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LED Screen Solutions / About Pixel Pitch and Screen Resolution

About Pixel Pitch and Screen Resolution

Our brand new iCONIC + screens feature screens with a much smaller pixel pitch than other screens on the market, meaning they have a far sharper picture and a higher resolution than any comparative screens available.

But what does all the terminology mean? Here we’ve tried to explain some of the terminology used in the industry and help you to make an informed decision when choosing a big screen for your event.

iCONIC 100+ iCONIC 25+

  • Pixels

    Depiction of one pixel

    A pixel is a cluster of LEDs that make up the individual dots that a picture is composed from.

    In outdoor LED screens, these tend to be made up of 1 red, 2 green and 1 blue LEDs (or sometimes 2R, 1G, 1B). The LEDs in each pixel light up to different intensities to create a specific colour, updating many times a second, and each screen is made up of hundreds of thousands of pixels, creating a seamless picture.

    It’s the same principal as how your television or computer screen works; however, because the viewer is much further away the pixels don’t need to be as tiny!

  • Pixel Pitch

    Depiction of pixel pitch

    Pixel pitch is basically the distance between the centre of each pixel on a screen. Outdoor LED screens tend to have larger pixel pitches than indoor ones as they are viewed from further away – the most common size is around 20mm.

  • Virtual Pixel Pitch

    Actual pitch pitch Virtual pitch pitch Virtual pitch pitch

    Here’s where it starts to get complicated... For the last decade or so, most outdoor LED screens have been making use of a technology generally referred to as ‘virtual pixel’ technology. This rather cleverly shares the LEDs between two pixels and helps to improve picture quality to soften sharp and ragged edges.

    Intelligent processing means the picture is shared across twice the number of overlapping pixels, effectively doubling the number of pixels.

    This means the Virtual pixel pitch is half of the Actual pixel pitch ie. Actual 20mm / Virtual 10mm

  • Virtual Pixel Pitch vs Actual Pixel Pitch

    Virtual pitch pitch
    Actual pitch pitch

    Virtual pixel pitch can be a bit misleading. Yes, the technology undoubtedly improves the picture quality, but in no way does it make it look as good as an equivalent ‘actual’ resolution screen.

    In other words, an “actual” 10mm pixel pitch screen has a far better picture and much lower viewing distance than a “virtual” 10mm screen. It will also be more expensive, for the simple fact it has three to four times as many LEDs in it!

    When comparing screens, it’s important to always compare the Actual pixel pitches each screen. Generally speaking, the smaller the actual pixel pitch, the sharper the screen will look.

    Complicating matters further, not all screens can be made as virtual pixel pitch screens. Smaller pixel pitches pack the LEDs in so close together that they only have room for 1 red, 1 green and 1 blue per pixel.

  • Resolution

    20mm Pixel Pitch Resolution 10mm Pixel Pitch Resolution

    The resolution of a screen is the number of pixels in it, generally described in terms of width x height. A screen with a smaller pixel pitch will have a higher resolution than a same sized one with a larger pixel pitch. This is because you can fit more of the pixels into the same physical space.

  • Minimum Viewing Distance

    iCONIC 25 minimum viewing distance iCONIC 25+ minimum viewing distance

    When LED screen companies talk about ‘minimum viewing distance’ this is the distance you have to be from the screen before the pixels stop looking like thousands of flashing LEDs and look like a smooth picture!

Why Choose iCONIC+?

All iCONIC + screens feature new screens with smaller pixel pitches than our standard iCONICs, which have 20mm (virtual 10mm) screens. The iCONIC 100+ features a 16mm screen (virtual 8mm), whilst the new iCONIC 15+ and 25+ use 12mm (actual) screens.


iCONIC 15+ & 25+

Our iCONIC 15 & 25+ screens have been designed primarily to make the minimum viewing distance shorter, which is perfect for smaller screens such as these with a low viewing height.

Both screens can be comfortably viewed from as close as 3m, making them ideal for use in cities and town centres and amongst crowds, and for showing content with small text.


iCONIC 100+

The iCONIC 100+ has a 16mm (virtual 8mm) pixel pitch, giving it a higher resolution, thanks to the sheer size of the screen. That makes it ideal for showing high quality HD video to large audiences.

Whilst a few other competing mobile LED screens use a 16mm screen, none of them are even nearly as big as the iCONIC 100, meaning the iCONIC 100+ comfortably the highest resolution mobile LED screen available in the world today and the ultimate large audience screen.