LED video walls in Dubai: LED walls for receptions, boardrooms and showrooms

What an LED video wall is

An LED video wall is a large indoor display built from LED modules that join with no visible gaps, so the whole wall shows one continuous picture. Because it's assembled from small panels, an LED wall can be any size and shape, from a 2.4-metre boardroom screen to a wall that fills a lobby from floor to ceiling.

The terms overlap. "LED wall", "LED video wall", "LED screen wall" and "LED display wall" all mean the same thing. "Video wall" on its own often means a wall of LCD panels, which is a different product with visible joints between the panels. This page covers both, because buyers usually need to choose between them.

What sets an indoor LED wall apart from other LED screens:

• Fine pixel pitch. The pixels are 0.9 to 2.5 mm apart, so the picture stays sharp from one or two metres away.
• Moderate brightness. About 600 to 1,200 nits, enough for a bright lobby without dazzling a meeting room.
• Slim cabinets. Often under 10 cm deep including the frame, fixed flat to a wall and serviced from the front.
• Quiet running. No fans on most fine-pitch walls, which matters in a boardroom.
• A flat, joint-free face that can be colour-matched across every module.

LED wall, LCD video wall or all-in-one display?

Choose by wall size. For a display under about 3 square metres, an LCD video wall or a single large LCD is usually cheapest. From about 3 to 7 square metres, an all-in-one LED display gives a joint-free picture at a fixed price. Above that, or for any custom shape, a tiled LED wall is the right product.

That size rule is from a manufacturer's comparison (DOIT Vision), and it matches what we see on projects.

The joint, brightness and lifespan figures are from the same comparison.

Where LCD still wins

• Small walls. Four 55-inch panels in a 2 × 2 grid cost less than the same area of fine-pitch LED.
• Very close viewing of fine detail, such as spreadsheets, maps and camera feeds read from under a metre.
• Text-heavy content on a tight budget, where the grid lines fall between windows and bother nobody.

Where LED wins

• Anything large. The price gap narrows as the wall grows, and LED's longer life and module-level repair count for more over the years.
• One uninterrupted picture. Faces, product shots and video look wrong with lines through them.
• Bright rooms. A glass-fronted lobby washes out an LCD wall.
• Shapes. Wide ribbons, columns, corners and curves.
• Long life. LCD backlights dim sooner, and a failed panel years later is hard to match.

Where an all-in-one display fits

An all-in-one LED display is a complete screen from the factory, with the controller, speakers and frame built in, in sizes such as 108, 135 and 163 inches. It arrives in flight cases, hangs on a bracket and is working the same day. For a boardroom that wants a joint-free picture bigger than any television, it's the simplest answer.

We supply and install all three, so the recommendation follows the room and the budget.

LED wall or projector?

Choose an LED wall over a projector when the room is bright, the picture is on for most of the day, or the wall has to look good switched on at any hour. A projector still makes sense for a very large picture used occasionally in a room that can be darkened, where its lower purchase price outweighs the weaker image.

Many of the boardrooms and halls we survey have a projector that nobody is happy with. The reasons are nearly always the same:

• Daylight. A projector adds light to a white screen, so it can't show black. With the blinds open, the picture turns grey. An LED wall makes its own light against a black face and keeps its contrast in a lit room.
• Shadows and glare. A presenter walking in front of a projector casts a shadow and gets the beam in the eyes. A wall has no beam.
• Running costs. Lamp projectors need new lamps, and all projectors need filters cleaned and the picture realigned. Laser projectors last longer but dim over the years.
• Noise and ceiling space. A projector hangs in the room with a fan running. A wall is silent and flat.
• Readiness. A wall is on in seconds, at full brightness.

Where a projector still wins:

• Very large pictures on a small budget. A 6-metre image in a hall used a few times a month costs far less from a projector.
• Rooms that are dark anyway, such as cinemas and some auditoriums.
• Surfaces that can't carry a wall, such as a retractable screen in front of a window or stage.

If you're replacing a projector, measure the existing screen and note what people complain about. A wall of the same size is the usual starting point, and often a slightly smaller wall does better, because it's so much brighter and sharper.

Sizing an LED wall: size, pitch and resolution

Size an LED wall in three steps: set the height from the furthest viewer, set the pixel pitch from the nearest viewer, then check the resolution those two give you. A wall needs about 1,920 × 1,080 pixels to show full-HD content properly, and the size at which it reaches that depends on the pitch.

Step 1: height from the furthest viewer

A long-standing rule of thumb in audio-visual design is that the furthest viewer should be no more than about six times the picture's height away to read detailed content such as slides, and up to eight times for video and general viewing. A room where the back row is 9 metres from the wall needs a picture about 1.5 metres tall for presentations. The current industry method is AVIXA's display image size standard, which works from the size of the smallest text you need people to read.

Step 2: pitch from the nearest viewer

A manufacturer's conference room guide gives similar bands: P1.2 to P1.8 for small rooms, P1.8 to P2.5 for medium rooms and P2.0 to P2.5 for large training rooms (Chipshow).

Step 3: check the resolution

Divide the wall's width and height in millimetres by the pitch. Standard content is made at 1,920 × 1,080 (full HD) or 3,840 × 2,160 (4K), in a 16:9 shape. These are the 16:9 wall sizes that give exactly full HD at each pitch:

What follows from the table:

• A smaller wall at the same pitch has fewer pixels than full HD. A 2.4-metre-wide wall at P2.5 is only 960 pixels across. Slides and spreadsheets will look soft, so a small wall needs a fine pitch.
• A larger wall has more. A 4.8 × 2.7 metre wall at P1.25 is 4K.
• Walls that aren't 16:9 need content made for them. A 6 × 1.5 metre ribbon is 4:1. Standard video either leaves bars at the sides or is cropped, so plan custom content or a layout of several windows.
• Sizes move in steps. Indoor cabinets are commonly 600 × 337.5 mm, a 16:9 shape, so walls build up in whole cabinets. We'll give you the nearest buildable size.

Our LED modules and pixel pitch guide covers pitch in more detail.

LED walls by room

Each kind of room asks something different of an LED wall. A reception wants impact from across the lobby, a boardroom wants sharp text and quiet running, a control room wants reliability around the clock, and a studio wants a picture that cameras can film. The pitch, brightness and finish change with the job.

Reception and lobby

The lobby wall is seen by every visitor, often through glass from outside, so it has to hold its own against daylight. P1.9 to P2.9, about 800 to 1,200 nits, with a matt black face for contrast. Many reception walls are wide and low, behind or beside the desk, which means custom content. Plan a calm loop of brand films, a welcome message and perhaps a live feed, and a way for reception staff to put up a visitor's name.

Boardrooms and meeting rooms

Presentations, spreadsheets and video calls, viewed from two metres. P1.2 to P1.9, 16:9, about 600 to 800 nits, which a manufacturer's guide gives as the usual level for controlled rooms (Chipshow). An all-in-one display suits most boardrooms. Place the wall so nobody faces a window behind it, mount the camera at eye level beside or below the screen, and keep the bottom edge about 80 to 100 cm from the floor so seated people see it all.

Control rooms and command centres

Security, traffic, utilities and network operations watch many sources at once, all day and all night. The wall needs fine pitch, P0.9 to P1.5, for detail at the desk, a processor that shows many windows, redundant power and signal paths so a single failure doesn't black out the wall, and low, even brightness to spare operators' eyes over a long shift. LCD video walls remain common here for dense data, and we'll advise on which suits the content.

Showrooms and retail

Car showrooms, property sales centres, fashion and electronics stores use LED walls to show product at scale. P1.9 to P2.9, bright enough for shop lighting, in whatever shape the architecture offers: a full-height wall behind the car, a ribbon above the shelves, a wrap around a column. See indoor LED screens for retail screens more broadly.

Mosques, halls and auditoriums

In a prayer hall, a majlis, a school hall or a ballroom, the audience is large and far away. P2.5 to P3.9 is enough, and the wall should be sized from the back row. Content is usually simple: prayer times, recitation text, a speaker's slides or a camera feed. Black levels and brightness matter, since halls are often dimly lit, and the wall should dim smoothly without flicker.

Studios and broadcast

A wall behind a presenter is filmed, and cameras see faults the eye doesn't. Ask for a refresh rate of 3,840 Hz or higher and good low-brightness performance, or the picture shows bands and flicker on camera. Fine pitch, P1.2 to P1.9, avoids moiré patterns when the camera is close. Virtual production stages go further, with curved walls and ceiling panels driven by tracking systems, and are specified with the production team.

Picture quality: what to ask for

Four things decide how good an indoor LED wall looks: brightness matched to the room, contrast, refresh rate and colour uniformity. Indoor walls are viewed closely and for long periods, so faults that wouldn't be noticed on a billboard, such as a slightly different shade on one module or flicker at low brightness, are obvious.

• Brightness to suit the room. About 600 to 800 nits for meeting rooms and 800 to 1,200 for bright lobbies. Too bright is as bad as too dim: a 1,200-nit wall in a dim boardroom is tiring to look at. The wall should be adjustable and, in a room with windows, follow a light sensor.
• Performance at low brightness. Cheap walls lose shades of grey when dimmed, so dark scenes turn blocky. Ask to see the wall running at 20% brightness before you buy.
• Contrast. Black-faced LEDs and a matt black surface give deep blacks. It's contrast, more than brightness, that makes a picture look rich.
• Refresh rate. 1,920 Hz looks steady to the eye. 3,840 Hz is needed where the wall will be filmed or photographed, which now includes most boardrooms on video calls.
• Colour uniformity. Every module should match. Walls are calibrated at the factory and again on site, and spare modules should come from the same production batch.
• Flatness and alignment. Cabinets must sit flush, or the joints catch the light as bright or dark lines. This is down to the frame and the installer's care.
• Viewing angle. About 160 degrees horizontally, so people at the sides of a room see the same picture.
• Noise. Fanless cabinets and quiet power supplies for meeting rooms.
• Heat. A wall gives off warmth. In a small room it should be counted in the air-conditioning load.

SMD, GOB or COB: which surface for a wall people can touch

Indoor LED walls come with three kinds of surface. Standard SMD modules have exposed LEDs and are the cheapest, GOB modules add a clear protective coating, and COB modules bond the LED chips under a sealed surface. For a wall within reach of the public, GOB or COB is worth the extra cost.

• Exposed SMD LEDs are fragile at fine pitch. A bag, a ladder or a curious finger can knock LEDs off the board. On a wall above 2 metres this rarely matters. At hand height it does.
• Coated and COB walls can be cleaned with a soft damp cloth, which matters in public spaces.
• COB handles heat and humidity better and gives a smoother, less grainy picture up close.
• Repair differs. A single failed LED on an SMD module can be re-soldered. Coated and COB modules are usually exchanged.

Control, inputs and content

An LED wall is driven by a controller that takes a video signal and maps it onto the wall's pixels. A simple wall needs only a media player. A wall that shows laptops, video calls and several sources side by side needs a video processor, which scales each input to fit and switches between them.

The parts

• Sending unit. Converts the video signal into data for the wall. On its own it doesn't scale the picture, so the source has to match the wall's resolution.
• Receiving cards, inside the cabinets, pass the data to the LEDs.
• Video processor. Takes HDMI, DisplayPort and other inputs, scales them to the wall's exact pixel size, and lays out one or more windows. This is what lets you plug in any laptop and get a full picture.
• Media player, for scheduled content such as a lobby loop.
• Backup. Critical walls use a second signal path and redundant power, so one failure doesn't take the wall down.

A UK supplier's guide describes the same split: sending cards carry the signal, and a processor acts as "a powerful scaler and switcher" for multiple inputs and non-standard resolutions (Dynamo LED Displays).

Connecting a meeting room

We connect LED walls to meeting room systems:

• Laptops, by cable at the table and by wireless presentation.
• Video conferencing. The room's conferencing system, camera, microphones and speakers, with the wall as the display.
• Room control. A touch panel or keypad to switch the wall on, choose the source and set the volume.
• Sound. Speakers beside or below the wall, or in the ceiling.

Tell us which conferencing platform and room system you use, and we'll plan the connections with your IT team.

Content

• Make it at the wall's resolution. Content at the exact pixel size looks sharp. Anything scaled up from a smaller file looks soft on a wall this big.
• Use the shape. A wide wall can show one panoramic image or three windows side by side.
• Keep text large. What's readable on a laptop is too small from the back of a room.
• Plan who runs it. A lobby wall needs someone responsible for its content. We set up the player and scheduling software and train your staff, and we can produce the content.

For networks of screens and software options, see digital signage.

Installing an LED wall: what the fit-out needs

Most LED walls go in during an office or shop fit-out, and the wall's needs have to be built into the design early: a wall or frame that can take the weight, a recess of the right depth, power and data in the right place, ventilation, and a way to service the wall. Problems come from finding these out after the joinery is finished.

• Give the contractor our drawing before the wall is framed. The opening size, the fixing points and the service positions come from the LED wall, not the other way round.
• Front service is standard indoors. Modules are held by magnets and come out from the face with a suction tool, so the wall can sit tight to the structure behind.
• Curves and corners need a frame built to the radius, and modules made for curving.
• Glass in front of the wall causes reflections and traps heat. Avoid it.
• Timing. A typical boardroom wall takes one to three days on site, and a large lobby wall a week or more, after the frame is ready.

We build the supporting frame in our own workshop, install and calibrate the wall, and coordinate with your fit-out contractor and electrician.

Power and heat

An indoor LED wall draws about 250 to 450 watts per square metre at its maximum, according to a manufacturer's comparison (DOIT Vision), and much less in normal use, because typical content at indoor brightness lights only part of each LED's range. Size the electrical supply for the maximum and expect the bill to follow the average.

A worked example for a boardroom wall of 3 × 1.7 metres, about 5 square metres:

Treat the typical load as an estimate. The figure for your wall depends on its brightness setting and what it shows, and the specification sheet gives both the maximum and the average.

• Dark content uses less. A black background with light text draws a fraction of what a white slide does. A wall showing white documents all day runs near the top of its range.
• Brightness is the main control. A wall set to 40% for a meeting room uses far less than the same wall at 100%.
• Standby. Ask whether the wall powers down fully when the room is empty. A wall left on black overnight still draws power for its electronics.
• Tell the air-conditioning designer. In a small meeting room, the wall's heat plus eight people is enough to matter.
• Dedicated circuit. Don't share the wall's supply with sockets that staff plug heaters and kettles into.

Outdoor LED video walls

An outdoor LED video wall is the same idea built to outdoor standards: much brighter, sealed against dust and water, and fixed to a structure designed for wind. Pixel pitches are coarser, P4 to P10, because viewers stand further away, and the wall needs an advertising permit.

Everything about brightness, weatherproofing, heat, structure and permits is on our outdoor LED screens page.

What an LED video wall costs

An LED video wall is priced per square metre, and the price rises steeply as the pixel pitch gets finer. A Dubai supplier's published guide puts standard indoor walls at P2.5 to P3.9 at about AED 2,900 to 5,500 per square metre, fine-pitch walls at P1.5 to P2.0 at AED 5,500 to 9,000, and COB walls at P0.9 to P1.2 at AED 9,000 to 18,000.

Those ranges are from UP2's price guide. Our own guide prices:

What moves the price

• Pixel pitch. The biggest factor. Going from P2.5 to P1.25 quadruples the number of LEDs.
• Size. Price scales with area.
• Surface. GOB and COB cost more than standard SMD.
• Control. A media player is cheap. A multi-window processor with backup is not.
• Frame and finish. A recessed wall with joinery around it, a curve or a corner adds work.
• Integration. Video conferencing, room control and audio.
• Spares, warranty and service.

How to spend less without regretting it

• Don't over-specify the pitch. If nobody sits within 2.5 metres, P2.5 looks as sharp as P1.5 at roughly half the price.
• Buy the size that reaches full HD at your chosen pitch, so standard content fits without scaling.
• Choose an all-in-one display for a standard boardroom.
• Use LCD for a small wall of data.

See our LED screen price guide for a fuller breakdown.

What a good LED wall quotation includes

A quotation for an LED wall should state the exact wall size and resolution, the pixel pitch and LED type, the brightness and refresh rate, the control equipment, the frame, the spares and the warranty. If two quotations differ widely in price, the difference is almost always in one of these lines, so compare them line by line.

Ask every supplier for:

1. Wall size in millimetres and in pixels. "3 metres by 1.7" isn't enough. The pixel count tells you whether it reaches full HD.
2. Pixel pitch and surface type: SMD, GOB or COB.
3. Brightness in nits and refresh rate in hertz, including how the wall performs when dimmed.
4. Cabinet size, depth and weight, and whether it's front service.
5. The controller or processor, with the number and type of inputs and whether there's a backup.
6. The frame and any trim or cladding, and who builds the recess.
7. Spare modules, power supplies and receiving cards, as a number, from the same batch.
8. Calibration on site after installation.
9. Electrical requirements, so your electrician can price the supply.
10. Warranty length and what it covers, including response time for a fault.
11. Training and content set-up.
12. What's excluded. Power to the wall, joinery, scaffolding and after-hours working are the usual gaps.

A demonstration is worth more than a specification sheet. Ask to see the same pitch and surface running, stand at your nearest seat's distance, look at white, grey and a dark video, and point a phone camera at it to check for bands.

Maintenance and lifespan

An indoor LED wall needs little maintenance. Manufacturers quote about 100,000 hours to half brightness, and an indoor wall running ten hours a day in an air-conditioned room is under far less stress than an outdoor screen. What it needs is gentle cleaning, an occasional check and a stock of matching spares.

• Cleaning. A soft dry brush or an anti-static cloth every month or two. Never spray liquid onto an uncoated wall. Coated and COB walls can be wiped with a slightly damp cloth.
• Hands off. Tell cleaners and staff not to lean on or press the face of an SMD wall.
• Failed pixels. A few will fail over the years. Modules are exchanged from the front in minutes.
• Spares. Keep spare modules, a power supply and a receiving card from the same batch as the wall. Modules made later may not match in colour.
• Recalibration every couple of years keeps brightness and colour even as the LEDs age.
• Run it sensibly. Lower brightness and a schedule that switches the wall off overnight extend its life and cut power use.
• Avoid static images for weeks on end. LEDs that show the same bright logo around the clock age faster than their neighbours.
• Warranty. Our walls carry a 1-year warranty, and we offer maintenance contracts afterwards.

Mistakes to avoid

Most problems with LED walls come from decisions made before the wall was ordered.

1. A pitch too coarse for the seats nearest the wall, so the front row sees dots.
2. A pitch far finer than the room needs, doubling the price for no visible gain.
3. A small wall with too few pixels for slides and spreadsheets.
4. An odd shape with no plan for content.
5. No processor, so laptops show a tiny or stretched picture.
6. A wall facing a window, washed out by daylight.
7. Too bright for the room, with no dimming.
8. A low refresh rate in a room used for video calls, giving bands on camera.
9. Exposed SMD modules at hand height in a public corridor.
10. A recess built before the wall's size was confirmed.
11. No ventilation around a recessed wall.
12. No spare modules bought with the wall.

How we deliver an LED wall

An LED wall project runs through five stages, and on a fit-out the early ones matter most, because the wall's size and services have to reach the contractor before the room is built.

1. Survey. We measure the wall, the viewing distances and the light, check what the wall is made of, and ask what you'll show and from which sources.
2. Proposal. A recommended size, pitch and product, a drawing of the wall in the room, the control and meeting room equipment, and a price.
3. Coordination. A drawing for your fit-out contractor and electrician showing the opening, fixing points, power, data and ventilation.
4. Installation. Frame, cabinets, cabling, controller, calibration and connection to your sources and conferencing system.
5. Handover. Content loaded, staff trained, spares and documents handed over, and the warranty started.

Lead time is typically 3–6 weeks from order, depending on the product and the frame.