Church LED Wall — Everything You Should Know
The days of analog projectors are long gone with their choppy imagery, lack of brightness, and laggy display. Now, most churches are shifting to LED displays/LED walls to communicate and connect with their community in a more interactive and informative way.
Before getting an LED display screen for church stages, there are several factors to consider and endless options to choose from. So, before you start searching, read this guide to understand what an LED wall is and why your church needs one.
What is a LED Wall?
LED walls are extensive displays of light-emitting diodes (LED) that display visual content like pictures or videos. An LED screen is a wall of pixels created by connecting numerous module panels encased in cabinets.
These module panels include three kinds of lights—red, blue, and green—that seamlessly blend to offer the highest resolution available.
The best part about this is that even if you have a large community with people seated far back, they can see everything on the screen without any loss in audio or video viewing. This is great for distracted children, who’ll be able to focus on the video content displayed on the church LED display.
How to Choose the Right LED Screen for Your Church
When deciding how to choose an LED display solution for your church, there are a few factors, such as budget, projection, product quality, etc. We do ample research when choosing a TV or a laptop for ourselves. Likewise, our house of worship deserves just as much consideration.
The best approach is to turn to reliable and authentic sources or professionals for support when buying an LED display, but you should know your requirements even with that.
What are You Going to Use the LED Screen for?
Before deciding on anything, you have to ask yourself what will the LED screen be used for? Different content requires specific features to run them efficiently. This is especially important when you’re deciding on the pixel pitch of the LED wall.
Will the LED display be used as the main stage backdrop? Or will it be used as a display for song lyrics and announcements? Answer these questions first before moving on to the next step. This will help you figure out the angle and positioning of the LED display.
Where Will You Display the LED Video Wall?
Most churches have indoor and outdoor services and events, so it’s crucial to determine where you will install the LED display. If you want the display for rare events like movie nights and services, you will need an outdoor LED wall. This is also if you want to use it as the main marquee.
However, if you want it installed inside, will it be part of the main sanctuary or another building? The location of the display has to do with the pixel pitch and lighting source of the church (next point). The pixel pitch, as mentioned above, accounts for the size and clarity of the content displayed on the screen.
What Kind of Environment will the Display be Housed in?
In a house of worship, it is necessary to determine the kind of environment the display will be housed in.
The good thing about an LED display is that the ambient sunlight won't affect its brightness even if installed in a hall or room with plenty of windows. But, of course, this is only if you opt for a high-quality LED wall that can withstand natural lighting and stage lights.
Besides the brightness, there are some structural considerations and space issues. For example, an LED wall is big and heavy, so you need to install it with care. If the structure cannot support it or is congested, it will damage the LED screen, and the stage or walls of the church can be affected too.
Viewing Distance
The viewing distance is an essential consideration as you need to assess the distance from the first row to the display to get an LED display of the correct pixel pitch. For a 2.5 mm pixel pitch, the ideal minimum viewing distance is 8.20 feet. But, even at this distance, you will still see slight pixelation.
However, the pixelation will become negligible the farther back you go from the screen.
Product Quality
Ample research is required before purchasing an LED display for your church. It’s a long-term investment with a hefty price tag, so the quality matters.
There are numerous cheap options available in the market from manufacturers that pop up overnight. Unfortunately, they usually throw in deals that sound too good to be true, and they usually are. Falling for a scam like this isn’t worth it if you’ll have to replace your LED screen after a few months and suffer a significant loss.
Not just the purchase but post-sale services matter too. For example, if you purchase a display from a reliable firm or manufacturer, you’ll also get excellent technical support and stellar customer service.
A trusted seller might not offer you the same cheap offer a shady manufacturer will, but it’s worth it because the LED will last your house of worship for many years to come.
Take the example of a Direct View LED. When getting a Direct View LED from a reliable company, look at the LED materials, the panel weight and size, power resources, etc., to get an LED of superior quality.
Besides that, the refresh rate for virtual, live streaming services is another factor. Many manufacturers ignore this, but it’s vital as live streaming services are becoming the norm.
How Bright You Want the LED Wall to be
A church LED wall is a lot brighter than a projector and will grab the attention of everyone in any room that it’s placed in. However, since its lighting is so vivid if the LED wall is not placed correctly, it can overwhelm the primary light source of a hall or a room.
But, the good thing about LED technology is that the brightness can be adjusted. So, by choosing the correct option for your church and getting it installed by a professional, you’re ensuring the LED blends in the room and doesn’t look out of place.
Your Budget
Your budget is probably the most crucial factor in purchasing an LED display. Churches come in different shapes and sizes, so an LED wall is not one-size-fits-all.
The budget varies with the kind of display you want—a display of higher resolution will cost more since the smaller the pixel pitch, the costlier the display.
However, the more expensive display doesn’t need to be the only one that will fit your requirements. After a certain point, the pixel pitch doesn’t matter since the naked eye can’t differentiate.
The costs of many LEDs may put you off and make you consider sticking to a projector instead, but for the projection to be visible in a highly well-lit room or a room with many large windows, you’ll have to invest in an expensive projector that will cost you just about the same as an LED display.
The good thing about an LED wall is that it has a black surface instead of the traditional white common in projectors. This means the video quality will be crisp and clear, plus the back surface makes the screen look unassuming when it’s not turned on, which works with the furnishing and aesthetic of any house of worship.
Installation and Maintenance
Deciding on and purchasing an LED display doesn’t end the work. There’s still the installation and maintenance to consider.
You need to finalize whether the LED display will be rigged to a truss, wall-mounted, or recessed, where the LED panels are so you can get them serviced in the future, and whether the infrastructure can support the weight of the display.
LED displays are heavy, especially given that you need one for a house of worship, so the size will likely be immense. Because of their weight, the place they’re installed requires heavy consideration. For protection and stability, the display may have an aluminum casing that also adds further weight.
So, before you get the display installed, get a technician to survey your wall or ceiling to assess whether it can support the weight of the display.
After this, assess the viewing distance. For example, a professional can examine how far the display should be from the seating so that people sitting close to it won’t get dizzy from looking at it, and the people in the back rows can see everything on the screen.
If you get in touch with a reputable company that has sold and installed many LED walls, you can get all of this done without a problem.
Advantages of Getting a Church LED Wall Display
Since we’ve covered the guide on purchasing an LED display, let's go over some of the advantages of getting one so you know you’re getting one for all the right reasons!
LED Displays are Surprisingly Affordable
While we have mentioned these displays being expensive compared to projectors, the costs of these displays have dropped in recent years. The repairs of a projector or any other display are expensive and usually require the whole system to be replaced.
This isn’t the case with an LED wall. Since these are modular, any faulty part can be easily repaired or replaced, making them cost-effective.
Congregants can Easily View them
If we haven’t made it clear, LED walls are incredibly bright. An indoor LED wall has a brightness of around 1,000-1,500 nits, while an outdoor LED wall with close viewing starts from 2,000 nits and can go up to 5,000.
A nit is a unit to measure light, which assesses how much candlelight per square meter a screen can emit. So, an indoor LED with the ideal lowest brightness emits the light of about 1,000 candles per square meter. Can you imagine that? This makes it easy for the congregants to see the screen easily.
They don’t Consume much Power
LEDs don’t consume much power, which is surprising given their size. These require about 40% less energy than Plasma TV, projectors, and LCDs.
LED Walls Last Longer than Projectors
If you’re still on the fence about getting a projector instead of an LED display, know that an LED display has a lifespan of almost three projection set-ups.
Final Words
LED walls are actually quite simple, if you know roughly how big and where you want it, the rest is finding the right parter who will do it right. Ultravision LED Solutions has been a premier LED partner for over 20 years. If you want to see more LED screen for church details you can click here.