A marketing mail came across my inbox from Planar announcing their latest direct-view LED screens offering an incredibly fine 0.9mm pixel pitch.  To do the math, that’s 25.4mm / 0.9 = 28 pixels per inch, or thinking of it by area, that is 784 pixels or 2,353 LED die crammed in per sq/in.

And if I understand this screen density calculator correctly – with this pixel pitch, the screen achieves “retina” like quality at around a 10 foot viewing distances (about 3.5m)…meaning the human eye can no longer perceive pixels at that distance.

Seeing such ultra-high res ( <2mm pitch) LED screens from so many manufacturers at Integrated Systems Europe is stunning.  Offering brightness that can compete with daylight, great viewing angles, and seamless large-scale surfaces covering an architectural scale, plus the ability to curve the tiles, these direct-view LED screens feel futuristic.

Looking at 4K or even 8K resolution content on some of these massive screens literally feels like you’re looking at the outdoors, like standing in a sunlight forest or standing on a hotel balcony staring at a sun drenched Greek island.  At the massive scale of some of these screens, it becomes an almost virtual reality-like experience.

And of course the pricing on all this hardware continues to decline, so in the next few years I think we’ll see more and more of this showing up in permanent entertainment, retail and hospitality projects.