The Technology Behind DreamWall’s CooLED Video Wall Displays

by Stan Clark - Inside Sales & Technology Manager

MicroLED video wall displays are high-tech, direct view video displays capable of incredible size and performance. As with many technology-driven products the design and manufacturing of video walls requires engineering trade-offs to optimize the relationships between product performance, energy efficiency, price, and value.

In the world of MicroLED video walls, how these trade-offs affect performance and energy efficiency are at least partially explained numerically in the numbers attached to brightness, refresh rate, and scan rate. For the most part, our competitors seem to believe that good image quality is best achieved by brute force rather than creative engineering. This leads to video walls that use an excessive amount of energy, producing a significant problem with heat output, thereby ignoring the importance of efficiency and value.

The CooLED Technology Difference

At DreamWall we believe that a great picture and energy efficiency are not mutually exclusive. This is the basis behind our CooLED video wall display technology.

Our innovative engineering combines intelligent component selection with advanced circuit design to deliver superior visual performance while consuming less energy and generating less heat.

The result is a more efficient, reliable video wall that reduces operating costs, minimizes cooling requirements, and delivers lasting value. The scan mode and refresh rate specifications of the CooLED video wall tell the story.

CooLED Display Refresh Rate

Display refresh rate refers to how many times per second the entire LED display “refreshes”, and is expressed in Hertz (cycles per second). A refresh rate of 3840Hz is common in the industry; it means the display refreshes 3840 times every second!

The 7680Hz display refresh rate employed in our Elite series products is far less common.

Explaining Scan Mode

The scan mode refers to how many horizontal lines of discrete pixels are turned on every cycle of the refresh rate - in effect, how many pixels are actually lit every refresh cycle.

A scan mode of 1/60 combined with a refresh rate of 3840Hz means that every 3840th of a second only one horizontal line of pixels out of every sixty is active – and the other 59 are black!

In a native 4K display, there are 2,160 total horizontal lines, meaning that every refresh cycle only 2160/60 = 36 horizontal lines are lit. Then the following refresh cycle a different set of 36 lines is lit up, the following refresh cycle another 36, et cetera.

If all the pixels were lit up every refresh cycle it would blow every circuit breaker in the house trying to keep up with the energy demand! This all happens so fast that it’s impossible to see it with the naked eye.

Engineering Better Picture Quality Through Advanced Scan Modes

DreamWall CooLED technology allows the Classic series LED video walls with a 1/60 scan mode and 3840Hz refresh rate to have very high performance and extremely low heat output.

That can mean they are also occasionally susceptible to unwanted picture artifacts, depending on the type of program material being shown and viewer sensitivity. In order to greatly reduce or entirely eliminate this form of distortion, it is necessary to make adjustments in the scan mode and refresh rate.

These are not just software or firmware adjustments. Significant upgrades are required in the design and parts selection of the printed circuit boards and data receiving devices in each individual cabinet, and the circuit boards on the back of the LED modules themselves in order to reliably achieve the desired scan modes and refresh rates.

When our engineers design step-up products for higher performance and fewer distortions of any kind, it is necessary to utilize consecutively lower scan modes - 1/54 in Classic Plus and Elite Silver, 1/45 in Elite Gold, and 1/36 in Elite Platinum - as we step up in performance in these product lines

This means that they display will light up more and more lines of pixels each refresh cycle as we step up the line from Elite Silver to Elite Gold and to Elite Platinum, with the benefit of improvements in brightness and contrast. However, these progressive changes in scan mode require the wall to use a little more energy and put off a little more heat with every step up.

Elite LED Video Wall Performance Without the Energy Penalty

This is where DreamWall CooLED technology differentiates from others in the market. These scan mode changes combined with our CooLED technology and an increase of the refresh rate to 7680Hz, allow our Elite Gold series video walls to have the same performance and immunity to distortions that competitive products must rely on wholesale drops in scan mode to the middle 20’s (1/25-27 or so) to match.

This results in DreamWall Elite Gold video walls matching the performance of high-end competitive products, while using significantly less energy, typically only one 20-amp circuit is required for the most common sizes. This results in much less heat output, and dramatically lower operating cost.

Then, the Elite Platinum series video walls with extremely tight 0.7 pixel pitch and scan mode of 1/36 take performance to an even higher level. They put off a bit more heat than the Elite Gold, but still far less than our competitors. This innovative product won a Best of Show award at the recent CEDIA Expo 2026 in Denver, CO.

Choosing the right video wall technology requires a clear understanding of performance, energy efficiency, and long-term value. We recognize the importance of that decision and appreciate the commitment our dealers, distributors, and customers make to understanding the technical advantages of DreamWall CooLED technology and choosing products they can confidently stand behind.