An LED wall is basically a setup of multiple monitors or television sets or projectors. They are tiled together to form one large display screen. LCD panels, blended projection screens, direct view LED arrays, etc. are used for LED walls. Generally, LED walls are used instead of a large display screen because of the ability to customize tile layouts , greater screen area per unit cost, and greater pixel density per unit cost. LED walls are generally found on airports, in stadiums, in concerts, control rooms, etc.
The main function of a LED wall is that it serves as an advertisement platform for large public venues. People can view it from long distances. For e.g. - the LED wall at many International airports. It serves as an advertisement platform for approximately millions passengers passing through the airport annually. Another example of a LED wall is the wall in Oakland International Airport’s baggage claim is designed as such that people can view it from long distances. LED walls can also be used at smaller venues. It allows the people to view the screen at a long distance as well as up close. Distant observers can easily view pictures and it provides the nearby observer enough resolution to read the information displayed. For e.g.- the lobby of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center. Screens generally used for LED walls usually have narrow bezels so as to minimize the gap between active display areas, and are built with long - term serviceability. These types of screen generally have a built in controller/processor to split the display image across the number of screens in the walls. Simple LED walls can be operated from multi-monitor control cards. Complex LED walls may need specialized processors which are specially designed to operate large walls.
There is a device that splits a single image into different parts and displays it onto individual screens called an LED wall controller/processor. There are 2 types of controllers/processors – 1. Hardware based controllers/processors . 2. Software based PC and card controllers/processors. Hardware based controllers/processors are electronic devices built for a specific purpose. Usually, they are built on an array of LED processing chipsets and do not have an operating system. The most simple hardware based controller/processor is the single input, multiple outputs scaler. It takes up only one image and then splits the image according to the number of displays on the wall. The main advantage of the hardware based LED wall controllers/processors is high reliability and performance. Although high cost and less flexibility is a disadvantage. Most of the professional LED wall displays have an integrated matrix splitter or processor/controller. This matrix splitter stretches the image from a single input to all the displays in the LED wall. Software based PC and control card controller/processor is a computer run operating system in a computer with special multiple graphic card feature. This approach is more expensive than the hardware based controller/processor. But this approach can utilize the full resolution of the LED wall unlike the hardware processor. Matrix, Grid and Artistic layouts - Matrix grid layouts are often limited to 2X2, 3X3, 4X4, etc. identical displays. Here, the aspect ratio remains the same but the image is scaled across a number of matrix displays.
More advanced processors enable grid layouts of any dimension (1X5, 2X8). Here, the aspect ratio of the LED wall maybe different from the ratio of the individual screens or projectors. Some advance LED wall controllers allow you to output to multiple displays on an LED wall.