An LED display is a magical piece of technology, but it is only as good as the led display content it displays. After all, a display is ultimately designed to be a messenger; a tool to convey information, inspire emotions, and incite wonderment. If your business is going to spend a substantial amount acquiring and installing an LED display, you want to make sure it will display your handsome content in the truest and most accurate way possible. Audiences viewing content that appears distorted or cut off will lose interest quickly. Instead of focusing on the substance of your content, audiences will instead pay attention to the flaws in its appearance. That’s not good. Displays are not cheap to manufacture, and businesses cannot afford to waste resources showing poorly formatted content. For that reason it is important to understand how to “map” your content onto your specific display. Content mapping is the industry term used to describe the process of configuring your content to fit within the parameters of your unique display.
Businesses and organizations who make the decision to purchase and install an LED solution are not buying their display off the rack. They are partnering with a manufacturer like NanoLumens to arrive at a fully customized solution. That means the display being installed is built to fit a specific space and a specific purpose, which usually means it will have non-standard dimensions. The standard aspect ratio that most generic screens and displays –and therefore the content they showcase- are made with is 16:9, but, as mentioned above, the display size and shape that is best for your business might be something completely different. LED displays are traditionally measured in pixels wide by pixels high. The threshold for a true high definition display is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels, but, again, it is likely that your display has different dimensions. 1920 by 1080 represents a 16:9 ratio, but if, for example, your display has measurements of 1900 by 500, you will have to make some adjustments. Adjustments, namely, to your content.
While it’s true that you could import traditional 16:9 content to your display and it would show up, what that fails to mention is how it will show up. Your content that was designed for a 1920 by 1080 display could compress, or smush, itself to fit in the smaller display, or the display could simply cut off large portions of the content and only show a 1900 by 500 sized section of it. Displays are designed for the purpose of presenting content. Don’t corrupt that purpose by importing content that the display can’t accurately present.
You installed an LED display so that you could use it to display content. This content needs to show up without blemishes, and it needs to be visible from a wide range of angles, but perhaps most importantly, it needs to show up properly your display. The far more responsible way to map content onto your custom display is to create content with the proper resolution right from the start. If your display is 1900 by 500, take the pains to create content that is 1900 by 500. You wouldn’t use ill-fitting tires on a Ferrari, so don’t import poorly mapped content onto an LED display. Make the extra effort on behalf of your display, and the solution you arrive at will make it all worth it. Content mapping is a relatively simple, but immensely important task that content managers absolutely must consider before pushing their content out to the world. After all, what good is beautiful, widely visible content if it is distorted when you send it to your display? For more information on LED displays are the proper use of content, download our new white paper.
~Eric Techo
Director, Global Business Development