LED Wall Data Rate and Processor Ports

ScopeA wall's processor budget is counted in pixels per output port, not in resolution. A gigabit sending-card port carries a fixed pixel budget -- commonly around 650,000 pixels at 60 Hz, and proportionally fewer as refresh rate or bit depth rises -- and the wall is divided among however many ports that takes. The consequence is that two walls with the same physical size but different pixel pitches need very different amounts of processing, and the finer wall may need a second processor entirely. That is a fact about the processor rather than about the panels, which is exactly why it is missed when a wall is quoted by panel count. The data-rate line is the sanity check on the source side, and it says whether the incoming signal format can actually carry the wall. A wall built out to 3,840 by 2,160 is 8,294,400 pixels, which at 8-bit color and 60 Hz is 8,294,400 x 24 x 60 / 1e9 = 11.94 Gbps and takes thirteen 650,000-pixel ports -- more than one sending card carries, so this wall needs two. The same 11.94 Gbps fits HDMI 2.0 (14.4 Gbps of video data) but is just over a 12G-SDI link's 11.88 Gbps, which is why 12G-SDI carries 4K60 as 10-bit 4:2:2 rather than full RGB; moving to 10-bit RGB takes the rate to 14.93 Gbps, past HDMI 2.0 as well, and the source format has to change. A planning estimate; the processor manufacturer's published per-port capacity at the operating refresh and bit depth, and the panel maker's own mapping, govern the build.

Formula or tabletotal_pixels = width_px x height_px; data_rate_gbps = total_pixels x bit_depth x 3 x refresh_hz / 1e9; ports_needed = ceil(total_pixels / pixels_per_port); spare_pixels = ports_needed x pixels_per_port - total_pixels.

Source and editionUncompressed video data rate = pixels x bit depth x 3 channels x refresh, and processor port count = ceil(pixels / pixels per port), by name; public arithmetic, with the per-port pixel budget the processor manufacturer's published figure at the operating refresh and bit depth, cited not reproduced. The processor maker's capacity and the panel maker's mapping govern the build.

Free accessThe data rate is arithmetic on the raster. The per-port pixel budget is the processor manufacturer's published figure, entered by the user rather than bundled.

What governsEstimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.

API field nameswidth_px, height_px, bit_depth, refresh_hz, pixels_per_port, total_pixels, data_rate_gbps, ports_needed, spare_pixels

• Ports, not resolution the processor budget is pixels per port; two walls of the same size and different pitch need different processingLED processing practice
• Per-port budget the manufacturer's published pixel capacity at the operating refresh and bit depth; it falls as either risesprocessor manufacturer data
• Source link the uncompressed rate says whether a single-link source format can carry the wallvideo transport practice