Key takeaway
Key takeaways
- Pick pitch from where the closest person stands, not from the biggest number in the brochure
- A coarser pitch at eight metres away looks identical to a fine one and is frequently the right engineering call
- Processing is what makes a wall behave on camera; refresh rate, ShutterSync and genlock are specification items, not fixes applied later
- Flown and ground-stacked are different jobs — point loads, structural sign-off and, outdoors, wind loading come with the first
- Mismatched panel age and uncalibrated brightness across cabinets is the defect you cannot see in a proposal and cannot miss in the room
Two numbers decide most of it, and one of them is yours to choose
Surface area and pixel pitch carry the bulk of an LED proposal, and only one of those is genuinely fixed by the brief. Area comes from the stage design and the sightlines. Pitch is a judgement, and the useful rule of thumb is that the distance in metres at which an image resolves cleanly is roughly the pitch in millimetres — so a 3.9 mm panel reads properly from about four metres back and a 2.6 mm from under three. Measure to the nearest seat that matters, not to the front row of a layout you have not finalised, and the specification often relaxes.
What a given room and audience actually need
| Scale | Guests | Recommended setup |
|---|---|---|
| Lectern backdrop | 100 – 400 | Around eighteen square metres at a 3.9 mm pitch, ground-stacked on a goalpost, single processor |
| Stage-width wall | 400 – 1,500 | Roughly fifty square metres at 2.6 to 3.9 mm, flown, camera-grade processing with ShutterSync |
| Wrapped stage design | 1,500 – 5,000 | Main surface plus side panels and a floor section, well over a hundred square metres, media server playback |
| Immersive room | 200 – 800 | Three walls and a floor at a fine pitch, edge-matched and calibrated as one continuous canvas |
| Outdoor festival scenic | 10,000 and above | IP65 cabinets at a coarse pitch, high-nit panels, wind-load assessed, redundant power and data paths |
The specification lines worth arguing about
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Pixel pitch | Roughly 1.9 to 4.8 mm indoor, 4.8 to 10 mm outdoor |
| Viewing distance guide | Comfortable viewing distance in metres approximates the pitch in millimetres |
| Brightness | Around 800 to 1,500 nits indoors; 5,000 nits and upward for daylight, comfortably more in direct sun |
| Refresh rate | 3,840 Hz or higher wherever a camera will see the surface |
| Camera synchronisation | ShutterSync to lock panel refresh to shutter, plus genlock so wall and broadcast chain share a clock |
| Processing | Novastar MCTRL4K or VX1000 for standard canvases; Brompton Tessera with Hydra calibration for camera work |
| Ingress protection | IP43 is adequate for an indoor cabinet; an outdoor build wants IP65 on both faces |
| Power | Roughly 150 to 350 watts per square metre on average content, with much higher peaks on full white |
| Spares on site | Around five per cent spare cabinets plus receiving cards, power supplies and ribbon cables |
| Rigging | Flown on certified motors with a point-load report, or ground-stacked on a goalpost frame |
Processing is the line clients cut and engineers refuse to
A wall that looks perfect to the eye can be unusable on camera, and nothing in the panel specification tells you which you have. Panels running at a low refresh rate produce rolling bands and tearing through a shutter, and no amount of grading in post removes it. The fix is specified in advance: a high refresh rate, ShutterSync locking the panel to the camera shutter, and genlock so the wall and the broadcast chain run on one clock. If the event is being filmed at all, this belongs in the scope from the first draft — and it must be verified through the actual cameras, because your eyes will pass a wall that the sensor will not.
The hidden variables inside a low LED quote
Cabinet age and mixed batches
LED emitters dim with hours of use, and they do not dim uniformly between production batches. A wall assembled from cabinets of different vintages shows patches — one block subtly warmer, another slightly dimmer — and the eye finds them instantly on a flat colour field or a white title card. Ask how old the inventory is, whether the cabinets for your build come from one batch, and when the fleet was last calibrated for brightness and colour uniformity.
Calibration as a deliverable
Uniformity is not a property of good panels, it is a maintenance process. A calibration pass across the assembled surface measures every cabinet and corrects it toward a common target, and it is done after the build, on site, with the grid as it will be seen. A proposal that never mentions calibration is either assuming it or skipping it, and on a large surface the difference between those two is the difference between a screen and a patchwork.
Spares that actually travel
A dead receiving card takes out a cabinet and a loose ribbon takes out a column, generally in the humidity of an evening build rather than during a calm morning. Spare cabinets, cards, power supplies and cables on site turn that into a two-minute swap. Spares in a warehouse across the city turn it into a dark rectangle for the rest of the show. Ask what quantity is coming and who is on site to fit it.
Who owns the content conform
Non-standard canvases are the norm in scenic LED, and content authored to a conventional HD or 4K frame then fitted to one will be scaled, which on LED is immediately visible as soft edges and distorted logos. Somebody has to issue a pixel map to the content team early and conform and review every file before build day. If that role is not named, it will be discovered on the day by the person least able to fix it.
Trade-offs worth taking, and one that usually is not
- A coarser pixel pitchOur verdict
Frequently correct and the easiest honest saving on the table. If the nearest viewer is eight metres away and the content is motion graphics and colour rather than fine text, a coarser pitch is visually indistinguishable. It fails in exactly one situation: a camera pushing in on the surface, which resolves what the room cannot.
- Ground-stacking instead of flyingOur verdict
Faster, structurally simpler and removes a rigging sign-off from the critical path. You pay in a visible frame, a higher bottom edge and lost stage depth. Behind a lectern nobody notices; inside a scenic design where performers work in front of the surface, the stack will show.
- Projection instead of LEDOur verdict
Still the right answer for very large surfaces and for texture. It loses the moment there is ambient light in the room, a camera on the content, or performers who would walk through a beam and cast themselves across the image.
- Dropping the camera-grade processingOur verdict
The saving that comes back. Standard processing is fine for a wall the audience only looks at directly. If anything is being filmed, this is not a feature you can add in the edit, and the footage is usually the asset that outlives the event.
Where LED builds go wrong on site
What can go wrong
How we prevent it
- What can go wrong
The wall is flawless in the room and bands through every camera cut.
How we prevent itSpecify a high refresh rate with ShutterSync and genlock, then verify through the actual camera chain with content on screen — at the camera check, not casually during rehearsal.
- What can go wrong
Content built to a standard frame is stretched onto a non-standard canvas and every logo distorts.
How we prevent itIssue the pixel map with exact native resolution, aspect and safe areas weeks ahead, and have every delivered file conformed and reviewed before build day.
- What can go wrong
Humidity works a ribbon cable loose and a column goes dark mid-show.
How we prevent itDress and strain-relieve cables at build, reseat connections after the first full power cycle, and keep spare cabinets, cards and cables physically on site.
- What can go wrong
Distribution is sized from average power draw and the opening white title card trips a breaker.
How we prevent itSize for peak draw on full-white content rather than the spec sheet average, balance phases across the panel grid, and peak-limit content where the design allows.
- What can go wrong
An outdoor flown surface behaves like a sail and exceeds the structure's rating.
How we prevent itCommission a wind-load assessment against panel area and trim height, with a documented wind speed at which the wall is lowered or the show pauses.
- What can go wrong
The front row ends up three metres from a coarse panel and sees pixels instead of a picture.
How we prevent itChoose pitch from the real nearest-audience distance after the seating plan is locked, and where seating cannot move, specify a finer pitch for the lower cabinets only.
Questions that separate two LED quotes
Panels and picture
- What pitch, and what nearest viewing distance was it chosen against?
- What nit rating, and was it specified for this room's ambient light or for a catalogue?
- How old is the inventory, and will our cabinets come from a single matched batch?
- Is an on-site brightness and colour calibration pass included after the build?
Processing and cameras
- What refresh rate will the panels run at during the show?
- Are ShutterSync and genlock included, and who verifies them through the live cameras?
- Is there a backup processor and a mirrored playback machine, or a single point of failure?
- Who issues the pixel map, when, and who conforms our content against it?
Build, power and spares
- Flown or ground-stacked, and does the quote include the point-load report?
- For outdoor builds, is a wind-load assessment included and what is the pause threshold?
- What quantity of spare cabinets, cards, power supplies and cables travels to site?
- Is distribution sized for peak white draw, and who signs off the power schedule with the venue?
Published 18 July 2026 by the Prime AV Solutions production team.