1. Reliability

Products with a 2.0-point pitch use approximately 250,000 three-color lamp beads per square meter; products with a 1.0-point pitch use up to a million lamp beads per square meter, and the process of these lamp beads must be highly stable and consistent. A defect in one of the lamp beads often causes a splicing board with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of lamp beads to become a "substandard product." Compared with traditional outdoor LED displays, the indicator requirements for the "failure rate" of lamp beads in small spacing have changed from the previous "one in ten thousand" to "one in a million."

2. Technical difficulties

Among them are: the first row is dark, grayscale jump, low gray color cast, uneven grayscale, high contrast degradation, board card. In addition, how to eliminate moiré patterns, eliminate caterpillars, reduce the dead light rate, and achieve a "low brightness, high gray, high brush" display effect?

3. Service

As the point spacing shrinks, the number of lamp beads has increased significantly, posing higher requirements and greater challenges to the services of small spacing suppliers.

4. Price and profit

The price of small-pitch LED screens has dropped significantly in the past two years, from about US$70,000 per square meter to about US$30,000. Compared with traditional outdoor large-pitch screens, the gross profit of small-pitch LED screens once dropped from the beginning of 2013 to mid-2014. More than twice the former, profits declined in 2015.

5. Application 

The advantages of small-pitch technology have opened up new opportunities for indoor applications of LED screens, making them a strong competitor for rear projection (DLP) splicing and liquid crystal (LCD) splicing. Current applications are mainly concentrated in government, military, and public services, and are gradually penetrating into the commercial market - command and dispatch, virtual simulation, indoor digital notices, sports, culture and performing arts, etc. The breakthrough in the home market is still "zero".

6. Market segments

Small-pitch advertising machines, small-pitch TVs, and small-pitch rental screens have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

7. Market

The industry concentration rate in 2015 decreased compared with 2014. In addition, an interesting phenomenon in 2015 is that traditional rear projection and LCD equipment manufacturers, such as Samsung, Delta, Panasonic, Planar, Philips, IVIVISION, Vitron, GQY, Caixin, Christie, Barco , NEC, have poured into the small-pitch market. In 2015, the number of small-pitch LED companies with good sales volume increased to more than 10 brands, and the total number of market participants reached 30. The small-pitch industry has gradually formed a tadpole-shaped market structure: a big head and a long tail.

Products with a pitch of 1.2 to 2.0 account for more than 98% of the small pitch sales market. IHS research shows that China currently accounts for almost 50% of the global market share of 1.9mm and below products.

8. Outdoor small spacing 

For outdoor small spacing, in terms of current market demand, P4-P10's small spacing market applications are still very wide. P4 is a critical point. If you go further, you will face two problems: 1) It is technically difficult, including waterproof performance, etc.; 2) Is it necessary?

9. Opportunities and prospects

Indoors, it will continue to compete with DLP and LCD in the commercial market and further develop market segments; outdoors, it will replace some direct-plug products.

10. External challenges

1) Facing the challenges of emerging display products, such as OLED;

2) Upstream links, especially fluctuations in lamp bead prices, will have a certain impact on the small-pitch market structure.