Photo by Tajmia Loiacono on Unsplash
LED walls are notorious for highlighting issues with the quality of cameras that churches use for IMAG video or streaming.
The truth is, most churches want an LED wall (for whatever reason), but there is probably a large percentage of churches that shouldn’t even consider it. No matter how great they work, or how many other churches in town have one, there are still reasons (beyond the obvious financial investment) why some ministries don’t even need to think about it.
So, if your church is trying to decide whether to take the plunge into the LED wall market, first think about whether any of these issues may make it worthwhile to reconsider the decision.
Infrastructure Challenges
Even though it’s using LEDs, there is still a notable power draw for a wall of any substantial size. Multiple circuits of power are normally required in order to run a wall; the power draw will be affected by pixel pitch, maximum brightness and consumption (like when the wall is powering up, or showing an image that’s mostly white), and average usage (even if the wall is only running at a fraction of its full brightness potential, since most indoor walls are very rarely run close to 100% brightness).
The closer the audience is to the wall, the tighter the pixel pitch (gap between pixels) needs to be. This can drive up costs.
So, several circuits of power need to be dedicated to a wall, and in some buildings with older (or more limited) infrastructure, it may not be feasible to add additional power to the stage area. A wall should also never be tied in with the same circuits that are feeding other components of the audio or video systems as they can introduce a hum or interference, and this adds even more importance to providing dedicated circuits.In addition to the power draw, LED walls are also incredibly heavy.
Most buildings, especially if they’re older or rely heavily on wooden frame ceiling construction, likely wouldn’t be structurally rated to support the weight of hanging an LED wall from the ceiling. Likewise, it would take an incredible amount of reinforcement to hang one off the back wall of the stage as a surface-mounted install. Or, even in a ground-supported scenario, the construction of the stage simply may not be strong or durable enough to support the concentrated weight of a sitting wall.
So, while the walls all may look good, it’s important to consider whether one would be able to be installed safely and efficiently, without causing long-term facility damage.
Space Limitations
While existing infrastructure is critical, even just thinking about the space necessary to own and maintain a wall is important.
When pondering on the structural abilities of the room, the trim height and vertical clearances also need to be taken into account.
Thinking of ground stacking your LED wall? Several feet of space in front of and behind the wall may be needed to support a higher center of gravity.
A flown wall will have to also have a minimum space above it for necessary rigging hardware and mounts, and that will take up precious real estate if there’s a low ceiling to deal with.
On the flip side, a ground-stacked wall may end up taking up even more valuable space.
In order to properly support the weight of a taller wall, ground support legs will have to be braced several feet forward and aft of the wall itself. So, while the rigging/stacking depth of the wall itself may only be a foot deep, there may need to be an extra three feet of space in front of and behind the wall in order to broaden the base to offset a higher center of gravity.
Smaller churches with limited stage space may find this untenable.
And space behind the wall is important to maintain as well. While this may be naturally available with a ground-stacked wall due to the depth of protrusion from those supports, this is still important to remember when flying a wall. Yes, airflow around the wall is always important to help regulate the temperature of the components. But space on all sides is generally helpful when performing maintenance.
Many walls can be front serviceable only, to aid customers who don’t have space to service the hardware or cabling from the rear. However, this does often add cost and create a level of complexity to maintenance, and ministries without a deep investment in production staff may need to consider those factors.
Lastly, if a stage is shallow, or the audience is sitting close to a side wall where the LED product will be hung for IMAG or display purposes, then a close audience will be able to more easily notice any imperfections in the wall or gaps between the pixels.
If the existing lighting wash (for the band or the speakers) isn’t evenly distributed or is underpowered, then a bright background will just make all of that talent look very dark.
Generally speaking, the closer the audience is to the wall, the tighter the pixel pitch (gap between pixels) needs to be, in order for the wall to be seen as one large, seamless canvas. A normal industry calculation is that whatever the pixel pitch is (say, 2.5mm), you wouldn’t want the audience to sit closer than 10 times that, in feet, from the wall (so, 25 feet in this case, or 2.5 times 10).
Again, a smaller room, or one where the seats are closer to a potential screen location, would then require an even tighter pixel pitch to produce the desired effect, and that will then drive up the final cost, since a smaller pitch are more expensive.
Getting a Video Wall Can Cause More Problems than it Solves
It’s funny, but true. Sometimes having a great-looking LED wall may actually serve to shine a magnifying glass on issues that had always existed but had never been in the spotlight.
A wall tends to be the brightest part of the stage when used as a graphic backdrop behind talent. But if the existing lighting wash (for the band or the speakers) isn’t evenly distributed or is underpowered, then a bright background will just make all of that talent look very dark. So those people may have all looked fine before, but when placed in stark contrast to a very bright surface, it was just easier to notice how “blah” the lighting all had been.
For lower lower-cost cameras, a moire pattern on the screen may be an unavoidable issue that can only be fixed by having the talent move substantially farther away from the video wall.
Also, given the size of the wall, any graphics and videos that are displayed will now be larger, and their imperfections will be even more noticeable. If content is filmed at a lower resolution, then stretched across a large surface, those lower-definition or fuzzy images will appear to be even more so. Instead of that surface making videos all look great, it may just do the opposite and point out how poor the quality is of the front end recording equipment (whether cameras or lighting).
The same could be true of any still or moving graphics that are used. A big wall with lots of pixels means you’re taking an original image and stretching or scaling it to fit that space. Something that was created in a low resolution is going to look blurry or distorted when stretched.
Many churches with large LED walls will either create a lot of their graphics in-house or subscribe to various content-producing services that allow them to access a library of artwork. However, if a church doesn’t have the financial resources or manpower to support either of these avenues, then having a larger wall could end up being more of a turn-off than anything, due to underwhelming content.
Lastly, walls are notorious for highlighting issues with the quality of cameras that churches use for IMAG video or streaming.
Every LED wall has a standard refresh rate, and if the shutter speed of the camera itself is too slow, it will constantly see what looks like vertical scrolling scan lines constantly cycling through the video image. As long as a wall is in the camera shot (if it’s being used as a stage backdrop), then those scrolling lines will be visible, unless you’re able to align the refresh rate of the wall and the frame rate of the camera. Some of those features or abilities are nonexistent on lower-cost consumer or prosumer cameras.
Additionally, if a subject is standing too close to the wall itself while on camera, the camera may very well keep the wall in focus, along with the talent, and will create a moire pattern on screen, where it locks into all the gaps between pixels of the wall and a sort of hypnotic spiral pattern may appear on screen.
Again, cinema or ENG cameras that have the ability to use back focus and gain control may be able to work around this by shortening the depth of field in the shot. But for lower lower-cost cameras, it may be an unavoidable issue that can only be challenged by having the talent move substantially farther away from the wall.
While these are all just the tip of the iceberg on some of the potential issues that can come with owning an LED wall, they’re all very important to consider. Buying a wall is a long-term investment that requires forward thinking about all areas, not just visuals, and needs to keep other AVL equipment in mind as well.
So while there may be one price tag associated with buying the wall itself, there may be additional costs involved for addressing other areas that may also need to be brought up to par. This could then allow the project to balloon well beyond what was originally proposed for its budget.
And when thinking through all these variables, many churches may well decide to steer clear of this route and continue to focus on using TVs or projectors. Both technologies are tried and true, and have proven to be great fits when finances, space, or infrastructure simply won’t allow for anything else.
Whatever decision a church makes, it should be thought out and weighed carefully. There’s no “right” way to do visual display technology in a church, but there is a right way to think through the process.
