Following the trends in three distinct, yet related, technologies, Futuresource’s 2018 report into video wall display solutions provides a comprehensive analysis into the worldwide market for large-scale displays.
With a global market value of $6.4 billion, 2017 proved to be an incredible year for growth in the market. Highlighting a 47 percent year-on-year growth, the report charts a strongly competitive field, with the three video wall technologies all showing a solid performance.
The Stability of Rear Projection Cubes (RPC)
Retaining vital importance in the control room space, RPC-centric displays have been extremely resilient in the market, with 35,800 units showing only a minor 8 percent decline. With its history of reliability and suitability for mission critical applications, RPC is showing a definite ability to fend off the attacks from both LCD and narrow pixel pitch LED.
On the subject of competing technologies, Graham Cooke, market analyst, Futuresource Consulting commented, “Once the newer technologies can improve their reliability, RPC’s market share will begin to drop, but this isn’t going to happen immediately. Even by the end of the forecast period, volumes will still be about 20,000.”
Explosive Growth for LCD
There is no doubt that the market for LCD video wall technologies is booming. Reaching 1.3 million units, the technology showed a 45.8 percent growth. Geographically, much of this worldwide growth was centered on China, where brands like Hikvision and Dahua helped account for its massive two-thirds share of all LCD video wall sales. Once the impressive data for the country is removed, growth in other worldwide territories shows to be a much smaller 17.4 percent. However, as Cooke points out, “For a product this well-established, those figures remain very impressive.”
It is with traditional signage areas—public displays and retail signage—where LCD remains incredibly strong. Indeed, it’s market share is so impressive as to be almost ubiquitous.
High Value for Narrow Pixel Pitch (NPP) LED
Not to be waylaid by its competitors, NPP LED also had a great year where values grew by 50 percent to reach $1.7 billion—equating to an area of 148,000 m2. Cooke adds, “This product saw huge technological advances, with flip chip, chip-on-board, micro and mini LED all becoming available on new products and creating new opportunities where those products could be used.”
New products were also brought to market, with the addition of more vendors entering the space and global display powers like Samsung and Sony becoming significantly more relevant. The giants are not the only brands to be investigating and launching NPP LED products, as companies across the globe begin to challenge the Chinese dominance of the marketplace.
Cooke also noted there is a shift towards a wider global market, “Products are starting to trickle down from the more premium categories, and this movement into more every day space will encourage the market to move to the next level.”
