The rapid advancement of LED display screen technology means that they can be used in increasingly innovative ways. The high brightness and scalability of the screens makes them particularly suitable for outdoor use, and they are now a regular feature of public spaces. Here’s a look at some of the most creative installations of public digital screens.
Art displays
The crisp images and intense colours that high-spec LED screens can produce is perfect for displaying digital artworks. This provides visual and cultural enrichment to public spaces such as parks, urban squares, streets, and even bridges. The screens can be programmed to change dynamically and respond to different lighting conditions.
Outdoor events
Large-scale LED screens are now an integral part of all types of outdoor events, such as concerts, festivals, sporting events, and hybrid events. LED screens are far more suitable for outdoor use than traditional lighting, because they emit strong light in specific directions as opposed to emitting a general light in all directions, vastly improving brightness and visibility.
The content of the screen is still crisp and clear even in strong sunlight, and the brightness of the screen can be adjusted according to the weather conditions. The screens are designed to withstand extreme temperatures and are resistant to dust, wind damage and pollution.
They can be scaled up to almost any size to provide a close-up view of events to large crowds, and fitted to curved surfaces. It’s now also common practice to have an LED video wall as a stage backdrop to provide background visuals for a concert or festival performance.
For example, popular music events are now very visual-driven and screens are a perfect way to achieve the right dynamic between the live performance of the music, the stage presence of the act and the visual background display.
Enhancing environmental awareness
LED screens are an environmentally friendly choice in themselves, because they require far less power than older-style fluorescent or incandescent lights. Furthermore, when compared to static billboards they create much less waste because they can display new content at the touch of a button.
This eliminates the need to constantly redesign, reprint, and reinstall the material when a change of content is required. The screens themselves are also being used to raise public awareness about environmental issues by displaying relevant information such as energy consumption, local air quality and water pollution.
Interactive information points
Many urban centres now have kiosks with interactive LED screens that act as public information hubs. This can provide real-time information about public transport, including timetables and delays, and other updates such as emergency announcements, road closures, and weather reports.
Navigation systems
LED screens are now the go-to solution for wayfinding in large public spaces such as airports, exhibition centres, and shopping centres. They can be integrated with digital technologies to allow the display of maps and venue layouts to be updated in real time and tell the viewer exactly where they are at the present moment.
They can be used to display directional arrows and can respond to interactive queries to provide customised routes.
The public role of LED displays
LED panels are now an integral feature of public places such as airports, sporting stadiums, concert venues, outdoor cinemas, conference centres, and a diverse range of other spaces. They can be installed on ceilings, floors, curved surfaces, steps and stair risers, and even cover the entire exterior of a building, such as the Sphere in Las Vegas.
They have an unrivalled brightness and clarity and work just as well whatever the environmental conditions. They can be produced to any scale while remaining lightweight and easy to transport and install. This makes them ideally suited for events and conferences when it is necessary to set them up and dismantle them within short timescales.
The size and resolution of the screen are factors in the price range. As you would expect, low resolution screens are more affordable and they may be just as effective as a high-res screen in certain situations. For example, if the screen will be displaying large lettering or more abstract images from a long distance, there is less need for crisp details.
LED screens may be a sizable upfront investment for most companies, but this can soon reap rewards when you consider that they are low-maintenance and if used correctly have very long lifespans.