Led, the right pixel pitch for rental applications

When choosing an LEDwall for rental use, one of the first parameters that is analyzed is the “pitch”(pixel pitch). The step immediately defines the class of LEDs used, and consequently the price and application context. So it is useful to ask what the current market benchmark is and why.

Today, LED with ever finer pitch is a siren that is seducing many installers and end customers, but this trend hides some pitfalls, especially for servicers. The main one is the sustainability of the investment over time. The narrower the pitch, the more critical issues due to fragile materials increase. It is therefore very important to consider whether taking on the burden of these critical issues is really necessary in relation to the implementation ahead.

Manuel Maccioni, Wave&Co. managing director, sums up the concept in two words.“In my opinion the perfect pitch for a medium-sized installation, indicatively from 3-4 up to 10/11 meters base, is 2.9 mm. Below this standard you reduce the size of the individual LED, which then has more fragile welds, raising the failure rate of these components to critical levels, especially in the rental world.”

We know that the main risks involve individual Smd. But what is the average breakage rate? Visual Technology has data derived from material inspection and historical record keeping for each individual rental. If we take a 2.9 of medium-high build quality, the amount of damaged material per occurrence is 8-9%. We refer to repairable damage, so broken or malfunctioning pixels. Positive exceptions rarely fall below 5%, while we often have negative peaks as high as 13-14%. We consider this finding endemic to this type of material, being the result of surveys over time, on different services, equipped with professionally trained fitters.

Talking to several practitioners, it is common opinion that step 2.9 represents a kind of barrier. Steps like the 2.5/2.6 are physically much more fragile and difficult to repair, and in addition to the purchase cost, what weighs most heavily is precisely the burden of maintenance over time. This aspect has prompted several services to downgrade, deciding to sell the 2.5/2.6 pitch to move to the 2.9, especially when they need to handle large quantities of materials, and ensure high deployment speeds.

Today, therefore, the choice of a LEDwall with fine pixel pitch may not only prove unjustified in case of small/medium installations, but even economically counterproductive for services or renters. Until new construction technologies make Led panels more structurally sound; at that point we can once again lend a fearless ear to the siren songs.