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So, you want to make a BIG impact with your digital signage. Well, you can't go bigger than a digital signage video wall, right!?

From retail spaces to glitzy office receptions and executive suites, video walls have become a popular choice for brands and businesses that want their opinions, products, and messages to be seen and heard - loud and clear.

Traditionally, video wall systems have been on the expensive side, pricing out small businesses who would have to purchase expensive commercial-grade hardware, software, and hire various middlemen to oversee installation, networking, and maintenance.

But big bucks don't have to be the answer anymore; in this article, we'll show you how you can build an affordable video wall.

A note on LCD vs LED: There are two ways you can build a video wall, using LCD screens or LED screens. Choosing between the two is ultimately comes down to a particular use case. But for our money, LCDs are the superior option for video wall configuration, so the remainder of this article will discuss LCD video walls.

You've probably noticed that most TVs you see have similar dimensions. That's because manufacturers have standardized TV sizes over the decades. If for some reason you find yourself nostalgic for the retro square TV, you'll have better luck at your local antique market than Best Buy.

If you're looking to install big or non-standard size digital signage, your best bet is to build a video wall configured to your desired dimensions. By connecting multiple LCD screens, you can pretty much build a custom display of any size.

With size & layout answered, the question becomes How do I make these screens work together?

There are two main ways you can display content on a video wall:

All this can be wrapped up pretty easily:

So now that you're convinced that screen walls are a good idea (we hope) - the good news is you don't need a big budget to build one with Fugo.

Hardware

Video walls are cool & trendy - but there's a lot going on behind the screens (forgive the pun) that needs to be considered.

Let's take a simple 2×2 video wall that consists of 4 screens. Each screen needs to be mounted and connected. The installation requires specialist skills, especially for large video walls, as the screens must be properly aligned with each other and color-calibrated so that the display is uniform and consistent. For example, without color calibration, a blue dress on one screen will have a different shade of blue when compared to the dress on its neighboring screen.

Furthermore, video walls require screens with thin bezels, otherwise, you are going to end up with thick black lines running through your wall often disrupting the content. Thin bezel screens are more expensive, fragile, and require special equipment when installing.

Now let's talk about the brains behind a video wall.

The more screens you add to your video wall, the more powerful media player you will need. And when we talk about media player power, what we're really talking about is its Graphics card, aka GPU.

Essentially, you can use any computer or media player that allows you to set-up multiple display configurations to power you video wall. But we recommend looking for something with more oomph.

Usually, a PC running on windows is more suitable for video walls because they have very powerful graphics cards, but any computer with support for extended desktop mode or a similar feature is also fine.

For Fugo customers planning a video wall setup, we can recommend using Fugo's own Windows-based proprietary player - Fugo Digital Signage players - as your selected hardware for your project. In addition to coming with the Fugo application pre-installed, each device can power up to 3 displays via HDMI & USB 3 ports and have the relevant specs to cover your video wall requirements:

Get in touch with our team at sales@fugo.ai to learn more about powering your video wall with Fugo Digital Signage Players.

Fugo alone is usually sufficient for most video wall requirements and is very easy to use, cost effective, and accessible. However, there are some use cases that will require more specialized video wall solutions. In those cases, you'll be looking for solutions like these:

Yes! But keep in mind that when using an external DisplayPort splitter, the maximum number of displays you can have is always four.

Here a couple of HDMI splitters we recommend:

1. NIERBO 2 x 2 HDMI-Video-Wand-Controller
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This is a good option if you plan a configuration where each screen acts as a smaller part of a bigger display.
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2. avedio links HDMI Splitter 1 in 2 Out

This is a good option for mirroring content, and is cheaper than a splitter that extends the output.

Our favorite entry-level (and 'bang for your buck') video wall media player is the Windows-based Intel's NUC11PAKi5 (launch date: Q1'21). You can purchase that here.

Another popular Windows-based device is the Asus PN 50, available for purchase here.

They both support up to four displays, and roughly cost the same.

We often get asked about the Intel NUC8CCHKR. Since this device has reached its EOL, we do not recommend it anymore.

For the purpose of our guide, we'll be walking you through the set up an Intel NUC.

Make sure your devices come with display port support and that you have the correct cables for it.

In order to set up a video wall you will need to use Intel NUC11PAKi5's display ports according to the directions found in this Multiple Display Configuration guide. Look for the section entitled Four displays, Option 2:

If you want to have a wall with more than two screens, your screens will have to be daisy-chained using their output ports.

Intel Graphics Commander Centre is a software that allows you to configure your connected screens as a video wall. Make sure you have it installed on your device.

According to Intel, the combined desktop setting is only available when two or more external displays with the same physical dimensions and native timings are connected.

Select the Display tab. Click the three dots and then Combine Displays. You will need to select which displays to combine and the display orientation. Your displays will now be managed as one screen.

Note: The Graphics Command Center look and feel may vary according to the version of the software you are running.

Once you have set up Intel Graphics Control and connected your screens you are ready to connect to Fugo software.

One of the advantages of Fugo as a digital signage software is the freedom and flexibility it allows you in creating content, which is made possible by our content design studio (think of it like Canva or Google Slides, but for designing on-screen content.)

Our studio allows you to set the design canvas to the exact resolution and dimensions of your video wall so that you're designing your display in preview-mode for what it will look like when it's deployed.

1. Open the Design Studio: Click Create in the top left corner and choose Content in the menu.

This will take you to Fugo Design studio.

2a. Choose the appropriate aspect ratio from the drop-down menu at the top

2b. Select Custom Resolution where you will be able to manually set the size of the canvas resolution

Limitations of Fugo

Fugo only allows building video walls with a symmetrical layout: the screens need to be either side-by-side or fully stacked on top of each other.

You can do all sorts of cool stuff using the design studio. You can split up the screen into 4 separate zones and use each screen independently of each other:

Or use the canvas to treat all 4 screens as one:

The fun doesn't stop at images & videos. There's so much you can do inside Fugo Studio:

The sky really is the limit with Fugo!

If you’d like to find out how to build and publish playlists in Fugo you can check out our guide here (hint: it’s easy. Like, easy easy.)

If you require support for more than 4 displays, we recommend purchasing either an Intel Gost or Beast player and adding a GPU (you'd need to use a combo of the internal and external graphics cards to build a wall of more than 4 screens.) For this we can recommend either the AMD Fire Pro or NVDIA Quadro.

Another media player option that's popular for video walls of up to 24 screens is the iBase Digital Signage Player.

We recommend getting in touch with iBase who will be able to advise you on procurement according to your hardware needs.

If your project involves more than 24 connected screens you'll need very powerful graphics cards to support that many displays. The go-to options on the market are currently the NVIDIA and AMD multiple display graphics cards.

NVIDIA Mosaic multi-display technology allows you to build video walls with up to 32 displays using NVIDIA Quadro and NVS graphics cards. For more details on how to build video walls with NVIDIA Mosaic you can follow this guide.

Additionally, you can go for AMD Multi-Display Eyefinity Technology that allows you to build video walls with AMD FirePro Graphics Cards. Depending on your video wall size, AMD has a wide range of GPUs you can choose from. More details on how to build digital signage video walls using AMD can be found in this guide.

If you’re ready to try Fugo out for yourself, you can start your free trial here. That’s 14 days on us, no credit card required!

You can also book a call with our sales team if you’d like someone on our team to show you around the software or discuss your video wall face-to-face.

Or, if you need technical support, you can reach out to support@fugo.ai.

Happy publishing!