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Behind the Panel: Navigating Direct View LED Mounts

by | Apr 11, 2023 | Uncategorized

We are back again – this time talking about the world of Direct View LED mounts. First, let’s take a brief look at Direct View LED as a solution:

Direct View LED (DVLED) is a technology that has existed for some time, but the last five to seven years has seen an explosion in the amount of manufacturers that are producing DVLED technology. In its most basic description, DVLED is a display consisting of several light-emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted on a circuit board, creating each panel. These panels are then configured into a larger, finished display. The biggest draw to these is you can get a much larger overall display than traditional LED displays, which usually top out around 100” diagonal. This gives you much greater flexibility to create larger display sizes, and not be limited to the traditional shape of normal displays. They can be pyramids, curved, columns… really the sky is the limit. These displays are also much brighter than traditional LED. Take the TV in your home, more than likely that will be around 300 nits in brightness. Professional digital signage displays are usually in the 500-700 nits range. DVLED are very bright, most times in a range of 4,000-10,000 nits, and because there is no glass, (hence the term, “Direct View”), they will not have glare, as well as offering much broader viewing angles.

Assessing the DVLED Install Needs

Chief digital signage solutionsThe first step in the process is assessing the install site. The integrator will have to do a thorough site survey, to make sure the solution will work. Making sure they have adequate access to power, and ensuring that the wall or structure that the display is being mounted to is secure and strong enough to support it. Once you have this done, you can work on designing and planning your wall layout and structure. Most manufacturers offer assistance in design for the mounting solution. Our partners at Legrand have really simplified the process with a great Online Configuration Tool to help put your display together. They offer many in-stock solutions for the major DVLED brands. If your DVLED isn’t available in one of their preconfigured varieties, they offer custom solutions as well.

Selecting a DVLED Mount Solution

Now, back to the mounts. The first question that I am often asked, is why a customer would choose third party mounts when the DVLED manufacturer has mounts that are made for their own solution. Great question! The answer is simple:

  • DISPLAY manufacturers primary focus is on developing and manufacturing DISPLAYS.
  • MOUNT manufacturers primary focus is on developing and manufacturing MOUNTS.

Although the DVLED manufacturers’ mounting solutions will fit, they will more than likely not work as well as mounts made by a mount manufacturer. Usually, the DVLED manufacturer has a mounting solution that is a pretty basic, perhaps a simple frame with some brackets. Third party mounts are designed with installers in mind. They will be set up for easier installation because they give you the ability to make micro-adjustments after they are mounted. For installers, having the ability to make x-y-z axis adjustments help ensure a perfectly planar video wall. They are usually a much more robust mount all together, with more features that produce a better finished product, and also have the installer in mind by making installation quicker, more efficient, and allowing for easier access when servicing post-install.

To draw an everyday life comparison, think about buying a car. When you purchase a car, often times the dealer would throw in floor mats for your car. The floor mats were OK, they matched the color of the interior, and would keep some dirt and grime off the floor of the car. But you could also go buy a set of floor mats that were made by a company that does nothing but make car accessories, composed of heavier duty material, laser machined to exactly fit in your vehicle, and would keep EVERYTHING off the floor of your vehicle. Wow, after writing that, I really think I need new floor mats. Anyways, this is why I would look to a mount manufacturer to make DVLED mount solutions, it is what they do every day!

I also know there is a whole segment of resellers out there who are relatively new to this space, and Exertis Almo has you covered there as well.

Exertis Almo Labor Project Support

Whether this is your first DVLED install or you are attempting something cutting-edge, like a curved wall, Exertis Almo has a services team that can professionally install that solution for you. Our team has a wealth of knowledge and experience in DVLED installation and commissioning. Find out more at https://www.ExertisAlmo.com/install.

That does it for me, catch you next time… behind the panel.

Patrick Booth, BDM
About the Author

Patrick Booth | CTS, DSCE

Business Development Manager

Supported Manufacturers: Legrand AV (SW, W, NW) – Chief, C2G, Da-Lite, Luxul, Middle Atlantic, Vaddio, Wiremold

Behind the Panel: Commercial vs. Consumer Mounts

by | Dec 22, 2022 | Digital Signage, Uncategorized

What’s behind your display?

I have been in the Pro AV industry for almost 15 years now, and many of those years have been spent working around the many accessories that help make a total solution come together. With the trend in recent years being so focused on TV/Display/Panel solutions, I thought I would spend a little time talking about everything else “behind the panel” – which is how we got here!

Why the mount matters

Why not start simple? Let’s look (literally) behind the panel at one of the most important accessories that can be included in your solution – a wall mount for the professional display that you are installing. The question comes up often – why do I need a commercial grade mount when I can go to “ABC” website and buy one that is half the cost? Great question. Let’s take a look at some reasons why you need to “go pro” when it comes to mounts.

The many mount options

First, a look at the type of mounting solutions available:

flat wall and tilt wall mounts

Static or Flat Wall

The name says it all! These mounts simply hang on the wall horizontally, with no tilt or shift. Keep in mind, you may need locking mechanisms to prevent tampering, or brackets that can hold a media player.

Tilt Wall

These mounts work very similarly to flat mounts, except they have the ability to tilt up or down based on the user’s line of sight.

Swing Arm or Full Motion Wall

As described, these mounts have a much larger range of motion than tilt mounts, swinging out, and then having the ability to tilt, and sometimes rotate. These need to be strong and durable, and you need to be confident that they will hold up – the more moving parts, the more points for potential failure!

Tom Keefe groom's men
tiled video wall mounts

Video Wall

These mounts are designed to be hung together, combining several displays to create a much larger overall display. These will always have several points of micro-adjustment to ensure that the displays line up seamlessly. As one of the most important features, video walls have to give technicians quick access to diagnose and service the panels. Many of them have a “pop-out” style feature to quickly get to the back of the panel – a must for saving time on service calls.

Ceiling Mount

These mounts have special brackets that allow them to be mounted to a column that is hanging from the ceilings. Often times, you will need a column that has adjustable heights based on where the display will be located – these can come in a variety of lengths, both fixed and adjustable.

ceiling mounts

Other considerations

Quality

When you are buying a less expensive mount, you can quickly see that the quality of materials in the consumer-grade models are not quite the same as commercial-grade. Usually, these are made with less expensive metals that may not have the strength to last for the long term. They are designed to be used in a stress-free environment, like a living room (except during a football game), where they really won’t get touched or have potential for people to bump into them like they would in a more public setting. They are also not usually as precisely machined, so the overall fit can be off if you were putting up a video wall for a client who requires a tight, precise, and seamless fit. When picking out a commercial mount, it is important to note if they are UL-tested, which is a testing/certification process that ensures that the mounts will hold the weight that the manufacturers state. In order to gain a UL Listing, a mount needs to be able to hold four times its listed weight capacity before failure. Like my grandmother used to say – “Penny wise, pound foolish!”

Ease of Installation

When commercial grade mounts are manufactured, one of the biggest selling points is that they are engineered with the installers in mind. Many of the jobs that installers are doing call for hanging and installing multiple displays. Let’s say it takes ten extra minutes to put up a cheaper consumer mount and make all the adjustments. What if you have a hundred displays? That’s now an extra 1,000 minutes, over 16 hours of wasted time. Quality, commercial-grade products often have many features to help make this a faster process. They allow for micro adjustments (e.g., level, pitch, etc.) to be made to ensure that fit and finish are tight but do so without special tools and allow for adjustments once the mount is installed. Whether it is tilt, flat, etc., it doesn’t matter – the commercial grade mounts will have these extra features. So, even though the consumer mount was cheaper upfront, if it takes X amount of time longer to install, it can increase labor costs and lengthen the overall time of install. Another favorite of Grandma – “Wasted time equals wasted money.”

Specialized Solutions

Are you creating a 3 x 3 video wall? A menu board for the local pizzeria? Conference room with PTZ cameras and needs for audio? You will not find much to help you in the consumer world! Sometimes installers have to attach displays to I-beams, or hang from columns in the ceiling, so in these cases, it is not simply a case of grabbing a mount off the shelf and putting it up. You need to have products designed to work together to give a complete finished look. You need to “accessorize your accessories,” if you will! That means having the ability to add a shelf for a camera, or a bracket to hold speakers, or maybe an in-wall junction box. You will find that commercial manufacturers specialize in coming up with entire solutions designed to give a complete finished look, no matter the application. Unfortunately, Grandma owned a delicatessen, and really didn’t have any cool, old-timey phrases for wall mount accessories. 😉 Sorry!

Looking for answers?

Our partner, Legrand AV, has a full line of professional mounts and accessories in their CHIEF line of products. They even have a tool to let you find a mount for a specific display or projector – check that out here.

Thank You for Reading!

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading! I look forward to continuing this series and I appreciate any feedback you might have.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Engage with us over on LinkedIn.

Patrick Booth, BDM
About the Author

Patrick Booth | CTS, DSCE

Business Development Manager

Supported Manufacturers: Legrand AV (SW, W, NW) – Chief, C2G, Da-Lite, Luxul, Middle Atlantic, Vaddio, Wiremold

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