to 3 metres away.

Power

A manufacturer gives poster power at 750 watts per square metre at maximum and 225 on average (Leeman). For a 1.23-square-metre poster that's about 920 watts at most and under 300 in normal use, well within an ordinary wall socket. Six posters on one socket at full white would be about 5.5 kW, which isn't. Spread a joined set across circuits.

Weight and thickness

At 30 to 50 kg and under 5 cm thick, one person can wheel a poster and two can lift it. The base adds depth, about 40 to 60 cm front to back, to keep it from tipping.

Types of LED poster

LED posters come in eight variants of the same idea: standing, wall-mounted, hanging, mirror, double-sided, foldable, transparent and outdoor. They share the panel and differ in the frame, the base and the finish.

Mirror posters

A mirror when the screen is dark, a display when it's lit, and a mix of the two with dark content. Popular in fashion and beauty, where a customer checks their reflection beside a product video. The mirror layer costs some brightness, so they suit interiors.

Double-sided posters

Two screens back to back in one frame, for a position seen from both directions. Twice the screen, a little less than twice the price, and heavier.

Foldable posters

The panel hinges in two or three sections and packs into a wheeled flight case. Set-up takes a few minutes: unfold, lock, plug in. Some run from a built-in battery for a few hours. They're made for people who exhibit often. The hinges are the weak point, so look for a coated surface and treat it as equipment that needs care.

Roll-up and flexible posters

A flexible LED sheet that rolls into a tube, hung like a banner. Light and striking, with a coarser picture and a higher price. For most uses a folding poster is the more practical portable screen.

Transparent posters

A see-through LED panel in a slim frame for a shop window. See transparent LED screens.

Outdoor posters

Sealed to IP65, with brightness of about 4,500 to 5,800 nits according to the same manufacturer, against 800 to 2,000 indoors. They're thicker and heavier and need fixing down. There's a section on them below.

Joining posters into a larger screen

LED posters have no bezel, so several can stand side by side and play as one screen. Six standard posters make a display 3.84 metres wide and 1.92 metres high, which is about 170 inches on the diagonal. The software treats the set as a single canvas, or lets each poster show its own content.

• Five or six posters come close to the 16:9 shape of ordinary video. Five is a little narrow and six a little wide. Either plays standard video with small bars or a slight crop.
• The joins are fine lines, not invisible. One manufacturer gives the gap as 0.9 mm or less. On a level floor with the posters locked together, it's hard to see from a few metres.
• Three modes. One picture across all posters, the same picture repeated on each, or a different picture on each. Good software switches between them on a schedule.
• It's a screen you can take apart. Six posters make a backdrop for a launch on Thursday and six separate displays around the shop on Friday.
• The floor has to be level. On an uneven floor the tops don't line up. Adjustable feet help.
• Power. Spread the posters over more than one socket circuit.

When a video wall is the better buy

If the screen will stay joined and stay put, a fixed LED video wall of the same size costs less, sits flat against the wall and has no bases in the way. Joined posters make sense when you need the flexibility to split them up or move them. If you don't, buy a wall.

LED A-boards and pavement signs

An LED A-board is a freestanding A-frame sign for the pavement or the shop entrance, with a lit panel on each face. It comes in three kinds: a lit frame holding a printed poster, a programmable LED text board, and a small full-colour LED or LCD screen. All are cheaper, lighter and tougher than an LED poster, and all are meant to be carried in at night.

It's also called an LED pavement sign, LED sandwich board, LED sidewalk sign or digital A-board.

What matters in an A-board

• Battery life. A sign that stands on a pavement can't trail a cable across it. Ask how many hours the battery gives at full brightness, and how long it takes to charge. A lit poster frame runs far longer on a battery than a screen does.
• Brightness. Outdoors in daylight, a small screen needs to be far brighter than an indoor one, which shortens battery life. In full sun, a printed poster reads better than a cheap screen.
• Weight and stability. Light enough to carry in, heavy enough not to blow over. A weighted or water-filled base, or sandbags, in wind.
• Weather. Sealed against dust and splashes if it stands outside. Most aren't made to be left out in rain or overnight.
• Double-sided. Seen by people walking in both directions.
• Size. Typically 60 to 80 cm wide and 100 to 120 cm high. Big enough to read, small enough to leave the pavement clear.
• Changing the message. A snap frame for prints, or a phone app for screens.

Where you can put one

• On your own premises, inside the shopfront line, in a recessed entrance or on your own forecourt: your landlord's rules apply.
• In a mall: mall management decides. Many don't allow anything outside the shop's lease line.
• On a public pavement: it's public land, and placing a sign there needs permission from the authority. Signs put out without it can be removed and fined. Ask before buying a sign you intend to stand on the pavement.
• Don't block the way. Leave a clear width for wheelchairs and pushchairs, keep clear of crossings and corners, and don't trail cables.
• Take it in at closing.

For more on handwritten lit boards, see LED writing boards. For fixed scrolling signs, see LED scrolling message boards.

Illuminated poster frames and light banners

An illuminated poster frame is a slim LED lightbox with a snap-open front that holds a printed poster. It gives a bright, evenly lit image with no software, changes in a minute, and costs a fraction of a screen. We make them in our own workshop, wall-mounted, freestanding and double-sided, in standard poster sizes and to measure.

It's what people often mean by an LED poster box, an LED light poster, a poster light frame or a light banner.

• Edge-lit frames. LEDs along the edges shine into a clear panel behind the print. Very slim, about 2 to 3 cm, and even.
• Backlit boxes. LEDs behind the face. Deeper, brighter, and better for large sizes.
• Fabric lightboxes. A printed fabric face stretched into an aluminium frame, lit from behind. No joins or reflections, and the fabric folds for storage. Good for large backdrops and exhibition stands.
• Freestanding versions on feet, for shop floors and events.
• Outdoor poster cases, lockable and sealed, for menus and notices by the door.
• Prints on backlit film or fabric. We print and fit them.

Choose a lit frame over a screen when the message is one image, when it changes rarely, when it has to look perfect up close, or when there's no budget or patience for software. A printed poster has more detail than any LED poster can show. See light box signs for the full range.

Where LED posters work

LED posters work best where a bright, movable, freestanding display is worth more than a sharp one: shop and mall entrances, showrooms, hotel lobbies, exhibitions and events. They're weakest where people read at close range, or where the screen will never move.

Shop entrances and windows

Beside the door or just inside the glass, facing the street or the mall. The brightness holds against daylight where an LCD standee would fade. Move it as the promotion changes.

Mall kiosks and pop-ups

A kiosk or temporary stand has no walls to mount a screen on. A poster brings a large display with no installation and goes with you when the lease ends.

Showrooms

Car, furniture and property showrooms use posters beside the product, each carrying its features and price. Joined, they become a backdrop for a launch.

Hotels, halls and venues

Event signage outside a ballroom: the couple's names, the conference title, the agenda. Rolled out for the event and stored afterwards. Hotels that host events weekly get steady use from a set of four to six.

Exhibitions and roadshows

Folding posters in flight cases are built for this. A stand with three joined posters has a moving backdrop with no rental and no installer.

Restaurants and cafés

A poster at the entrance showing the day's offer. For menus read at the counter, an LCD screen is sharper. See digital menu boards.

Offices and receptions

A welcome message for visitors, moved to the conference room for an event.

Where they don't suit

• Detailed information read up close: timetables, price lists, directories. Use LCD.
• A permanent large screen. Use a fixed wall.
• Unsupervised public areas where they'll be knocked or tampered with.
• Outdoors, unless it's an outdoor model.

See indoor LED screens for fixed screens in shops.

Content for a tall, narrow screen

An LED poster is three times as tall as it is wide, and no ordinary video fits that shape. Content has to be made for it: stacked vertically, with a few large words and one strong image, at the poster's exact pixel size. Phone-format video, at 9:16, is the nearest standard and still leaves a third of the screen unused.

• Make it at the poster's resolution. For P2.5, a canvas of 256 × 768 pixels. For P2, 320 × 960.
• Stack it. Logo at the top, image in the middle, message below, or the reverse. Read from top to bottom like a banner.
• Very few words. At 256 pixels wide, a line holds about ten large characters. Break the message into two or three short lines.
• Large type. Letters at least 30 pixels tall at P2.5, which is about 7.5 cm, to read cleanly.
• One tall image. A standing figure, a bottle, a tower, a full-length outfit. The shape flatters anything vertical.
• Phone video. A 9:16 clip fills the top two-thirds or so. Put a fixed logo or price band in the space below.
• Horizontal video. Turn it into a band across the middle with graphics above and below, or don't use it.
• Motion from top to bottom suits the shape: falling, rising, scrolling.
• Dark backgrounds. Richer colour, less glare, less power.
• Eye level matters. The middle third of the poster, from about 1.0 to 1.6 metres, is where people look. Put the main message there. The bottom third is below most people's gaze.
• Arabic and English. Alternate frames, or stack them, each at full size.
• For joined posters, make the content at the joined resolution, and keep faces and text off the joins.

We design content for LED posters and standees, in the right shape and size.

Control and updating

An LED poster has a built-in player and is updated in one of four ways: by USB stick, over Wi-Fi from a phone app, over the network from a computer, or through a cloud platform that manages many posters at once. For one or two posters, the phone app is enough. For a chain of shops, use the cloud.

• Scheduling. Different content by time of day and date, set once.
• Brightness. Adjustable, with a schedule or sensor for evening.
• On and off timers, so the poster isn't running to an empty shop all night.
• Joined sets need the posters linked by cable or network and set up as one canvas.
• Passwords. Change the default Wi-Fi password, or anyone nearby with the app can put their own content on your screen.
• File types. Standard image and video formats. We set up templates so staff can change a price or an offer without a designer.

Moving, storing and safety

A freestanding screen is only as safe as its base and its cable. A 40 kg poster that tips over can injure a child and destroys itself, and a power lead across a walkway is a trip hazard. Plan where each poster stands, how it's kept upright and where its cable runs.

• Stability. Use the full base, with feet extended. On a busy floor, choose a model with a wide, weighted base, or fix it to the wall or floor with the bracket provided.
• Children and crowds. In family venues and at events, don't rely on a freestanding base alone. Tie it back.
• The cable. Stand the poster by a socket, run the lead along the wall, and cover any crossing with a cable protector. Floor boxes are best.
• Wheels. Lock them once in position.
• Moving it. Two people for lifting. Hold the frame, never the face. On wheels, move slowly over thresholds.
• The face is delicate. Exposed LEDs are knocked off by bags, trolleys and belt buckles. A coated surface, called GOB, is worth the extra on any poster in a public space.
• Storage. Upright, covered, in its case or original packing, somewhere dry and cool. Not flat with things stacked on it.
• Transport. In a flight case or padded cover, strapped upright.
• Fire routes. Not in front of exits, extinguishers or hose reels, and not narrowing an escape route.
• Heat. Leave a gap behind for ventilation. Don't push it tight into a corner or drape anything over it.
• Electrical safety. A proper earthed plug, and no multi-way adaptors loaded with several posters.

Outdoor posters and permits

An outdoor LED poster is sealed to IP65, runs at about 4,500 to 5,800 nits, and is built heavier to stand in wind. It isn't an indoor poster moved outside. Used at a forecourt, an entrance or an outdoor event, it also raises the question of permission, since a screen visible from the street is advertising.

• Brightness. An indoor poster at 800 to 2,000 nits is unreadable in direct sun. Outdoor models are several times brighter and dim automatically at night.
• Heat. In a Dubai summer, a sealed screen in the sun needs proper cooling. Place it in shade where you can, and bring portable units in during the hottest hours if they aren't rated for it.
• Wind. A tall, flat panel catches the wind. Outdoor posters must be bolted down or ballasted heavily. A base that's fine indoors will go over outside.
• Power. A weatherproof outdoor socket and connector, protected by an earth-leakage device.
• Left out or brought in? A portable outdoor poster is brought in at night. One meant to stay out is a fixed installation and should be treated as an outdoor totem. See digital kiosks and totems.

Permission

• Inside your premises or a mall, the landlord or mall management decides.
• On your own forecourt, facing the street, a screen is outdoor advertising. In Dubai, advertising permits are applied for through Mada Media's platform, and the published fee for an electronic screen on land is AED 1,000 per square metre per year (Mada Media). Ask how a movable poster at your site is treated before buying one for outdoor use.
• On a public pavement, nothing may be placed without the authority's permission.
• Facing traffic, moving images aren't approved under Dubai's outdoor advertising manual, as reported by Khaleej Times.
• At an event, a temporary permit may apply, and the organiser usually handles it.

What LED posters cost

A Dubai supplier publishes prices of about AED 3,500 to 7,000 for a smaller LED poster, AED 6,000 to 10,000 for a mid-sized one and AED 9,000 to 15,000 or more for a large one. An LCD digital standee of 43 to 55 inches is published at about AED 4,000 to 9,000 installed. Pitch, brightness and extras such as a mirror face or a folding frame move the price within those bands.

The LED poster prices in dirhams are from LED Screen Dubai, the LCD prices from Cameo Advertising, and the factory prices from Unilight. Our own guide prices:

What moves the price

• Pixel pitch. The main factor for LED posters.
• Surface. A coated face costs more and lasts longer in public.
• Extras. Mirror, double-sided, folding, battery, flight case.
• Indoor or outdoor.
• Quantity. A set of six costs less each than one.
• Content and templates.

Running costs

Small. A poster averaging under 300 watts for 12 hours a day uses about 1,200 kWh a year. Add content, if someone else makes it, and a cloud subscription if you use one. See our LED screen price guide for larger screens.

Maintenance and mistakes to avoid

An LED poster needs little maintenance beyond gentle cleaning and careful handling. Manufacturers quote 100,000 hours for the LEDs. In practice, posters are retired by knocks and wear from being moved, long before the LEDs give out.

Care

• Dust the face with a soft dry brush or anti-static cloth. No sprays on an uncoated face.
• Wipe a coated face with a barely damp cloth.
• Check the base bolts and wheel locks each time it's moved.
• Inspect the power lead for damage.
• Keep the packing or the case for moves.
• Spare modules from the same batch for a set of posters.
• Warranty. Ours is 1 year, with maintenance contracts afterwards.

Mistakes

1. Buying an LED poster for information read up close, where an LCD is sharper and cheaper.
2. Choosing a fine pitch for a poster seen from across a hall.
3. Playing horizontal video on a 1:3 screen.
4. Too many words.
5. An indoor poster used outdoors.
6. An uncoated face in a crowded space.
7. A cable across the walkway.
8. A freestanding poster where children can pull it over.
9. Joining posters permanently where a fixed wall would cost less.
10. Standing an A-board on a public pavement without permission.
11. Leaving the default Wi-Fi password.
12. A screen for a message that never changes, where a lit printed poster would do.

How we supply an LED poster, and what to check on delivery

An LED poster is delivered assembled and tested, set up where it will stand, and handed over with content loaded and staff shown how to change it. There's no installation in the usual sense, which makes the handover the moment to check everything.

1. Advice. We ask where it will stand, how close people come and what you'll show, and recommend the product and pitch. Often that's an LCD standee or a lit frame, and we'll say so.
2. Quotation, with the poster, the base, any case, the content and delivery shown separately.
3. Content. We design the first set at the poster's resolution and set up templates for your own updates.
4. Delivery and set-up. We bring it, assemble the base, place it, connect it to your Wi-Fi and set the brightness and timers.
5. Handover. Your staff update it themselves once before we leave.

What to check before you sign for it:

• Every pixel lights. Ask for full red, green, blue and white screens in turn. Dead or stuck pixels show at once.
• The colour is even across the face, with no module a different shade.
• The modules sit flush, with no raised edges or visible lines.
• The base is rigid and the poster doesn't rock when pushed gently at the top.
• It dims smoothly to a low level without flicker.
• The app connects and a new image uploads from your own phone.
• The Wi-Fi password has been changed from the default.
• For a joined set, the tops line up and one image plays across all of them.
• You have the spares, the packing and the warranty in writing.