When it comes to video services for your event the first piece that comes to mind is how you want to display your message to your audience. Whether it’s a video, slides, or even a keynote address you want your event attendees to have an innovative viewing experience. You want to bring your ideas to life in a visually dynamic way, and you can through a variety of display solutions like video projection and led walls. But it can difficult to determine which video elements to use for your unique event. Luckily, Advanced Staging Productions’ Video Department lead, Nate Covey, shares his insights on how to best decide between led wall vs projection for your event.
1. Understanding Your Space
Once you have the content for your event, you really need to understand your space first to determine what will be the best display solution to utilize. The first piece to consider is where your event will take place; will this be an indoor or outdoor event. If so, led walls work great when you have a high amount of sunlight coming into the space, and projection works better when you are in a dark space. But logistically there are factors that need to be considered as well. You need to keep in mind where your attendees will be seated in reference to your video screens. Projectors can put off a lot of noise and need to have distance between where they are placed and where your attendees will be seated, while led walls produce little noise allowing attendees to be seated closely to them. Lastly you need to consider the weight of both display solutions. If you are considering suspending your video screens, weight is the first piece that needs to be taken into consideration. Can your venue support the weight of hanging a led wall or would you need to utilize something more light weight like projection? Both display solutions can look great for your audience but the space needs to be your first understanding.
2. Budget
Once we’ve understood the space, the budget of the show becomes a key factor when deciding between led walls and projection. Now typically your video aspects will be the main focus of your show and you want to have that dynamic solution, but you need to consider all other needs for your show to go off without a hitch (ie. audio, lighting, power, and so much more). So, you need to look at your budget and can it support a led wall taking a good portion due to the costliness or would projection screens better suit your budget while still bringing your vision to life.
3. Main Draw of the Show
Besides how you want your video elements to be displayed, you also need to consider what is being displayed as well since this will be a deciding factor to pick between a led wall vs projection. You need to focus on what type of message you are trying to deliver to your audience. When it comes to content, videos look great on led walls since it’s almost like having a large tv in the room with you. But if the main part of your event is a keynote address with text heavy slides than a projection screen would best suit your needs allowing audience members to more clearly read the message.
4. Time
Typically, when it comes to timing of a show, the first thing that comes to mind is the run of show and the actual time the event is taking place. But another deciding factor between led walls and projection screen is the actual time for set up and strike. You need to understand how much time prior will you have access to the venue before your show and how much time you will have after for your crew to work. With led walls they are being built tile by tile and can be very labor and time intensive, so you need to ensure you have the proper amount of time for both set and strike. While projection screens can be built and taken down in much less time and can work better when you are in more of a time constraint for your show.
5. Shape of the Screen
The last factor to consider and a unique video element to add an additional wow factor to your event is changing the shape of your screen and utilizing projection mapping. For instance, with projection mapping, you can utilize a circle or even a more unique shape of your screen for your video to appear. We have seen clients utilize their logos or letters of their company to display their videos on. However, with led walls you are more locked in to either a square or rectangle wall and limited to less unique shapes. So, understanding aesthetic elements to the shape of your screen can be a final determining factor.
When deciding between a led wall vs projection, it’s not determining that one is better than the other but understanding that you need the right tool for the right job. These factors can help you decide on what will best suit your needs for your next event. And with Advanced Staging Productions, our experienced video engineers are here to help. With 30 years of experience in the production industry and thousands of combined jobs under their belts, this team knows how to simplify the process to help you make the best choices. With tried-and-true methods, our video engineers know which video elements best apply to your unique situation to make your event the big event!
