LED Walls

In contrast to video walls, which usually use LCD panels to generate images, LED walls use other light-emitting technologies. These include the so-called SMD (Surface Mounted Device), the IMD (Integrated Mounted Devices) and the COB (Chip-on-Board) technology.

The latter has a significantly higher luminosity, which is especially important for digital signage applications, both outdoors and indoors.

SMD (Surface Mounted Device):
In SMD technology, light-emitting diodes are grouped in the primary colours red, blue and green and installed in a small housing. The individual housings are then placed on a carrier plate and glued together. This design protects the LEDs from external influences and allows individual LEDs to be easily replaced . At the same time, the cables for the LEDs wired from above can be accommodated in the housing.

IMD (Integrated Mounted Devices):
As with SMD technology, the LEDs in the primary colours red, blue and green are also installed in a housing with IMD technology. The difference is that with IMD technology, several groups of LEDs (e.g. 4 or 9) are combined in one housing.

COB (Chip-on-Board):
With COB LEDs, several LED chips are mounted directly on a carrier board. In contrast to conventional wiring from above, these LEDs are wired directly from below, a process known as 'flip chip'. The mounting technology of these LEDs dispenses with conventional housings, which are common with SMD and IMD LEDs. COB technology thus significantly reduces the space required for the individual pixels. As a result, the individual pixels can be moved closer together, which leads to a significant reduction in pixel spacing and thus to a higher resolution. Especially when using mini or micro LEDs, which are particularly small, COB LEDs enable extremely small pixel pitches. Finally, a thin epoxy resin coating increases the robustness of the LEDs and significantly improves black levels without compromising colour fastness.

The SMD, IMD and COB LEDs are mounted on modules and combined into so-called cabinets. These cabinets can then be joined together to form surfaces of any size that are completely seamless and frameless. In addition, LED wall modules can be assembled relatively freely into individual, creative LED wall shapes. This means that L-shaped or curved LED walls can also be configured, whereas video wall displays offer very little freedom for the individual construction of a video wall.

The leading LED wall manufacturers include Absen, Optoma and Samsung. All manufacturers offer LED walls as individual modules and as complete solutions.