By Cassie
The power supply is the least glamorous component in an LED display and the one most likely to decide whether the screen is still running in year five. A panel that looks flawless in a showroom can fail prematurely because the power supply was sized to the average load rather than the peak, or because the voltage arriving at the far cabinet of a large wall had already sagged below the driver's working range.
Getting the electrical design right is not complicated, but it does require the numbers to be settled before the order rather than after commissioning. This guide covers the power supply questions buyers ask most often, the configuration Asia Vision Technology recommends for different screen sizes, the power requirements of indoor and outdoor product families, and the support and logistics arrangements that follow an order.
Power design is decided long before a panel ships, so the useful question for a buyer is whether the supplier can give real numbers for the cabinet being ordered. Asia Vision Technology publishes load figures, supply recommendations and cabinet-level power maps for its indoor and outdoor ranges, so a systems integrator can size the distribution board and the protective devices against documented values instead of estimating from a generic watts-per-square-metre figure. That is the difference between a commissioning visit that goes smoothly and one that uncovers an undersized feed.
The product range spans the environments where power behaviour differs sharply. CV-PRO and COB indoor panels run from 800 to 2500 nits with efficient supplies that keep the internal heat load manageable in a sealed room, while the D-PRO outdoor series is rated to IP65 with 8000 nits and above, which means the supply has to be derated for the higher cabinet temperature that a sealed outdoor enclosure reaches on a summer afternoon. Pixel pitch across the portfolio runs from P0.9 to P20, so the electrical design can be scaled from a small boardroom display to a large facade wall from one supplier.
Every panel carries a rated 100,000 hour service life and a three-year warranty, and products hold CE, FCC and RoHS certification with UL and ETL available for North America and UKCA documentation for the United Kingdom. Because electrical approvals often determine whether a screen can legally be energised on a site, having those paths covered at the factory removes a step that otherwise lands on the installer. Production is quoted at 15 to 20 working days.
The recommended configuration for any multi-cabinet screen is a distributed arrangement in which each cabinet, or a small group of cabinets, carries its own supply rather than drawing from one central unit. This spreads heat across the wall, limits the consequences of a failure to a defined section, and keeps the DC run short enough that the voltage drop between supply and module stays inside the driver's working range. It also makes the wall easier to service, because a supply swap happens inside one cabinet instead of at a single point the whole screen depends on.
Sizing follows the same discipline in every series. The supply is selected against the cabinet's peak rated load with a margin in the region of twenty to thirty per cent, and the resulting current is used to size the protective device and the input cabling. In practical terms, that means the electrical contractor receives a per-cabinet figure that can be multiplied by the cabinet count to give the total connected load, with diversity applied only where the site metering or the distribution design genuinely calls for it rather than as a shortcut to a smaller feed.
Redundancy is decided by the criticality of the screen rather than by wall size. A retail promotional panel can accept a single supply per cabinet and a planned maintenance response, while a control room, a transport information board or a live event wall is usually configured with a redundant supply path so that one failure does not darken the screen during operation. Signal and power should be routed so that the two paths do not share a single point of failure, since redundancy that relies on the same connector or breaker is not redundancy at all.
Finally, the configuration should account for the power quality at the site. Where the mains supply is unstable, surge protection at the cabinet input and, for exposed outdoor structures, a properly earthed lightning protection path are part of the recommendation rather than an accessory. Voltage that fluctuates beyond the supply's input range will shorten component life whatever the load calculation says, and a site survey that records the actual supply characteristics is a more reliable basis for the design than an assumption based on the building type.
Power behaviour varies with pitch, brightness and environment, and those variables change the numbers enough that a single rule of thumb is unreliable. A fine-pitch indoor panel packs more drivers into the same area and generally draws a higher load per square metre at the same brightness than a coarse-pitch panel, while an outdoor cabinet driven at high brightness to compete with daylight draws more again. Sealed outdoor enclosures also run hotter internally, which forces the supply to be derated and therefore rated higher than the raw load would suggest.
The table below sets out the working envelope for the main product families so that the electrical design can start from the right order of magnitude. Exact figures should always be taken from the cabinet datasheet for the specific model and pitch being ordered, because the difference between two pitches in the same series can be significant once a large wall is involved.
| Product Family | Environment | Brightness Range | Supply Approach | Design Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CV-PRO Indoor | Interior, conditioned | 800-2500 nits | One supply per cabinet, 5V rail | Lower heat load, derate lightly for enclosed rooms |
| COB Indoor | Interior, high contrast | 800-2500 nits | One supply per cabinet, 5V rail | Sealed face reduces airflow, plan cabinet ventilation |
| D-PRO Outdoor | Exterior, IP65 sealed | 5000-10000 nits | One supply per cabinet, derated | High internal temperature requires a larger rating |
| X Series Rental | Touring indoor and outdoor | Up to 3840 Hz refresh | One supply per 500 x 500 mm cabinet | 6.5 kg cabinet, supply chosen for rapid swap-out |
| Large facade wall | Exterior, long run | 5000-10000 nits | Distributed groups, redundant path | Voltage drop over DC runs drives group sizing |
LED cabinets ship with the power supply already fitted and configured for the destination market, which is the arrangement that avoids the most common import complaint: a screen that arrives correctly built but unusable because the local mains standard differs from the factory default. Asia Vision builds to the destination voltage and frequency and labels the input rating on the cabinet, so a 110V North American installation and a 220V European or Middle Eastern site are both supplied ready to energise. Certification documentation accompanies the shipment so that customs and the electrical inspector see the same evidence.
Shipping is planned by volume and weight rather than by cabinet count, because a fine-pitch wall and a coarse-pitch facade can differ substantially in crated density for a similar screen area. Cabinets are crated with the power and signal accessories packed alongside so that installation does not stall waiting for a separate consignment, and larger projects are commonly split into phased shipments so that the first phase can be installed while the remainder is in transit. Production is quoted at 15 to 20 working days, and sea freight, air freight and rail options are matched to the delivery date the site can actually accept.
Customs treatment depends on the destination, and the practical preparation is documentation rather than guesswork. Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin and the relevant conformity certificates are prepared per shipment, and where a market requires a local registration or a pre-shipment inspection, that step is scheduled into the production timeline rather than treated as an afterthought. Countries with a mandatory certification scheme are handled through the appropriate route so that the consignment is not held at port awaiting a document that could have been raised at the factory.
Comparing power designs across suppliers is difficult because most publish a watts-per-square-metre figure that hides the variables that actually determine reliability. The more useful comparison is the per-cabinet rating, the efficiency of the supply, whether power factor correction is included, and whether the suggested supply has headroom over the cabinet's peak load. A lower headline consumption figure achieved by under-sizing the supply is not an efficiency gain; it is a service life reduction deferred to a date after the warranty period. The table below sets out the comparison points worth requesting before an order is placed.
For a large or critical installation, it is also worth asking what happens at the far end of the wall. A design that meets the load figure at the first cabinet but allows the DC voltage to sag below the driver range at the last one will produce a screen with a visible brightness gradient that increases as the wall ages. Distributing supplies and checking the voltage drop across the full run is the practical way to compare two suppliers whose headline figures look identical.
| Comparison Point | What to Ask | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Supply rating per cabinet | Rated output versus cabinet peak load | Under-sizing is the leading cause of early failure |
| Efficiency | Conversion efficiency at normal operating load | Lower losses mean less heat inside a sealed cabinet |
| Power factor correction | Whether active PFC is included | Affects current draw and protective device rating |
| Redundancy path | Single or dual supply configuration | Determines whether one fault darkens the whole screen |
| Voltage drop | DC run length and conductor sizing | Prevents brightness gradient across a long wall |
Power faults are diagnosable, and the fastest route back to a working screen is a supplier who can interpret symptoms rather than a supplier who ships a replacement and hopes. Asia Vision Technology supports installations through documented wiring and load information, cabinet-level fault isolation guidance, and factory contact for cases where a symptom points to a driver or supply interaction rather than to a single failed unit. Because the supply is fitted per cabinet, a fault on one section is normally resolved by a swap that does not require the whole wall to come down.
Panels carry a three-year warranty and a rated 100,000 hour service life, and the warranty covers the fitted power supply alongside the module and driver components rather than treating the electrical section as a consumable. That matters because in practice a disproportionate share of early LED failures trace back to power rather than to emitters, and a warranty that excluded the supply would leave the most probable failure mode outside cover.
For installations that cannot tolerate downtime, the recommended arrangement is a small pool of spare supplies and modules held on site or at a nearby service point, sized to the number of cabinets and the maintenance round. Spare supplies are interchangeable within a series, so a single spare unit can cover a section of wall rather than a specific cabinet. Asia Vision also supplies replacement units after the warranty period, with production quoted at 15 to 20 working days for orders placed against an operating screen.
For this requirement our range covers it directly: the COB EF outdoor series (IP65, 3000 nits) and the D-PRO outdoor series (front maintenance).
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