Custom LED display pit and light, I have stepped on, also seen

If you, like me, have naively thought that the LED display is a “bigger TV”, then you must have gone through a not short “pay tuition” road.

My first contact with custom LED display was on an art museum project. At that time, the employer made the final decision: “I want the curved, luminous, and can sense people walking past the screen, preferably hanging in the air.” I said “no problem”, but in my heart, I was looking at the catalog, and I didn’t know how to start this.

custom LED display

Looking back, that project helped me go from “looking professional” to “really knowing.”

Customization, is not just “size change” so simple
Many people understand “customization” as the appearance, size, or even just adding a logo to a standard item. The “customization” of the LED display is a puzzle of the whole process from structural design to system integration and then to content adaptation.

Take the most common example: curved screens. Bending is not the problem, the question is “how bending”. An error of one degree may cause the module to be inconsistent, the joint is obvious, and the picture is directly “cracked”.
I almost crashed at the installation site once, because the curvature of the building was not the same as we calculated, and the site could only temporarily cut the module, but fortunately the screen structure did a margin at that time. I almost slept next to the crane that night.

Therefore, the real customization must be the synthesis of “engineering + art + on-site wisdom”.

Three key questions to ask yourself before customizing
In my later work, I summarized three questions that must be asked repeatedly before doing any LED customization:

Where is the audience looking at this screen?
Is it a distant view? Take a close look? Or 360°? This determines the choice of pixel spacing, and the budget difference between P1.5 and P4 can more than double.

Where is it installed? Who will maintain it?
Hoisting, high altitude, embedded, outdoor? Is the maintenance front door or back pull plate? These are not small details, but “can not work properly” life and death line.

What is displayed? Is it dynamic, interactive, or data?
A screen shows ppt and real-time ball games, the back-end processing system is not at all a level, don’t be fooled by the supplier’s “can play”.

I have seen a hotel, spent a lot of money to install a giant screen, the result is broadcast is low-resolution video, paste all day, guests commented “like the background wall is broken”. The real problem is not the screen, is the early stage did not think clearly “I want it for what”.

The scene is everything, don’t take “cool” as just a requirement
Now whenever someone asks me “Do you want to make an LED sphere” and “install a rotating screen”, I will ask:
“How many seconds does your crowd last?”

Many times, custom leds are not designed to display content, but to attract attention. But “attraction” comes at a high cost – not just budget, but space, security, maintenance.
I have seen an airport transfer hall hanging a diameter of 5 meters LED sphere, really attract attention, but the installation of the use of 6 equipment, three floors of reinforcement steel beams, and finally because of the lack of ventilation, heat dissipation, less than a year to black three panels.

So not all places are suitable for high definition LED, the scene determines everything.
Mall atrium? You can play. An office corridor? More suitable for simple horizontal screen. Don’t be blinded by the concept map, really go to the step of delivery, everyone has to be responsible for space and effectiveness.

Content is the soul of the screen
This is what I really realized after finishing the project of a brand experience museum in Shanghai.

We made a whole interactive LED wall, and the module used the latest flexible technology to bend into a “wavy shape”, which was very beautiful. However, the early budget was pressed on the hardware, and as a result, the content side did not have the money to ask for professional production, and temporarily plugged a bunch of videos comparable to PPT, which was mocked by the audience “like advertising TV” in a few days.

Then I insisted on redoing the whole thing, telling the story, adding interaction, and designing the rhythm. On the day of the launch, the audience spontaneously shot a video and sent a small red book, and the museum invited me to drink and said: “Finally know that the screen is not the protagonist, the content is.”

So if you are thinking about customizing the LED display, please think about the story you want to tell before you talk about the size of the “microphone”.

Summary: Custom LED, not add a shell, but rebuild a stage
From the countless projects I have seen and stepped on in recent years, customized LED display is, in the end, an ability to open up space, content and technology. It is not only a display tool, but also a carrier of spatial narrative.

It can be a guide language in the airport, a popular science theater in the science and technology museum, a “digital cuisine” in a restaurant, a “dynamic window” in a luxury store… But only if it’s really useful, meaningful, and alive.

I’m not a tech nerd, but I respect technology; I’m not a designer, but I believe in good design. I hope that every person who seriously wants to do customized LED can avoid the trap of “showcasing technology for showcasing technology” and use it to tell the story that truly belongs to the space and brand.

If you’re ready, start by asking the right questions, not the price.