LED displays in the Kathmandu Valley: what’s different here

Why do viewing distances in the Valley push towards finer pitch?

Most Valley screens are seen from closer than their owners expect, so they often need a finer pixel pitch than a similar-sized screen elsewhere in Nepal. Streets in the old cores of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur are narrow, buildings sit close together and pedestrians pass within a few metres of a shopfront or a ward notice board.

The working rule is that pixel pitch in millimetres roughly equals the closest comfortable viewing distance in metres. On a wide ring-road junction a P8 or P10 screen reads cleanly from across the carriageway; on a lane where the nearest viewer is four metres away, P4 or finer is the sensible starting point. The outdoor board we installed for Tokha Municipality Ward No. 5 is P6 — a pitch that suits a public notice board read from nearby rather than a billboard read from across a highway.

Getting this wrong in either direction is costly. Too coarse and the image looks like a grid of dots to the people actually walking past; too fine and you pay steeply for detail nobody stands close enough to see.

How do dust and monsoon affect a Kathmandu screen?

Valley outdoor screens must survive two opposite seasons: months of fine dust followed by months of driving rain, and both attack the same weak points. Dust from roads and construction settles into vents and on module faces, and the monsoon then drives water at the same gaps.

This is why we specify IP65 sealing on the front and the rear of every outdoor cabinet. A front-only rating may pass a showroom test but leaves the back of the screen — where the power supplies and receiving cards live — exposed to wind-driven rain and humid air. Front-and-rear sealing, plus a structure that sheds water rather than channelling it into the cabinet joints, is what keeps a Valley screen running past its second monsoon.

Dust also changes the maintenance plan. A screen on a busy road in Kathmandu needs its faces and ventilation paths cleaned more often than one in a quieter suburb, and a service contract should say how often that happens.

What does power in the Valley mean for an LED display?

Power in the Valley is far more reliable than it once was, but voltage swings, brief cuts and surges are still common enough that every screen should be protected. LED power supplies tolerate a range of input voltages, yet repeated spikes and brownouts shorten their life and can damage receiving cards.

The practical answer is a stabiliser or online UPS sized to the screen’s real draw, a properly earthed supply and surge protection on the incoming line. For a screen that must stay on through short cuts — a ward notice board, a bank lobby, a control room — a UPS that can bridge to a generator is worth planning from the start rather than retrofitting.

Brightness scheduling helps here too. An outdoor screen dimmed automatically after dark draws much less power through the evening hours, which eases the load on the circuit and the backup system.

Do earthquakes change how a screen is mounted?

Yes — in the Valley the structure behind the screen should be designed for seismic movement as well as for weight and wind. A wall-mounted or roof-mounted screen is a heavy, rigid mass fixed high on a building, and during shaking its fixings carry loads well beyond its static weight.

In practice that means anchoring into structural members rather than infill brick, using bracing that keeps the frame from racking, and checking that the building element itself can carry the load. On older buildings in the heritage cores, the honest answer is sometimes that the wall cannot take a screen and a freestanding frame is the safer choice.

We assess this during the free site survey, before any specification is fixed, because the structure decides both what is safe and a large part of what the project costs.

Are there approval or heritage considerations in the Valley?

Outdoor screens in the Valley usually involve the municipality or ward office, and sites in or near heritage zones may face additional scrutiny. Requirements vary between Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and the surrounding municipalities, and they change over time, so check with the relevant municipality and ward office before committing to a site.

Heritage areas deserve particular care. A bright screen beside a temple square or a traditional Newari façade can be inappropriate even where it is technically allowed, and brightness, size and operating hours may matter as much as the permission itself. Indoor screens, screens behind shop glass and screens inside courtyards often avoid these questions entirely.

The old cores are still active markets for well-placed screens: our installations include a BNX 2.5 screen at Gwakhancha Restro & Bar in Taumadhi, Bhaktapur. The lesson for heritage settings is to size and place the screen for the venue and its guests, not to dominate the square.

What kinds of screens are most common across the Valley?

The Valley has the widest range of LED applications in Nepal, from fine-pitch boardroom walls to large building-mounted billboards. Corporate offices, banks, hotels and colleges account for most indoor work; roadside and building-wrap DOOH, ward information boards and restaurant screens account for most outdoor work.

That range shows in our own installations: Nepal’s first COB LED control room, a P1.5 wall in a Kathmandu corporate office; the P5 outdoor screen at the National Soil Science Research Centre in Lalitpur; a curved P2.5 hotel lobby wall in Thamel; and building-mounted outdoor billboards in Naxal and elsewhere in Kathmandu.

Because our team, stock and spares are based in Kathmandu, Valley projects also have the shortest response times for service — a failed module is usually a same-week visit rather than a planned trip.

Common questions

Where to go next