I wrote a white paper about why resolution matters in control rooms and other environments where information density and content are important. I wrote it in response to the increasing popularity of Direct View LED (dvLED) in digital signage. Because dvLED is bright and beautiful and almost seamless, there is temptation to use it for control room video walls rather than the tiled LCD panels normally used. dvLED is quite costly, so some integrators may push it to increase their profit, but for the moment, control room customers will likely be unhappy with the result.
The problem with today’s dvLED tiles is that their pixel pitch is quite coarse. For digital signage and concert venues, this is fine, but if detailed information is to be displayed or for close viewing, it is not ideal. The pixel pitch (the distance between pixels) for some of the best currently available dvLED systems is more than 4 times worse than ordinary commercial LCD monitors. That means for the same size display, every 4 pixels on an LCD display are equivalent to 1 pixel on the dvLED tile. So essentially, buying a top-quality dvLED system costs a lot more and gives a quarter the resolution. (For this example, the assumptions are 1.3mm pitch for the dvLED and 0.6mm pitch for the LCD panel – I know 0.9mm LED is coming, but it’ll be expensive).
If we revisit this in 2 years, costs for dvLED will be down and the pixel pitch will be much closer to the 0.6mm that a common commercial LCD panel can do. Until then, for detailed information display, avoid paying a lot more for much coarser resolution.
Read the white paper here: https://bit.ly/2njHzIF
