Transparent LED screens in Dubai: see-through LED displays for glass, windows and facades

What a transparent LED screen is

A transparent LED screen is an LED display built with open space between its rows of LEDs, so light and sight pass through the gaps. The LEDs sit on thin strips or a clear film, and from a few metres away the eye joins them into a picture while still seeing what's behind. Typical products let 50 to 95% of the light through.

The same thing is sold under many names: transparent LED display, see-through LED screen, translucent LED screen, glass LED screen, invisible LED screen, LED window display. They differ in how the LEDs are carried, which is what the next section compares.

How it differs from an ordinary LED screen:

• It doesn't block the glass. A solid screen in a shop window turns the window into a wall. A transparent one leaves the shop visible and the daylight coming in.
• It's light and thin. A few kilograms per square metre for film and around 10 kg for cabinets, where a solid outdoor screen weighs 30 kg or more.
• It has fewer pixels. The gaps that make it see-through are places where there are no LEDs, so the picture is coarser than a solid screen of the same size.
• Black is transparent. Wherever the content is black, the LEDs are off and you see straight through. That one fact decides how content is designed.
• Most of it is for indoors, fitted behind glass and facing out. Outdoor versions exist, mainly as mesh for facades.

Types of see-through display compared

There are six kinds of see-through display: transparent LED cabinets, LED film, holographic LED film, LED mesh and curtain, transparent OLED and LCD panels, and hologram fans. They suit different jobs. Cabinets and mesh are for large bright displays, film is for existing glass, OLED and LCD are for close-up showcases, and fans are for small floating images.

The LED figures are from two manufacturers' buying guides (DOIT Vision and Unilight). Ranges vary by product, and we'll give you the specification sheet for whatever we propose. We supply and install all six.

Transparent LED cabinets

The workhorse. Rigid strips of LEDs are held in an aluminium frame, typically 1,000 × 500 mm, and the cabinets join into a screen of any size that hangs from the ceiling, stands on the floor or fixes to the window frame, a few centimetres behind the glass. It's the brightest transparent option, the easiest to service, and it doesn't depend on the glass at all. Against that, the frame lines are faintly visible when the screen is off.

LED film

LEDs are mounted on a clear flexible film about 2 to 3 mm thick with an adhesive back. It sticks straight onto the inside of the glass, can be cut to size, and follows a gentle curve. For tighter curves and columns, see flexible and curved LED screens. With no frame and up to 95% transparency, it almost disappears when off. The trade-offs: coarser pitches, lower brightness than cabinets, and a repair means peeling and replacing a section.

Holographic LED film

A finer version of film, with pixel pitches down to P2.5 and conductors so thin they're hard to see, usually in a slim frame. On dark content the image seems to float in the glass, which is where the "holographic" name comes from. It isn't a true hologram. It suits showrooms and lobbies where people stand close, and it's the most expensive per square metre.

LED mesh and curtain

For areas too large for cabinets, LEDs are carried on open strips or a flexible net that hangs on or in front of a facade. It's light, lets wind and daylight through, and is rated for outdoor use. The pitch is coarse, so it's for viewing from a distance. There's a section on it below.

Transparent OLED and LCD

These are flat panels, like a television you can see through. A transparent OLED makes its own light and looks striking in normal room lighting. A transparent LCD has no light of its own and needs a brightly lit box behind it, which is why it's usually sold as a showcase cabinet with the product inside. Both are very sharp, small, and nowhere near bright enough for a sunlit window. They're for a watch, a phone or a perfume bottle viewed from a metre away.

Hologram fans

A different technology with a similar effect, covered in its own section below.

Transparency, brightness and sharpness: the trade-off

You can't have maximum transparency, maximum brightness and a fine picture in one transparent screen. More LEDs per square metre give a sharper, brighter image and block more of the view. One manufacturer puts it bluntly: "You cannot have 95% transparency, 5000 nits, and fine pitch in one product" (DOIT Vision).

The table shows what each pitch gives on a 3 × 2 metre window.

What this means in practice:

• A 3 × 2 metre window at P10 has fewer pixels than an old mobile phone. It can show a logo, a short line of large text and bold shapes. It can't show a product photograph with detail.
• Start from the viewing distance. One manufacturer suggests P3.9 to P6.25 for viewers 2 to 4 metres away, P6.25 to P10 for 4 to 8 metres, and P10 to P20 beyond 8 metres (Unilight). A shop window on a pavement is the first band. A facade seen from across a road is the last.
• Then check the content. If you need to show faces, products or small text, you need the finer pitch and must accept less transparency.
• Then check the light. A window in direct sun needs the brightest product, which is a cabinet.
• Bigger helps. The same pitch on a 6 × 4 metre glass wall has four times the pixels. Transparent screens reward large areas.
• Transparency figures aren't comparable between makers. Some quote the open area, some the light measured through the panel. Ask to see a sample against your glass.

What it looks like, inside and out, day and night

From outside, a transparent screen shows a bright picture with the shop faintly visible behind it. From inside, it looks like a fine grid on the glass with the street clearly visible through it, and the picture is barely seen. The balance shifts with the light: the brighter side is always the side you see.

Points customers are often surprised by:

• It's a one-way display. The LEDs face out. People inside don't see the advert, which is usually what you want.
• The interior lighting matters. A brightly lit shop behind the screen shows through the picture and weakens it at night. A darker zone just behind the glass makes the image stronger.
• What's behind the screen becomes part of the picture. A tidy display or a plain backdrop works. Clutter doesn't.
• Up close, you see the dots. From the pavement at one metre, a P10 screen is a pattern of lights. The picture forms as you step back.
• Off isn't invisible. Film comes closest. Cabinets show their frames.

Glass, sun and heat in Dubai

In Dubai, the direction the glass faces and the kind of glass decide whether a transparent screen works. A window that faces the street in sunlight needs at least 4,000 nits according to one manufacturer's guide, tinted or reflective glass cuts what gets through, and the space between screen and glass can get very hot.

The 4,000-nit figure, and 2,000 nits as the minimum for an indoor position, are from Unilight's guide, which describes specifying an indoor-rated film for a sun-facing window as the most common mistake.

• Which way the glass faces. South and west windows take direct sun for hours. North-facing glass and windows under a deep canopy or inside a mall are far easier.
• Tinted and reflective glass. Much of Dubai's glazing is tinted, coated or mirrored to keep heat out. A screen behind glass that passes 40% of light loses 60% of its brightness to the glass, and the reflections on the outside compete with the picture. We measure this at the survey with the sample against your glass.
• Double glazing. Fine for a screen behind it. Film goes on the room side of the inner pane.
• Heat. Sun through glass heats the screen from the front while the screen makes its own heat. Leave an air gap between a cabinet and the glass, keep the air-conditioning reaching that zone, and don't box the screen in.
• Thermal stress on the glass. A dark object close behind sunlit glass can raise the glass temperature unevenly. For large panes, ask the glazing contractor or building management before fixing anything to the glass.
• Adhesive in heat. Film relies on its adhesive. It must be rated for the temperature a sunlit pane reaches, and the glass must be cleaned properly before fitting.
• Mall windows. No sun, controlled light. This is where transparent screens look their best, and 2,000 nits or less is enough.
• Glare at night. A screen bright enough for the afternoon sun needs to dim after dark, from a sensor.

Where transparent screens work

Transparent screens work best where glass is the main surface and blocking it would cost something: a shop window, a showroom front, a mall unit, a glass balustrade, an atrium or a glazed facade. The larger the glass and the further away the audience, the better they perform.

Shop windows

The most common use. The screen fills the upper part or the whole of the window, facing the street or the mall, showing offers and brand content while the shop stays visible. Leave the eye-level zone clearer, with lighter content or no screen, so people can still look in at the products.

Car and property showrooms

Tall glass fronts with one large object behind them suit transparent screens well. The car or the model stays visible, and the screen carries the name, the price or a film above and around it. Holographic film is popular here, because viewers come close.

Mall units and atriums

Inside a mall there's no sun to fight, so transparency can be high and brightness modest. Screens hang in atrium voids, across the glass of upper floors, and above shopfronts. Mall management approves anything visible from the common areas.

Glass balustrades, lifts and partitions

LED film goes onto glass that could never carry a cabinet: balustrades around a void, a glass lift shaft, a partition in a lobby. The film follows the glass, and the cables run in the frame.

Building facades

A glazed facade can carry cabinets behind the glass on each floor, or mesh on the outside, turning the building into a display at night while the offices keep their view by day. This is a project for the building's owner, architect and facade engineer together.

Exhibitions, stages and events

Transparent screens make layered sets, with performers or products seen through the picture. We sell and install screens and don't rent them, so this is for permanent venues and exhibition stands that are owned.

Museums and product showcases

A transparent OLED or LCD in front of an object adds labels, animation and explanation over the real thing. It's a close-up, low-light use, and it's where those panels beat LED.

Where they don't work

• A small window that needs to show detail. There aren't enough pixels. An ordinary high-brightness screen or an LED poster does better.
• A solid wall. With nothing to see through, a normal LED screen is sharper and cheaper.
• Mirrored glass in full sun, unless a sample test proves otherwise.
• Text-heavy messages read from close by. Printed window graphics carry opening hours and price lists better.

LED mesh and curtain screens for facades

LED mesh is an outdoor transparent screen made of open strips or a flexible net of LEDs, hung on or in front of a building. It's light, lets wind and daylight through, and covers areas of hundreds of square metres where solid cabinets would be too heavy. The pixel pitch is coarse, so it's for viewing from tens of metres away.

One manufacturer gives mesh a transparency of 60 to 81% and a brightness of 4,000 to 5,500 nits (Unilight).

• Mesh, curtain, strip and grille are names for the same family. Rigid strip versions fix to a frame. Flexible versions roll up and hang.
• Wind passes through. The load on the building is far lower than for a solid screen of the same size, which is what makes very large facade displays possible. It still needs an engineer's design for the fixings.
• Weatherproof. Rated IP65 or better for dust and rain, with sealed LEDs and connectors.
• Coarse pitch, big picture. P10 to P50 and more. From across a road or a plaza it reads as video. Up close it's rows of lights.
• Daylight still reaches the windows behind, and occupants can see out.
• Night is when it works best. In direct sun, a coarse mesh on a pale facade looks faint. Plan it as an evening display.
• Permits. A media facade is outdoor advertising and needs a permit, and the rules on moving images visible to drivers apply. See our outdoor LED screens and LED billboards pages.

Hologram fans and holographic displays

A hologram fan is a set of spinning blades fitted with LEDs. The blades turn fast enough to disappear, and the LEDs flash in time with the rotation to draw an image that seems to hang in the air. It isn't a true hologram. It's a persistence-of-vision display, and it's the cheapest way to get a floating image.

One studio's guide to hologram formats describes the effect and the limits: fans run from about 50 cm to 1.2 metres across, can be tiled into clusters, and show "strong silhouettes, high contrast, and motion" well, while "subtle gradients and fine detail don't" read (Solarflare Studio).

Where a fan works

• A single floating object: a rotating logo, a product, a burger, a shoe.
• Dim or controlled light: inside a shop, a mall kiosk, an exhibition stand, a bar.
• Above head height or behind a cover, where nobody can reach it.
• Short dwell, high curiosity. People stop to work out what they're seeing.

Where it doesn't

• Daylight. The image washes out near a bright window or outdoors.
• Text and detail. The resolution is low, and fine lettering is unreadable.
• Quiet rooms. A fan makes a steady whirring noise.
• Anywhere people can touch it. The blades spin fast and can injure.

Safety

A fan must be mounted out of reach or inside a clear protective cover, fixed to something solid, and switched off before anyone works near it. The same studio's guide lists the safety hazard and the need for "barriers or enclosures" as the format's main limitation. We fit covers as standard in public areas.

Fan walls

Several fans can be mounted in a grid and synchronised to make one larger image. It looks impressive in a dark space. It also multiplies the noise, the moving parts and the maintenance, and above about two metres across, a transparent LED screen usually does the job better.

Fan, holographic film or transparent OLED?

Other "hologram" effects exist, such as reflections in angled glass and projection onto gauze. Those are stage and exhibition techniques built by production companies, and we don't supply them.

Content for a transparent screen

Content for a transparent screen should be bright shapes on a black background. Black areas are where the LEDs are off, so they're the areas you see through. White and full-screen colour turn the screen opaque and waste the transparency you paid for.

• Black is your window. Design each frame so that a good part of it is black. An object moving across black looks as if it's floating in the glass.
• Bold and simple. Logos, large type, strong outlines, slow movement. Thin lines and small text fall between the rows of LEDs.
• Saturated colours. Pale tints look weak against whatever's behind.
• Make it at the screen's pixel size. A 480 × 320 screen needs content made at 480 × 320. Scaled-down video turns to mush.
• Don't reuse television adverts. They're full-frame, detailed and made for a solid screen.
• Think about what's behind. Place content where the background is calm, and leave the product zone clear.
• Moving content hides the grid. Motion helps the eye join the dots. A static image on a coarse transparent screen looks rougher than the same image moving.
• Plan day and night versions. Brighter, simpler content by day. More subtle content after dark, when the screen is dimmed and the contrast is high.
• Arabic and English each at full size.

One manufacturer's field notes make the same point: "Content with dark or black backgrounds performs best" (Unilight). We design content for transparent screens and set up the player and schedule. See digital signage for software and networks.

Installation: hanging, standing and fixing to glass

A transparent screen is installed in one of four ways: hung from the ceiling or a beam, stood on the floor on a base, fixed to the window frame or mullions, or stuck to the glass as film. The choice depends on what the ceiling, floor and glass can take, and on where the power supplies and cables can be hidden.

• Weight. Cabinets at about 8 to 15 kg per square metre are light for a screen, but a 12-square-metre window is still well over 100 kg hanging from the ceiling. Film at 2 to 3.5 kg per square metre adds almost nothing.
• Where the power supplies go. Transparent screens keep their electronics at the edges. A cabinet screen has them in the top or bottom rail. Film has a strip of drivers along one edge, hidden in the frame or ceiling.
• Power and data. A socket or circuit near the screen, sized from the specification sheet, and a route for the data cable from the controller. One Dubai supplier quotes an average of 180 watts per square metre or less (Elite Infotech).
• Access for service. Cabinets are serviced from the room side. Leave space to reach behind displays and mannequins.
• Blinds and shutters. A roller shutter or blind behind the glass needs clearance from the screen.
• Glass replacement. If a pane with film on it breaks, the film goes with it. Cabinets survive.
• Landlord and mall approval before fixing anything to the shopfront.
• Time on site. A shop window in cabinets is typically one to three days once the fixings are ready. Film is quicker.

We build hanging frames and bases in our own workshop and coordinate with your fit-out contractor and electrician.

Permits for window and facade screens

A screen inside a shop window that faces the street is still an advertisement seen from outside, so treat it as needing approval. In Dubai, advertising permits are applied for through Mada Media's platform, and the landlord, mall or community management has to agree first. Screens inside a mall, facing the mall, are approved by the mall.

• Facing a public street. Ask before you install. An electronic screen visible from the road falls within the outdoor advertising rules, and the published permit fee for electronic screens on land is AED 1,000 per square metre per year (Mada Media). We confirm with the authority how a behind-glass screen at your site is treated.
• Facing traffic. Dubai's outdoor advertising manual doesn't approve video or animated signs where drivers can see them, as reported by Khaleej Times. A window on a main road should plan for still images that change at intervals.
• Inside a mall. The mall's retail design team approves the size, position, brightness and content, and often limits how much of the shopfront glass may be covered.
• Facades. A mesh or media facade is a building-scale advertising installation and needs the owner's consent, structural drawings and a permit.
• The shop's name sign stays as a fixed sign. A screen is extra to it.
• Free zones and master developments have their own authorities.

We prepare the drawings and make the application as part of the project.

What a transparent LED screen costs

A transparent LED screen is priced per square metre, and the price depends on the type and the pixel pitch. Manufacturers' published factory prices run from about US$400 to $1,500 per square metre for cabinets and coarse film, up to $1,800 or more for holographic film and fine-pitch film. Shipping, duty, the frame, the control system and installation come on top.

Those are one manufacturer's ex-factory ranges (DOIT Vision). Another lists film at P3.91 at well over US$2,000 per square metre and gives installation as typically 10 to 20% of the hardware cost for film (Unilight). An installed price in Dubai is higher than a factory price. Our own guide prices:

What moves the price

• Pixel pitch. Halving the pitch quadruples the LEDs.
• Type. Holographic film costs the most per square metre, coarse mesh the least.
• Brightness. Sun-rated products cost more than mall-rated ones.
• Area. Larger screens cost less per square metre.
• Custom shapes. Film cut to odd shapes and curved glass add cost.
• Structure. A hanging frame, a base, or facade brackets.
• Content. Transparent screens need content made for them, which is a real cost if you have none.

Where to save

• Choose the pitch from the distance. A facade seen from 30 metres doesn't need P3.9.
• Cover part of the glass. A band across the top of a window often does more than a full sheet, and leaves the products visible.
• Use cabinets where film isn't needed. They're brighter and easier to repair.

See our LED screen price guide for other screen types.

Maintenance and lifespan

A transparent LED screen behind glass in an air-conditioned shop has an easy life compared with an outdoor screen. Manufacturers quote lifespans of 100,000 hours. In practice, heat behind sunlit glass, dust and knocks from window dressing decide how long it looks good.

• Cleaning. Dust the strips with a soft dry brush or low-pressure air. Clean the glass around a cabinet screen as normal. Don't use liquids or scrapers on film.
• Window dressers and cleaners. Most damage comes from ladders, mannequins and squeegees. Brief the people who work in the window.
• Failed LEDs. On a cabinet, a strip or module is swapped from the room side in minutes. On film, a section is cut out and replaced, which is slower and can leave a visible join.
• Spares. Keep spare strips or film sections and a power supply from the same batch.
• Heat. Keep the air gap clear and the air-conditioning working in the window zone.
• Hologram fans have motors and bearings that wear. Expect to service or replace them sooner than a screen, and keep the cover clean.
• Warranty. Our screens carry a 1-year warranty, and we offer maintenance contracts afterwards.

Mistakes to avoid

Most disappointing transparent screens were chosen from a brochure without a sample on the glass.

1. An indoor-brightness film on a sun-facing window.
2. Ignoring tinted or reflective glass.
3. Asking for maximum transparency and a detailed picture on the same screen.
4. A coarse pitch on a small window viewed from the pavement.
5. Reusing full-frame video adverts with white backgrounds.
6. A cluttered or brightly lit background directly behind the screen.
7. Hanging from a false ceiling.
8. Boxing the screen in with no air gap.
9. Film on glass that's due to be replaced.
10. A hologram fan within reach, or beside a bright window.
11. No approval from the mall or landlord before fixing to the shopfront.
12. No plan for who makes the content.

How we deliver a transparent screen

A transparent screen project starts with a sample on your glass, because that's the only way to know what it'll look like.

1. Survey. We measure the glass, note which way it faces, check the tint, the ceiling, the floor and the power, and hold samples against the glass in daylight.
2. Proposal. The type, pitch and brightness we recommend, a drawing of the screen in the window, the fixing method, the content plan and a price.
3. Approvals. Landlord or mall consent, and the permit where the screen faces a street.
4. Fabrication. Frames and bases are built in our workshop while the screen is made and tested.
5. Installation. Fixings, screen, power, controller, calibration and brightness settings for day and night.
6. Handover. Content loaded, staff shown how to update it, spares and documents handed over, warranty started.

Lead time is typically 4–8 weeks from order, depending on the product and approvals.