How to Build a Video Wall in 10 Steps: Proven Guide from a Control Room Design Expert
20.06.2025
Building a video wall involves more than just screens — it’s about aligning strategy, hardware, and software. This guide outlines 10 key steps to help you design a system built for 24/7 performance and real-time awareness.
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Creating a video wall may seem complex, but with the right approach, it's entirely manageable — even for first-timers. Whether you're building a system for a control room, NOC, SOC, or a corporate lobby, careful planning is essential.
In this guide, you'll learn how to build a video wall from start to finish, including tips on how to set up a video wall and insights into control room video wall setup. We’ll also cover the importance of software for a successful control room video wall installation.
Let’s break the process down into 10 easy steps so you can realize your video wall project with confidence and clarity.
In this guide, you'll learn how to build a video wall from start to finish, including tips on how to set up a video wall and insights into control room video wall setup. We’ll also cover the importance of software for a successful control room video wall installation.
Let’s break the process down into 10 easy steps so you can realize your video wall project with confidence and clarity.
What are Video Walls Used for?
Before diving in, let’s begin with a key video wall fundamentals to align our understanding.
Video walls are large visual systems made by combining multiple individual visualization objects (LCD panels or LED tiles) into a single large seamless display. They are most often arranged in a rectangular grid and work together as a single item to show detailed, high-volume (and sometimes high-resolution) content across one unified surface. These systems are designed to present information in a way that is easy to understand, even in fast-paced or high-pressure environments.
A standard video wall setup includes three main components:
The software is a key part of the user experience of the whole system, it defines what will be user capacity in regards to the video wall. Software always tailored to USAGE SCENARIO, like digital signage scenarios or control room scenarios. Depending on use case, it provides required features like content distribution and scheduling for digital signage, or real time data feeds from different sources, convenient content handling and interaction in manual source placement and layout management - for control room usage. Without properly selected software, even the best video wall setup will disappoint the users.
Video walls are widely used across industries for various purposes.
In control rooms they serve as powerful tools for centralized monitoring and real-time data visualization. In corporate settings, they improve communication through large-format presentations, convenient collaboration and data sharing during day-to-day operations and team briefings. They are also found as digital signage in public spaces like retail stores, transport hubs, and museums where they are used to attract attention and guide people using eye-catching visuals.
Modern video walls are not only more capable but also easier to scale and customize than ever before. This makes them suitable for everything from a single meeting room to an entire operations center.
Video walls are large visual systems made by combining multiple individual visualization objects (LCD panels or LED tiles) into a single large seamless display. They are most often arranged in a rectangular grid and work together as a single item to show detailed, high-volume (and sometimes high-resolution) content across one unified surface. These systems are designed to present information in a way that is easy to understand, even in fast-paced or high-pressure environments.
A standard video wall setup includes three main components:
- Video wall itself, combined from LED tiles or LCD panels, including mounting frame
- Processor/controller that creates video feed and delivers it to each part of video wall
- Software that manages what is shown, where, and how
The software is a key part of the user experience of the whole system, it defines what will be user capacity in regards to the video wall. Software always tailored to USAGE SCENARIO, like digital signage scenarios or control room scenarios. Depending on use case, it provides required features like content distribution and scheduling for digital signage, or real time data feeds from different sources, convenient content handling and interaction in manual source placement and layout management - for control room usage. Without properly selected software, even the best video wall setup will disappoint the users.
Video walls are widely used across industries for various purposes.
In control rooms they serve as powerful tools for centralized monitoring and real-time data visualization. In corporate settings, they improve communication through large-format presentations, convenient collaboration and data sharing during day-to-day operations and team briefings. They are also found as digital signage in public spaces like retail stores, transport hubs, and museums where they are used to attract attention and guide people using eye-catching visuals.
Modern video walls are not only more capable but also easier to scale and customize than ever before. This makes them suitable for everything from a single meeting room to an entire operations center.
Key Differences in Video Wall Solutions
Video walls come in various forms, each suited to different applications. In order to select the relevant configuration, it’s very important to understand the difference between video wall solutions for control rooms and command centers, artistic video walls, and digital signage solutions.
While digital signage targets marketing, artistic walls target visual impact, collaboration - great touch interactive experience, and control room video walls - high resolution, reliability and long-term operation.
Key features are size, brightness, and protection for digital signage (especially outdoor), the ability to use custom-positioned or rotated monitors for artistic video walls, multi-touch sensitivity and sturdy glass cover for collaboration and high-resolution long-term operation (large MTBF) and easy-to-service for control room applications.
- Control Room Video Walls: Engineered for 24/7 operation, they emphasize high resolution (pixel-to-pixel matching with content for highest detailisation), reliability (long MTBF (Mean time between failures)), and ease of servicing. These video walls integrate tightly with control systems, CCTV systems, video wall management software, BI systems and other content sources to support critical decision-making.
- Digital Signage Video Walls: Designed primarily for advertising and public information, these prioritize large size, high brightness for outdoor visibility, and robust protection against weather.
- Collaboration video walls: Designed to bring teams from different locations together, having additional equipment to enable multi-touch operation, sturdy cover and powerful collaboration engine.
- Artistic Video Walls: Often feature custom-shaped or rotated displays to create creative installations that blend technology with design aesthetics.
While digital signage targets marketing, artistic walls target visual impact, collaboration - great touch interactive experience, and control room video walls - high resolution, reliability and long-term operation.
Key features are size, brightness, and protection for digital signage (especially outdoor), the ability to use custom-positioned or rotated monitors for artistic video walls, multi-touch sensitivity and sturdy glass cover for collaboration and high-resolution long-term operation (large MTBF) and easy-to-service for control room applications.
Type
Best For
Key Features
Control Room Walls
Real-time monitoring
- High resolution
- Reliable 24/7 operation
- Integrated software
Digital Signage Walls
Advertising & public information
- High brightness
- Size
- Weatherproof
- Built for attention
Collaboration Walls
Joint work of distributed teammates
- Multi-touch
- Sturdy glass cover
- Sensitivity
Artistic Walls
Creative installations
- Custom shapes
- Rotated displays
- Visual impact
Why Do You Need a Video Wall?
The operational workflow driving your video wall — whether it’s emergency response coordination, financial trading, or CCTV cameras observation — directly dictates its technical requirements and content priorities.
Consider:
1. Criticality:
Simply put: What happens around the video wall determines what happens on it.
For example:
A security operations center prioritizing threat visibility needs 24/7 reliability and real-time camera feeds, while a corporate lobby showcasing branding may prioritize 8K vibrancy over millisecond precision.
A traffic management center needing live camera grids and incident alerts requires vastly different solutions than a university’s research visualization wall.
Consider:
1. Criticality:
- Determines uptime needs (99.999% vs. 95%)
- Includes media files, video streams, documents, workstation images, browsers etc
- Observe visual content (digital signage), manage real time data flows (control room use case) or collaborate with colleagues using touch (unified communications case)
- Impacts latency tolerance (seamless content switching and transition effects or layouts with real-time data flows)
Simply put: What happens around the video wall determines what happens on it.
For example:
A security operations center prioritizing threat visibility needs 24/7 reliability and real-time camera feeds, while a corporate lobby showcasing branding may prioritize 8K vibrancy over millisecond precision.
A traffic management center needing live camera grids and incident alerts requires vastly different solutions than a university’s research visualization wall.
Best Practices for Designing a Video Wall
Remember the golden rule:
Map your operational workflow → Define content priorities → Back-calculate hardware specifications → Select software that bridges the two
Map your operational workflow → Define content priorities → Back-calculate hardware specifications → Select software that bridges the two
Factors to Be Considered When Designing the Video Wall
Making a video wall for control room demands careful consideration of multiple factors to ensure functionality and longevity:
- Purpose and Use Case: Identify the primary business requirements of the video wall; this dictates size, resolution, and software features.
- Content Displayed: Consider the type of content — documents, video, streamed data or workstation screens — to choose appropriate resolution and brightness.
- Room Size and Spatial Planning: Ensure the wall fits comfortably within the available space without overwhelming or underutilizing it.
- Viewing Distance: Calculate optimal screen size and pixel pitch based on how far viewers will be from the video wall.
- Lighting Conditions: Account for ambient light, glare, and reflections that could affect visibility.
- Cost and Long-Term Expenses: Budget for upfront investment plus maintenance, power, and software licensing.
- Reliability and Maintenance: Choose durable displays and ensure easy access for servicing.
- Aligning with Existing IT Infrastructure: Plan compatibility with existing content sources and other hardware and software.
How to Build a Video Wall: 10 Easy Steps
Setting up a video wall for a control room can be a rather tricky task to accomplish, so here are some tips and tricks to watch out for. When deciding on a video wall installation project, you have to make some decisions in advance.
Breaking it down into clear steps simplifies the process. From defining your objectives to launching and monitoring the system, each stage requires attention to detail. Whether you’re undertaking a monitoring room video wall project or a briefing room installation, these steps will help you navigate the technical and logistical challenges. With careful planning and the right tools, building a video wall can be a rewarding endeavor that significantly enhances your space.
Breaking it down into clear steps simplifies the process. From defining your objectives to launching and monitoring the system, each stage requires attention to detail. Whether you’re undertaking a monitoring room video wall project or a briefing room installation, these steps will help you navigate the technical and logistical challenges. With careful planning and the right tools, building a video wall can be a rewarding endeavor that significantly enhances your space.
Step 1. Define Business Requirements
Begin by clearly defining the primary purpose of your video wall project — whether for surveillance, presentations, collaboration, or information.
A well-defined workflow and content priorities ensure your video wall aligns perfectly with operational needs.
- Understanding the main use case and workflow around it will guide decisions about size, resolution, and software capabilities.
- Assess content to be displayed. Will you display real-time data feeds, video surveillance, or dynamic dashboards? This determines the needed resolution, refresh rates, and color accuracy.
A well-defined workflow and content priorities ensure your video wall aligns perfectly with operational needs.
Step 2. Choose the Location
Choose a location that offers enough space for your video wall, with clear visibility and reliable access to power.
Don’t overlook scalability – ensure your system can accommodate future expansion without costly rework.
- Consider environmental factors such as ambient lighting, ventilation, and temperature control, as these can affect both viewing quality and hardware lifespan.
- Plan mounting type - will it be attached to wall, floor-based or more complex. Will it be just engineered frames or fully decorated basement.
- Easy access for maintenance and cable routing is also essential.
- While operator desks and source equipment matter, your main priority should be screen placement to ensure comfortable viewing angles, minimal glare, and seamless integration into the room’s workflow and layout.
Don’t overlook scalability – ensure your system can accommodate future expansion without costly rework.
Step 3. Select Display Technology
Choosing the right display technology is crucial to ensure your video wall meets your performance and budget expectations. Common options include LED, LCD, and projection displays.
Consider factors such as brightness, resolution, viewing angles, and maintenance needs when selecting the technology that best fits your specific video wall application.
- LEDs offer bright, vibrant colors and are ideal for large, high-impact installations, especially in environments with strong ambient light. As LED video wall consist of large number of small tiles, it can be carefully tailored to perfectly match available space.
- LCD panels are generally more cost-effective and provide excellent image quality with slim bezels, making them suitable for indoor use where close viewing is required.
- Projection systems can create very large or artistic-shaped objects covered by images but in an apple-to-apple comparison may lack the brightness and sharpness of LED or LCD walls. Plus, they will require a complete special setup of the surface.
Consider factors such as brightness, resolution, viewing angles, and maintenance needs when selecting the technology that best fits your specific video wall application.
Step 4. Determine the Size
Сonsider viewing distances and sightlines to calculate optimal screen size and bezel width. The control room layout dictates whether you need flat, curved, or modular configurations.
Using manufacturer tools or consulting with specialists can help fine-tune the ideal dimensions.
- Calculating the appropriate size for your video wall depends heavily on the intended viewing distance and the available physical space. For control rooms where operators sit close, a moderate-sized, high-resolution wall is ideal for clear visibility. In contrast, large governmental monitoring centers may require much larger walls that can be seen from afar, where resolution does not play that much of a factor compared to brightness and lifetime.Take into account the pixel pitch — the distance between pixels, which affects image clarity at various distances.
- Also, consider wall height, width, and ceiling constraints to ensure your video wall fits comfortably within the room without overwhelming the space.
Using manufacturer tools or consulting with specialists can help fine-tune the ideal dimensions.
Step 5. Design the Layout
Designing the layout involves planning the arrangement of individual display units to create a cohesive visual experience.
The layout must also factor in content zones — will the wall show one large image or multiple distinct sections with different content? Use design software or vendor-provided calculators to visualize and optimize your video wall layout, ensuring that every pixel contributes to the overall user experience.
- For LCD video walls, consider the bezel width between screens, as thick bezels can interrupt the image continuity.
- For LED video walls, bezel size is non-existent, but you should calculate pixel density and screen resolution to maintain image quality. It is recommended to stick to standard resolutions of the resulting video wall to avoid image distortions due to stretching/scaling.
The layout must also factor in content zones — will the wall show one large image or multiple distinct sections with different content? Use design software or vendor-provided calculators to visualize and optimize your video wall layout, ensuring that every pixel contributes to the overall user experience.
Step 6. Select the Right Hardware
Choosing optimal video wall hardware requires matching technical specifications to your operational needs.
Partnering with an experienced integrator can help navigate tradeoffs between upfront costs, lifecycle expenses, and technical requirements.
- For processing power, consider controller capabilities – mission-critical operations demand dedicated AV controllers with hot-swappable redundancy, whereas software-based solutions may suffice for basic content display.
- Pay attention to input/output flexibility: ensure compatibility with your existing signal sources (SDI, HDMI, IP streams) and future expansion needs.
- Mounting systems should accommodate both current layouts and potential reconfigurations, with proper ventilation for thermal management. For 24/7 environments, prioritize commercial-grade components rated for continuous operation.
- Always verify pixel density against viewing distances – i.e. a 1.2mm pixel pitch LED wall won’t suit a 3-meter viewing range.
- Align with IT infrastructure capabilities, including network bandwidth for AV-over-IP deployments and compatibility with existing control systems.
Partnering with an experienced integrator can help navigate tradeoffs between upfront costs, lifecycle expenses, and technical requirements.
Step 7. Choose the Video Wall Software
Your video wall will perform in exactly the way the software running it. It plays a critical role in managing how content is displayed, how screens are arranged, and how the system performs overall. Without capable software, even the most advanced hardware can’t reach its full potential. Even the greatest video wall without proper content management software will be just a big lighting decoration.
A strong video wall content management platform is essential because it transforms a collection of screens into a unified, manageable system. It allows users to control content placement, customize layouts, interact with it, and get what it is made for.
Best video wall management software provides an intuitive interface tailored to the user role. Video Wall operators or supervisors can monitor video wall content in real time, publish layouts or individual sources, interact with them or switch on the fly - all tasks in one versatile browser-based tool. One-time users for video walls will prefer a convenient touch interface with predefined layout buttons, provided by tablet device on table or wall mounted plate, for simple and fast content requests. A manager who is speaking to a team using video wall as a presentation screen, will value slide switcher app in his smartphone as a part of total package, synchronized with other interfaces and repositories with pre-set layouts and presentations.
Polywall Video Wall Management Software – Your Choice for Control Room Environment
Designed specifically for control room environments, Polywall is one of the most advanced video wall management software. With a set of intuitive operator and user interfaces, versatile content generation and capturing options, Polywall simplifies complex workflows and supports mission-critical decision-making. Its reliability and ease of use reduce downtime and training costs.
Book a free consultation today and test it with a 30-day trial license free of charge. Experience firsthand how Polywall can revolutionize your video wall setup.
A strong video wall content management platform is essential because it transforms a collection of screens into a unified, manageable system. It allows users to control content placement, customize layouts, interact with it, and get what it is made for.
Best video wall management software provides an intuitive interface tailored to the user role. Video Wall operators or supervisors can monitor video wall content in real time, publish layouts or individual sources, interact with them or switch on the fly - all tasks in one versatile browser-based tool. One-time users for video walls will prefer a convenient touch interface with predefined layout buttons, provided by tablet device on table or wall mounted plate, for simple and fast content requests. A manager who is speaking to a team using video wall as a presentation screen, will value slide switcher app in his smartphone as a part of total package, synchronized with other interfaces and repositories with pre-set layouts and presentations.
Polywall Video Wall Management Software – Your Choice for Control Room Environment
Designed specifically for control room environments, Polywall is one of the most advanced video wall management software. With a set of intuitive operator and user interfaces, versatile content generation and capturing options, Polywall simplifies complex workflows and supports mission-critical decision-making. Its reliability and ease of use reduce downtime and training costs.
Book a free consultation today and test it with a 30-day trial license free of charge. Experience firsthand how Polywall can revolutionize your video wall setup.
“
Your video wall is only as powerful as the software running it.
Step 8. Connect the Displays
Connecting the displays involves linking each screen to a central control system that manages synchronization and content distribution.
Proper cabling, power management, and network connectivity are vital to avoid signal loss or latency. Ensure all connections are secure and clearly labeled for easier maintenance and troubleshooting later.
- For LCD video walls usually HDMI or DisplayPort cables are common for transmitting video signals. Sometimes directly from content management systems, sometimes routed through hardware video processors or controllers to manage the overall display.
- LED video walls typically use specialized LED controllers or “LED boxes” that handle pixel mapping and signal distribution across individual LED modules via standard Cat6 cables.
Proper cabling, power management, and network connectivity are vital to avoid signal loss or latency. Ensure all connections are secure and clearly labeled for easier maintenance and troubleshooting later.
Step 9. Calibrate Displays
Before launching, thoroughly test your video wall system to verify that all displays are functioning correctly and synchronized properly.
A comprehensive testing phase ensures your video wall delivers optimal performance and a flawless viewing experience once live.
- Check for any dead pixels, color inconsistencies, or brightness discrepancies between panels/tiles.
- Run different types of content to ensure smooth playback and proper scaling across the wall.
- Test software controls to confirm seamless switching of content sources and real-time adjustments.
- Address any hardware or software glitches promptly to prevent issues during operation.
- Run environment tests to check on the possible firewall restrictions, antivirus settings and other network/security policy peculiarity for this specific premise.
A comprehensive testing phase ensures your video wall delivers optimal performance and a flawless viewing experience once live.
Step 10. Launch and Monitor
Once tested and approved, officially launch your video wall by introducing it to the control room or designated space.
Regular monitoring not only extends the life of your investment but also guarantees that the video wall consistently supports your operational goals with minimal downtime.
- Train and certify operators and staff on how to use the software interface and manage content efficiently.
- Continuous monitoring is crucial to promptly identify and resolve any performance issues, such as display failures or software glitches.
- Set up alerts or diagnostics tools provided by your video wall management software for proactive maintenance.
Regular monitoring not only extends the life of your investment but also guarantees that the video wall consistently supports your operational goals with minimal downtime.
Final Advice: Choose Experienced Partner for Success
Building a control room video wall is a complex undertaking that most teams encounter only occasionally — and one fraught with technical pitfalls, from signal latency to calibration challenges. Without frequent hands-on experience, it’s easy to overlook critical details that impact performance and cost. An even bigger issue can appear if wrong software, which does not match the usage scenario, will be selected to control the video wall content.
To ensure your video wall meets all operational requirements while avoiding expensive missteps, leverage expert guidance. The Polywall team and our certified partners are ready to help you:
Contact us today to transform your control room with confidence.
To ensure your video wall meets all operational requirements while avoiding expensive missteps, leverage expert guidance. The Polywall team and our certified partners are ready to help you:
- Design a tailored solution aligned with your workflows
- Implement with precision to avoid rework
- Optimize for long-term reliability and scalability
Contact us today to transform your control room with confidence.
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