LED Walls vs. Projectors

LED Wall vs Projection - What’s Right For You?

You know it. You see them everywhere. LED video walls are on a meteoric rise. As few as 8-10 years ago, video walls only made sense for outdoor sports stadiums and really big churches with really big budgets. In just a few years, a lot has changed.

When does it make sense to consider a video wall instead of a projector? If only there was a hard and fast rule for that, but we’re not there. Yet.

Here are a few factors we consider when talking with a client about shifting away from projection solutions toward LED walls.

Ambient Light Levels In Your Space

Recently, we worked with a liturgical church that had a giant stained-glass window right next to their primary display. In this case, an LED wall was the best choice for two reasons: First, it has more punch than a projector ever could, making it possible to overcome the incoming ambient light. Second, and maybe more importantly, true black was possible for much-needed contrast. You see, projected content will only ever be as dark as the white screen ever gets. When there is that much ambient light in the room, the projection will never be darker than grey. In this use case, it was not a stylistic preference or cool factor, it was that the LED technology could perform well in a challenging environment.

Projector Brightness

When the search is on for a big and bright projector (12,000 lumens and up), it could be time to start head-to-head research against an LED wall option. This is not to say that an LED wall won’t still be more dollars upfront. However, when we do the math taking into account lifetime ownership, often the difference is small enough that the lifetime ownership costs make the LED wall somewhat reasonable or even cost-effective.

In addition to a typical LED wall being significantly brighter with increased performance and visual impact, the overall service life of an LED wall is much longer, and they generally require less maintenance. At the end of the day, LED may still require more investment, but it’s likely not as much of a difference as you might think.

Screen Location & Content

It seems that almost everyone wants a big screen as a backdrop to their stage. Projection solutions are not meant to be in the middle of the action, which means always working around the limitations of the projection solution with creative staging and lighting. For example, on a recent project we replaced a 16,000 lumen projector with an LED wall at a church in Southern California. The first thing the team celebrated was that the stage lights had no ill effect on the LED wall. Prior to this change, the team carefully planned where lights were pointed, where the fixtures were hung and how much haze was used. Now, the LED wall had enough power to punch through all of it, and they were thrilled to be able to light the stage appropriately without fear.

Bottom Line

LED technology has advanced at an incredible pace, with almost every year bringing increased pixel density and decreased weight and cost. Brightness hasn’t been changing much… they’re already bright enough! But we’re also seeing processing quality improvements and available options as well, that can help the display work better with your video systems.

If you’re thinking about replacing or upgrading your projectors, especially larger ones, it’s worth looking into an LED wall. Our team would be happy to learn about your situation and environment, and answer all of your questions. Every environment and use case are different and it may or may not make the best sense for you. Through our assessment process, we can determine what is the best approach.