When it comes to big, bright visuals, nothing beats direct-view LED. Long relegated to select high-profile applications like stadium jumbotrons and Times Square billboards, recent years have seen costs plummet as their quality has risen.
Now, this highly efficient, long-lasting display technology is making its way into all kinds of verticals and helping to drive impressions in applications from digital signage to corporate boardrooms.
The following is a roundup of the most noteworthy new offerings from leading manufacturers.
Absen Acclaim Plus
Absen has released an upgraded version of its Acclaim series of direct-view LED displays, Acclaim Plus. This permanent indoor LED solution is available in 1.2-, 1.5-, and 2.5mm pixel pitches and can be wall-mounted with the company’s mounting solution or rigged on a truss. The Acclaim Plus has the same LED display area and mounting interface as the traditional Acclaim series, but is thinner and lighter for easier and more flexible installation. With better flatness, the Acclaim Plus excels in seamless display and connection precision and is bezel free due to its duo die-cast technology. The Acclaim Plus has a 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing users to more easily create FHD/4K resolution displays. The Acclaim Plus vacuum service tool offers users easy front installation and is well suited for uses in enterprise, broadcast, hotels, casinos, and retail.
Barco XT Series
Barco’s new XT series of high-res LED is designed to create an unforgettable visual experience. The 27-inch tiles come in 16:9 aspect ratio with pixel pitches ranging from 0.9mm to 2.5mm for flexibility. Barco’s Infinipix image processing platform enhances color accuracy and provides features to maximize the uptime of an installation. The robust front-access design facilitates setup and maintenance of the display.
Barco’s XT series is specifically designed to offer premium quality and provide a reliable solution to a broad audience in a wide range of indoor LED applications. For peace of mind, the company’s EssentialCare service option offers up to seven years of priority support and batch compatible replacements. The display solution is positioned for applications from museums and television studios to control rooms.
Christie MicroTiles
To create its best LED solution to date, Christie engineers combined the latest in narrow-pixel-pitch LED capabilities with the technology behind its successful MicroTiles line to produce Christie MicroTiles LED.
Delivering P3 color space, fully compliant HDR10, and software that keeps the wall calibrated at 97 percent or greater uniformity, Christie MicroTiles LED are suitable for broadcast sets, corporation venues, museums, retail, stadiums, arenas, and higher education applications. MicroTiles LED includes a low-profile ADA-compliant QuickMount system so displays can be created in virtually any shape and size, including 90-degree inside/outside corners and both concave and convex curves.
With optional Active 3D, Christie MicroTiles LED deliver robust, flicker-free Active 3D that enhances visualization and collaborative design processes. Christie’s MicroTiles LED Active 3D solution enables 3D content at 120Hz (60Hz per eye) with MicroTiles’ high-brightness and P3 cinema-quality color.
Digital Projection Radiance
Digital Projection recently expanded its Radiance line of direct-view LED display solutions with four distinct platforms. The Performance Series includes a pixel pitch range from 0.7mm to 4.0mm with brightness up to 1,500 nits, refresh rates up to 3900Hz, and broad color gamut performance, reaching over 93 percent REC2020 color standard. The VX Series offers LED performance at a lower entry cost, covering the 1.2mm to 2.5mm range. The RCS Series has a reconfigurable panel design that can be flown, ground-stacked, or permanently installed with pixel pitches of 2.6mm and 2.9mm. DPI also offers an Outdoor Series of all-weather-rated LED panels ranging from 2.9mm to 16mm for digital signage or outdoor media.
LG All-in-One Signage
LG's 130-inch All-in-One LED Signage is designed for building various smart environments, and offers advantages due to its bezel-less design. Larger than four 55-inch conventional LCD displays combined, it displays content without lines or distortions and provides a more immersive visual experience. With HDR10 Pro support, content becomes more vivid for greater visual impact. The wider color spectrum and greater contrast ratio allows viewers to fully enjoy content, and the design enables users to customize the display with easy access to settings such as picture mode, volume, and more using a remote control, instead of needing to connect to a PC. It features the same user interface as general LG digital signage solutions, making it intuitive to learn.
NanoLumens Engage Series
With the thinnest profile and lowest pixel pitch range of any NanoLumens product line, the newly redesigned NanoLumens Engage Series was engineered to transform indoor environments without compromising infrastructure. Engage Series displays range in pitch from 0.93mm to 2.5mm and can be installed and serviced from the front to streamline the integration and maintenance processes.
The Engage Series is designed to provide a high-impact visual experience at a more attainable price and comes backed by the company’s six-year warranty. The Engage line uses common cathode architecture to reduce power consumption and is built with cabinets that possess a native 16:9 aspect ratio, so display owners can import and display HD, 4K, and all other 16:9 content without any reformatting issues.
NEC A Series
The NEC A Series LED poster is designed to provide attention-grabbing, high-contrast images at nearly any viewing distance. The A Series is available in 1.9mm and 2.5mm pixel pitches, and is engineered to deliver vibrant, colorful content visualization over a range of viewing distances. The iPoster is a turnkey solution that is designed for fast and easy setup, with its built-in media player, lightweight and maneuverable footprint (70 pounds, 35mm depth), and its front-serviceable design. The A Series poster is engineered with Multi-Color LEDs that deliver reliability and high performance. The A Series poster is suited for rental, retail, restaurants, transportation, and numerous other applications. Engineered with versatility in mind, the A series comes with a floor stand, wall mount, hardware for hanging, and multiple displays can be cascaded together.
Neoti UHD Series
Neoti’s direct-view UHD Series of LED video panels has been installed in major broadcast studios across the country. Available in 0.9 to 4.6mm pixel pitches, the panels can be configured in flat, ribbon, curved, or angled corner configurations in permanent indoor applications. Other features include quick refresh rates, native 16:9 HD resolution, camera-ready calibration, and optional power and data backup. The front-accessible panels are designed for easy and quick assembly, while providing direct access for any maintenance. In addition to broadcast environments, they are well suited for airports, higher education facilities, houses of worship, command and control rooms, and corporate environments.
Optoma FHDQ130
The Optoma FHDQ130 QUAD LED delivers 130-inch images with high contrast, brightness, and color, along with 4K UHD source compatibility. The setup process is simplified with preconfigured panels, reducing installation time to less than two hours and lowering the overall project cost. With out-of-the-box pre-calibration, content can be played immediately from nearly any source.
Optoma’s Direct View QUAD LED display features a four-in-one Surface Mount Diode layout for a smoother screen surface and a 170-degree-wide viewing angle. Integrated HQUltra 4K image processing technology delivers fast image switching and scaling, maximizing the quality of any image source. The display can be controlled from mobile devices using Optoma’s Control Q application. Designed for simplified operation, the display comes with a built-in media player and a range of connectivity and control options, including dual HDMI, USB, 3G-SDI, RS-232, and HDBaseT.
Planar TVF Series
The Planar TVF Series is a family of fine-pitch LED video wall displays available in 0.9-, 1.2-, 1.5-, 1.8-, and 2.5-millimeter pixel pitches. With a 27-inch slim-profile display cabinet, the Planar TVF Series features front serviceability and a stackable design that eliminates cabinet-to-cabinet cabling and reduces the complexity of installation and vertical alignment. Featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio, Planar TVF Series allows every pixel pitch to achieve popular resolutions, including Full HD and 4K, and provides clear images at nearly every angle and viewing distance. With a profile of less than three inches, the overall video wall footprint and servicing space needed is reduced compared to typical requirements of other LED video wall solutions. As a result, Planar TVF Series is easier to fit in more spaces and can be configured in any video wall configuration to meet a wide range of application requirements.
Samsung The Wall for Business
Samsung’s The Wall for Business is a modular, large-format indoor MicroLED that can now extend up to 583 inches while delivering high brightness, contrast, and viewing angles. The flexibility of the modularity allows users to customize The Wall to a variety of sizes and designs to fit customized needs. The display’s self-emitting MicroLED pixel modules produce clear imagery free of color filters or backlighting and envelope viewers through elevated peak brightness and a near-infinite contrast ratio. The display has a slim depth with a seamless, flush surface allowing it to blend into the wall when not in use. With numerous applications, including lobbies, art exhibitions, hotels, retail spaces, and more, The Wall for Business is designed to provide a show-stopping aesthetic complement in multiple settings.
Sony Crystal LED
Sony’s immersive Crystal LED direct-view display system delivers high contrast, thanks to a 99-percent black surface area using ultrafine LEDs, precise color reproduction, and a 180-degree viewing angle. The technology is currently used in professional applications including corporate showrooms, retail, R&D centers, museums, auditoriums, and studios with installations across the world. Its modular nature enables the Crystal LED display to accommodate virtually any size or aspect ratio. Sony’s Crystal LED display system is available in a portrait configuration, optimized for lobby, boardroom, and reception environments, further showcasing the display’s versatility, impact, and applicability in the corporate market.
Vanguard ChipFlip Series
Vanguard LED Displays recently introduced a new technology called ChipFlip, which is a method of encapsulating fine-pixel-pitch SMD 1010 LED lamps to PCB boards. Traditionally, the circuit design for SMD displays for both electrodes faces upwards. With the ChipFlip process, both electrodes face downward, and the solution is free of soldering. The chip and substrate are electrically and mechanically interconnected by solder paste bonding. The strength of the solder used in the ChipFlip Process is 100 times stronger that the SMD process, according to the company. As a result, the failure rate of ChipFlip is 5 PPM, compared to SMD’s rate of 50-100 PPM.
The ChipFlip Process also employs common cathode technology, whereby the electric current passes through the ground. Power is not on constantly, but is only drawn as needed. As a result, heat generation is greatly reduced. The ChipFlip Series features high contrast and image quality with HDR10 compatibility, and is available in 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5mm pixel pitches.
