LED Signs “101”
Required Knowledge Before Shopping
Before purchasing an LED sign for your business you must understand how to compare all manufacturers. This will ensure that you receive an “apples to apples” product comparison from each potential LED company. All LED displays are constructed on (3) principles (Regardless of LED Manufacturer):
- Pixel Pitch (a.k.a.) Resolution
- LED Screen Size (a.k.a.) Sign Matrix
- Total Number of LEDs per sign face
What sets adVISION LED apart is that we provide a dedicated laptop computer pre-configured to communicate with your display. Our adVISION LED Software allows you to combine text, photos, video and animation. You will be able to scale, crop, animate and add creative effects to your digital messages.
Background Information
You must understand, what is an LED pixel. Pixel – refers to the smallest unit of measurement, when dealing with LED signage. The pixel will consist of Red, Blue and Green LEDs, which will give your display the ability to produce all colors. All manufacturers use 3 LEDs per pixel.
What separates LED Sign companies is the ability to not only understand LED's but to have a deep knowledge of the quality of the LED's themselves.
Here at adVision we understand that the LED's are an improtant part of our signs. The most important step in that process is to ensure we use the highest quality materials, including the LED modules themselves.
This is an example of our quality assurance process. We test all our components that are installed in our signs. This includes a waterproofing test of all the modules. Click on the video to see one of our waterproofing tests.
Principle 1 – Pixel Pitch or Resolution
Pixel Pitch – refers to the distance from the center of one pixel to the center of the adjacent pixel.
Simply put: the smaller the pixel pitch is the closer the pixels are one to each other, the better
the resolution.
Example:
A sign with a 10mm resolution has a higher definition than a sign with a 16mm resolution
A sign with a 16mm resolution has a higher definition than a sign with a 20mm resolution
The pixel pitch is the most important aspect of creating quality videos and graphics, if you do not have enough pixels on your LED screen you will not have clear videos. The smaller the (mm) resolution the better the image that will be produced.
Principle 2 – LED Screen Size or Sign Matrix
Sign Matrix – refers to the actual space on your display that is populated with pixels. This will contain two numbers, Matrix Height (how many pixels tall the screen size will be) and Matrix Width (how many pixels wide the screen size will be). These numbers are essential in comparing LED Sign companies. All LED signs have a matrix height and matrix width, regardless of resolution. These numbers give consumers a true comparison from one LED company to another.
When researching LED Sign companies, compare the LED sign matrix, not the cabinet dimensions.
To understand the Pixel Matrix, simply multiply the Matrix Height by the Matrix Width.
Advision Led Sign examples:
Taking a look at (3) different resolutions that are approximately (4 feet) x (8 feet) in size.
Keep in mind at Advision Led, our cabinets are borderless, meaning we utilize the full cabinet, without a border, in order to produce LED Signs with the maximum amount of LED's
Our 4'x8' 10mm LED Sign is the adv10.
It utilizes LED Modules that have 32x32 pixels squared and has a Total Pixel Matrix of 128 x 256.
Matrix Height: 128
Matrix Width: 256
Total Pixels: 32,768
Our 4'x8' 16mm LED Sign is the adv16.
It utilizes LED Modules that have 20x20 pixels squared and has a Total Pixel Matrix of 80 x 160.
Matrix Height: 80
Matrix Width: 160
Total Pixels: 12,800
Our 4'x8' 20mm LED Sign is the adv20.
It utilizes LED Modules that have 16x16 pixels squared and has a Total Pixel Matrix of 64 x 128.
Matrix Height: 64
Matrix Width: 128
Total Pixels: 8,192
Principle 3 – Importance of Total # of LEDs per Sign Face
The most important aspect of your LED display is how many actual LEDs are on your screen. The more LEDs you have the better the picture quality will be, the better your advertising messages will look, which translates in a higher return on your investment. How To Calculate Total Number of LEDs per Screen
Step1: Find out how many pixels: Sign Matrix Height (X) Sign Matrix Width = Total # of Pixels
Step 2: Calculate Total # of LEDs Per Signs Face: Total # of Pixels (X) # of LEDs Per Pixel= Total # of LEDs/Face
Ex. A Sign that has a resolution of 16mm, sign matrix 80 x 160 and has 3 LEDs per pixel.
How would you calculate the total number of LEDs?
80 x 160 = 12,800 x 3 = 38,400, The total number of LEDs per sign face of our 4' x 8' adv16 (16mm) LED Sign.
* LED signs are similar to buying a TV, the more LEDs you have on your screen the better the resolution or picture quality will be.
