In the field of display, when we mention LED displays, we believe everyone can list their many advantages, such as "large" and "bright", high pixel, no splicing, and wide color gamut. And LED display screens have also competed fiercely with LCD, projection, and other fields in the display field due to these advantages. Words like "big screen" and "giant screen" are full of admiration for LED display screens. Without a doubt, the biggest advantage of LED display screens is that they are "large and seamless". The competition between LCD display screens and LED display screens is still fierce but relatively stable, but with the evolution of technology, LED display screens are gradually increasing in small pitch terminal application scenarios and seizing some of the LCD display screen market. Entering the commercial display field from the professional application market, the application scope of LED displays is constantly expanding, and its development path can be said to be from "large" to "small".
Before the development and maturity of LED display technology, the mainstream large screen display technology in the market was DLP and LCD splicing large screens. Early ultra large screens were mainly composed of multiple DLP displays with narrow edge seams. With the emergence of LCD displays with price advantages, the market share of LCD splicing large screens gradually expanded. The iteration of LCD splicing display products is mainly reflected in two technical indicators, one is stitching, and the other is brightness. Due to the display characteristics of LCD displays, it is impossible to achieve a high level of brightness, and the demand for semi outdoor and outdoor display application scenarios is gradually emerging. The demand for high brightness display panels from whole machine manufacturers is growing rapidly, and currently, the vast majority of brightness specifications are difficult to meet market demand. At this time, the advantages of LED display screen products are highlighted. LED display screens can not only form a large area display system without edge seams, but also are most suitable for large and open environments and long-distance viewing due to the direct emission principle and variable shape characteristics of LED display screen products.
Looking back at the development history of large screens, it is clear that in the past, the market for large screen splicing was actually relatively low-end. It only upgraded and transformed traditional desktop LCD displays and applied them to the splicing market. It has many drawbacks, such as insufficient resolution, difficulty in meeting the required level, and in today's high-definition era, it cannot meet the needs of the market. LED displays have absolute advantages in outdoor applications, but at the same time, display technologies such as LCD and projection have also developed rapidly. When LED displays leave the "big" outdoor applications, what kind of development can they have in "small" applications?
The Battle of Large Screen between LED and LCD
In the era of information explosion, there are more and more applications for large screen splicing, and its application industries are also increasing. From traditional public security, broadcasting, and transportation industries to emerging retail, business, and other industries, splicing can be seen everywhere. Due to the vast market and fierce competition, the most typical one is the competition between LED and LCD. In recent years, LCD splicing display products and LED displays have been widely used in video surveillance, command and dispatch, relying on the huge demand of the global security industry market. LCD splicing display products have relatively stable growth potential. Compared to LCD, LED displays are more active. Benefiting from policies and the market, LED displays are gradually moving from professional display fields such as security, transportation, and energy to commercial display fields such as cinemas and conference rooms. According to data, the outdoor application market of LED display screens in China currently accounts for 59%. Nowadays, the application of LED display screens is becoming more and more widespread, and their frequency of confrontation with LCD is also increasing. So, what are the advantages of LED display screens compared to LCD splicing display products？
Small spacing "warm current" surging
With the development of small spacing, LED display screens not only bloom outdoors, but also occupy a certain market share in the field of indoor commercial displays due to their advantages. According to data from the China Academy of Commerce and Industry, the sales revenue of small pitch LED displays in China reached 16.5 billion yuan in 2022, and it is expected to increase to 18 billion yuan in 2023. According to data from Luotu Technology, in the first quarter of 2023, the application of small pitch LED displays in conference scenes was nearly half, accounting for 46%. The saturation of traditional command/monitoring applications was relatively high, and the market share of shipping area was less than 20%. In fact, currently, LED small pitch direct displays have achieved large-scale production of P0.4 and above products, and have already surpassed LCD displays in pixel pitch indicators. In terms of resolution supply for large-sized displays, they can almost meet the needs of any display.
In the field of large screen display, small spacing products have obvious advantages, and the market share is expected to continue to increase. The small pitch LED display screen adopts pixel level point control technology to achieve state control of the brightness, color restoration, and uniformity of the display unit. Compared to traditional backlight sources, small pitch LED backlight sources have a concentrated range of emission wavelengths, faster response speed, and more advantages compared to traditional LED display devices. At the same time, the huge commercial display and home use fields are also the direction of penetration for small distance in the future, and major manufacturers are actively preparing for the commercial display market. In addition, the rapid development of the cultural and tourism market has also brought more application opportunities for LED displays in the field of commercial displays. The updating of operational models in multiple fields, including movies, advertising, sports, and entertainment, continues to drive the prosperity of commercial displays. In projection systems, traditional projection always faces "brightness bottleneck" and "resolution bottleneck" on large screens. These two technical bottlenecks are precisely the major advantages of small pitch LEDs. In addition, with the increasing popularity of HDR today, projector projection systems are also unable to achieve the control ability of LED screen precision to achieve "sub pixel by pixel" brightness adjustment. The LED small pitch display screen can achieve 8K display, which makes it even more powerful.
In summary, the development of LED displays is a process of focusing on specialized displays and exploring commercial displays. Meanwhile, in the development process of LED display screens from "big" to "small" and from "small" to "micro", what will happen to LED display screens when "big" no longer becomes an advantage?
Moving from "B" to "C" still requires joint efforts from the LED display industry
In recent years, with the decrease in price and cost, the cost-effectiveness of small pitch LED displays has become increasingly prominent, and their substitutability for LCD has become stronger. LED displays have gradually expanded from professional fields to film and household fields. In order to go further, the dot spacing of LED display screens is constantly decreasing, developing towards high-definition and ultra high definition, striving to compete with other display technologies and continuously penetrating into the existing market of other display technologies. However, at the same time, the success or failure of display technologies such as LED and LCD in practical applications is not solely determined by the quality of technology and products. In the current situation, the technical characteristics of LED display screens are continuously optimized and products are constantly improved. However, at the same time, LCD projection display technology has also made rapid development, making significant progress in color display, visual angle, response time, and other aspects. In terms of functionality, it has also covered some of the advantages of LED. In this competitive process, although the price of LED display screens has shown a downward trend, compared to LCD and projection, they are still at a sky high price. For LED display screens, there is still a barrier ahead of moving from "B" to "C". To break the price shackles, the entire LED display industry needs to work together to make progress.
In addition to breaking price barriers, another important factor for LED display screen products to move from the B-end to the C-end is how to better cope with the spillover product demand in the context of consumer upgrading. Looking back at the development history of TV panels, from CRT technology to LCD and OLED technology, and now to the popular Mini LED and Micro LED technologies, overall, the innovation of the TV panel industry is relatively slow, but each technological innovation brings a disruptive impact. Compared to LCD, Micro LED has not yet achieved mass production in the TV panel field due to its high cost. Currently, how to improve the performance and cost competitiveness of LED display screens with existing spacing indicators, in order to obtain a larger market, has become a fundamental task for industry enterprises. Improvements to mass production processes, experimentation with new packaging structures, adoption of mini/micro LED chips, and increasing scale and manufacturing intelligence have all become options. This competitive structure is very conducive to the expansion of the consumer market in the industry, with abundant technology and a focus on cost reduction, which can also promote the further growth of the LED display industry market size.
The future landscape changes are still unknown, but in the current era of diversified display products and competing for consumer vision, the overall LED display industry still needs to be further explored: what other characteristics should LED display products that can better open up the household market have? How should we approach the consumer market? For LED display screen manufacturers, in addition to grasping their technological advantages, they may also need to consider extending and expanding in multiple fields.
Post time: Jan-03-2024
