Display a Direct View LED Presentation
This page / section pertains to BrightSign Author, our latest app for authoring and managing content and players. For the legacy BrightAuthor Classic app, refer to our Legacy DocsLegacy Docs.
Overview
LED walls are comprised of modules which can be rearranged in multiple ways. The final arrangement usually doesn’t correspond to a standard display resolution, so you will probably need to make some adjustments to get the desired resolution. To do this in BrightSign Author, set a zone to the correct resolution, then configure your controller to scale standard resolutions from the player or apply a custom resolution to the player through a plugin. These methods are described below.
Dimension are limited by the following factors:
- The maximum input resolution varies by controller (some take only 1080p). Check your controller’s spec for limitations.
- The limits are on each dimension and on the pixel clock, not on a total-pixel budget, so on a 4K output you can’t go past 4096 wide or 2160 high, even if the total pixel count is lower. For example, 5000×1000 has fewer pixels than 4096×2160 but is still out of range because it’s too wide. Any shape inside both limits works if the timing fits in 594 MHz. The BOS custom modeline spec allows any mode that meets all three of the following criteria:
- Width: between the narrowest and widest preset mode for that player (640–4096 on 4K players)
- Height: between the shortest and tallest preset (288–2160 on 4K players)
- Pixel clock: 25–594 MHz on 4K players, or 25–200 MHz on HD players
- Custom modelines need BOS 8.3 or later and a Series 3 or newer player. Only progressive scan is supported, the output is always 8-bit RGB, and modes above 2.5 MP get a quarter-size graphics layer unless you set the mode to custom:fullres.
- Canvases on multi-output players such as the XC2055, XC4055, and XT2145 can go well beyond one output’s limits. The decoder limit is on area, not width.
Create a Zone
See this page for BrightAuthor (legacy) instructions
Select a standard resolution and then create custom zone size that matches your output resolution. This will give you better image quality and a better representation of your content.
To do this:
- Determine the LED wall dimensions and the number of HDMI outputs on your player.
- Create a new presentation.
- In the Screens tab, select the number of screens based on the number of player HDMI outputs and how you want to display the content.
- Select a standard output resolution in Layout Settings that is equal to or larger than the desired display resolution.
- Switch to the Layout tab and set the pixel size and dimensions of the zone to correspond to the number of pixels and dimensions in your display. The size cannot exceed the maximum resolution for the player. See the example below.
Example
This is a layout for an LED wall that is 12064 pixels wide and 1872 pixels high. The BrightSign player has three 4K HDMI outputs, so this layout uses three screens.
Set the Resolution in the Controller
To scale resolutions in your controller, see the customer literature and/or videos for that product (e.g., Novastar, Samsung, etc.). Note that there are a range of models which have different maximum output resolutions (for example, some take full HD input, and some take 4K input). You can use a custom resolution or use regular resolutions with custom zone sizes (higher end controllers support this, lower end controllers may not).
Set the Resolution via a Plugin
To set a custom video mode in your BrightSign player:
- Get the relevant modeline. This is a list of parameters that describe how a display should be driven at a specified resolution. See this page for information about how to get a modeline in Linux or in BrightSign Author.
- Add that modeline information to a BrightSign plugin. See this page and the plugin example below for more information.
- Add the plugin:
- Create a presentation with the correct Target Player, a single screen, and an Output Resolution and Frame Rate (in Layout Settings) that are similar the resolution you want.
- In the Layout tab, under Properties, adjust the zone Size to match your desired resolution, which must be less than 8K (see Image 2, below).
- Under Presentation Settings > Support Content, add the plugin that specifies the correct modeline.
- Add your content to the zone and publish your presentation.
Plugin Example
Sample plugin for Series 5 players: