The setup
Imagine a corporate-lobby LED wall — 50 m² (about 540 sq ft), fine-pitch (2.6 mm), 1 500 nit, indoor fixed install, running 12 hours a day, 365 days a year for 5 years.
Capex is the easy number to find. We're going to walk through the rest of it, in 2026 dollars, with the assumptions written down so you can run the same model on your own wall.
Capex (year 0)
- Panels: 50 m² × $4 800/m² (fine-pitch indoor) = $240 000
- Processor + control: $28 000
- Mounting + cabling: $22 000
- Commissioning + calibration: $14 000
- Initial spares (5%): $12 000
- Year 0 total: ~$316 000
Opex — power
Average power draw of fine-pitch indoor: ~250 W/m² (varies with content brightness). At 50 m², 12 hr/day, 365 days, $0.12/kWh:
50 × 250 W × 12 hr × 365 d × $0.12/kWh / 1000 = ~$5 480/year
5-year power: ~$27 400
Opex — cooling (often missed)
LEDs convert ~30% of input power to light; the rest is heat. A 12.5 kW LED wall produces ~9 kW of heat, which your HVAC has to remove. In a Houston building running A/C 9 months a year:
5-year incremental HVAC: ~$15 000
Opex — calibration
Pisces panels self-calibrate every 168 hours, no on-site visit needed. For other vendors, plan on a paid annual recalibration ($3–8k for a 50 m² wall). Even with auto-cal, an annual sanity-check by a certified tech is wise:
5-year calibration (Pisces auto-cal + annual sanity check): ~$10 000
Opex — RMA / spares
Even fine-pitch, well-engineered panels see ~0.5–1% cabinet replacement per year over a 5-year life. For a 50 m² wall (~80 cabinets), that's 1–4 cabinet replacements over the life:
5-year RMA (under warranty if you're with a real vendor): ~$0–4 000
Opex — content + content management
Easy to forget, frequently the biggest line if you don't plan for it. Whoever runs the wall day-to-day needs:
- Content (motion design, brand updates) — varies wildly
- CMS / playback software — $1–5k/year for any modern enterprise tool
Total 5-year cost — assembled
- Capex (year 0): $316 000
- Power: $27 400
- Cooling: $15 000
- Calibration: $10 000
- RMA / spares: $2 000 (mid-estimate)
- CMS license: $15 000
- 5-year total: ~$385 000
Capex was 82% of the total — but the remaining 18% is real money, and it's the part that surprises facilities teams the most.
Ways to bring the number down
- Run the wall 8 hours a day instead of 12 — saves ~$10k over 5 years.
- Pick a panel family with auto-cal — saves $20–40k over 5 years.
- Get warranty in writing for 5 years (we offer this standard) — caps RMA risk.
- Buy 7% spares up front, not 5% — eliminates panic-shipping in year 4.
If you want a model for your wall
Email [email protected] with your wall size, hours of operation, and venue. We'll send back a TCO spreadsheet you can edit yourself — no email gate.