If you’ve been researching your next LED screens project, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard the term pixel pitch somewhere before. You might also hear it called dot pitch or line pitch, or stripe pitch – they’re different terms for the same thing.
LED video wall installations continue to transform spaces around the world. Churches, schools, offices, and retailers are creating vibrant, dynamic, memorable experiences in a variety of indoor and outdoor locations. If you’re considering a wall, one of your most important choices is the pixel pitch selection, but you may be wondering, what is pixel pitch? How does a pixel pitch affect the cost? What are important considerations when choosing a pixel pitch? Let’s take a look at how you can make the right pixel pitch choice for your LED video wall project.
What is Pixel Pitch?
In its simplest terms, pixel pitch is a measurement of the space between the center of one pixel to the center of the next one, providing a reference point for the density of pixels on an LED display. The pixel pitch can be measured purely in terms of distance, i.e. millimeters, or as a rate, i.e. dots-per-inch.
The picture itself is comprised of vast amounts of individual dots, or pixels, illuminating and fading in turn. Pixel pitch is essentially a measure of their density.
Well, a smaller pixel pitch indicates that you can fit more pixels onto a screen, providing a higher resolution and making the actual image more richly detailed. That makes a screen’s pixel pitch instrumental in working out the optimal viewing distance, and how far away people should be from it for the best viewing experience.
Why Is Pixel Pitch Important?
Led Screens, when executed well, should be driven by vivid imagery with the most optimal viewing distance. The lower the pixel pitch, the more defined the imagery. This is essential if the signage is something a viewer would stand close to; the resolution doesn’t degrade the closer the viewer gets. You wouldn’t want a screen where a viewer can see the black space between pixels, so you’ll want a suitable pixel pitch.
Pixel Pitch vs. Resolution
Often, when choosing a display, you hear statistics about the resolution — for example “1080p” or “4k” displays. The pixel pitch for your LED wall is a direct measure of the potential resolution: The lower the pixel pitch, the higher the potential resolution. For most LED wall applications, 1080p resolution is available using the standard rules of thumb for pixel pitch and distance. If you desire higher resolution, a lower pixel pitch may be in order. But an important consideration is the quality of the image and content that you’re rendering on the LED wall. For example, a low-quality image will result in low-resolution results, regardless of the pixel pitch you’ve selected.
How do I know which pixel pitch is best for me?
That’s what our experts are here for! The right viewing distance is a hugely important element in any kind of LED digital display, and it’s largely dictated by the specific application that you’ve got in mind for your LED digital display. Technically, you could in theory combine any screen and pixel pitch you like, but a pixel pitch that ends up being disproportionate to your screen size can end up providing a very poor user experience, or cause your budget to balloon unnecessarily (or even both).
If you’re planning on incorporating LED indoor screens into a retail or commercial environment, for example, your key demographics are likely going to be experiencing that content from a relatively short range of only a few feet. This means that on balance, you’d generally be well-advised to use screens with a shorter pixel pitch so that the image and text are rendered in sufficient detail for your viewers to properly read or otherwise enjoy.
On the other hand, if you’re thinking of outdoor LED advertising boards to be displayed in cities or large urban environments or electronic display boards for sports stadiums, then choosing screens with a larger pixel pitch is far more efficient, from both a financial and energy-intensive perspective. A large screen with an overly short pixel pitch will end up costing unnecessarily large amounts of money on rendering images in equally unnecessary detail, especially since it won’t be noticed or properly appreciated by your viewers.
So to recap:
- Pixel pitch refers to the density of the pixels on an LED screen
- Different pixel pitches will be suitable for different screens, depending on what their viewing distance will be
- Smaller screens with closer viewing distances generally fare better with shorter pixel pitches
- Larger screens with longer viewing distances are best served with larger pixel pitches
So that’s all the basics covered! If you have any further questions or you need a bit more detail, we’re only too happy to help here at OneDisplay. We offer an extensive range of led screens solutions for you to choose from and serve a wide array of sectors, including hospitality, finance, and health and leisure. We know this technology inside out, and exactly how it can be used to achieve your goals as a business. To find out how we can help you, feel free to email us at [email protected]
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