The purpose of this site is to educate people about LED's and Led Signs
First lets start with the simple question.. What is an LED?
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Okay, that still doesn't answer the question, what is an LED? Basically an LED is a small light bulb. However, it is different from incandescent light bulbs in a few key areas: |  |
For those that don't know, the filament in an incandescent light bulb is where the light is produced. The filament is heated with electricity and the result is light; sort of. It would be more accurate to say 'The result is light and heat'. Why is that important? Because the object of a light bulb is to produce light which means the energy/electricity used to produce heat is wasted! Have you ever touched a light bulb that had been on for awhile? It took electricity to make the light bulb hot. When your light bulb uses a filament, there is no way around the wasted heat/electricity.
LEDs do not use filaments. That is why they are more efficient, almost all the electricity is used for making light, not heat! In other words, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to run an LED sign because the LEDs are so efficient. The old variable message signs which used incandescent bulbs ran up massive electric bills. With the advent of the LED in signs those electric bills dropped to about 1/10th of the cost.
Now that you know what an LED is, there are 3 industry terms for LED signs you need to understand.
Pixel "Pixel" is simply an acronym for "picture element." It is the smallest point of light in screens for televisions or monitors, or in an LED sign. In a color LED sign, the smallest point includes three LEDs: one red, one green, and one blue. A display with more pixels that are placed closely together typically has higher resolution, showing sharper images with more detail. |  |
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Matrix The third term is 'matrix'. The matrix is made up of the number of pixel high and the number of pixels wide of an LED sign is. The matrix is what determines the physical size of the sign. If an LED sign is 24 pixels tall and 96 pixels wide, the matrix is 24x96. With text only led signs, the matrix determines how many lines of text you can put on the sign as well as how many characters will fit on each line. With programmable LED signs the matrix determines how much total space you have. |  |
So to sum it up...
Groups of LEDs make Pixels
The distance between pixels, the pitch, determines the resolution
The number of vertical and horizontal pixels determines the matrix which determines the number of lines in the sign and the number of characters per line.
Lets examine the 2 Main Types of LED Displays
Full Color HD LED Sign | Monochrome HD LED Sign |
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You can see by the examples I placed above there is a huge difference between these two signs. A full color sign uses three bulbs per pixel to blend pretty much any color imaginable. A Monochrome offers one color that is most commonly used to run text.
The two examples above show high definition uses of the led signs. These signs use a combination of software and hardware to allow the bulbs to be individually dimmed and lit allowing for a blending effect so that images can be portrayed.
Below you see the same concept except these signs are not HD (high definition). On the left you see a full color and on the right you see a monochrome red.
Obviously there is a huge difference between the capabilities of LED signs. So when you are trying to pick what sign is right for you be sure you take the time to plan ahead and know what you need your sign to do.
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Disclaimer: This site was made from multiple sources. I do not claim rights to any of the pictures or information posted on this site. It is purely for educational purposes.
