Aurora Owl / Blog / Video walls and synced screens
Video walls and synced screens: how several screens play as one
Several screens play as one when each screen has its own player and one player leads: it tells the others where playback is and when it started, and they keep time against a shared clock. That's how BrightSign, a maker of signage players, describes synchronised playback.
Below: how the sync works, what keeps it steady, the two habits that break it, and what's changing in India, where LED walls are taking over.
How do several screens stay in step?
BrightSign's documentation sets it out plainly. Each screen gets its own player. One player is the leader and the rest are followers.
The leader sends three things over the network: the group's name, its current playback state, and when that state began. Each follower plays its content from files stored on its own player and uses those three things to show the right content at the right moment.
The timing comes from a shared clock. BrightSign uses PTP, the Precision Time Protocol, a standard way for devices on a network to agree on the time, and all players in one group must sit in the same PTP domain.
BrightSign names a wired Ethernet network as the default and most accurate setup. For a wall, that means a network cable to every player.
What happens when one screen restarts?
Because the leader keeps sending the current state and when it began, a follower that powers down and back up can work out where playback has got to and rejoin at the right point, according to BrightSign.
What breaks the sync?
BrightSign's guidance flags two things.
- Seeking and pausing. Jumping to a point in a video, or pausing it, upsets the timing, so BrightSign advises against both in synced playback.
- Loops. A video made to loop with no gap or jump stays in sync. For anything else, the leader has to send a fresh sync each time the content reaches its end.
Our view, from those two rules: plan synced content as one continuous piece that plays start to finish and repeats, and leave the pause button alone.
Why is India moving to LED walls?
A wall can be built from separate LCD screens with thin borders between them, or from LED panels that join into one surface. invidis, a trade publication that covers the signage industry, reported in September 2025 on a panel at InfoComm India 2025 in Mumbai with the main finding: "India is emerging as a post-LCD, LED-first market."
The panel pointed to high import duties pushing local assembly, Indian buyers preferring screens built to custom shapes and sizes, and financing to soften LED's higher upfront cost next to LCD. It also said all-in-one LED displays, sold as a single finished unit, are still rare in India.
Our reading for an owner in India: an LED wall made to fit your space is a normal thing to ask for. Get quotes for that alongside a grid of LCD screens.
How big should the wall be?
The same rule applies as for one screen. AVIXA, the audiovisual industry association, sizes a display's picture from the distance of the farthest viewer and from what they need to do, which DISCAS splits into basic and analytical decisions. Its DISCAS standard and calculators set this out.
Our post on choosing a TV or a commercial display covers sizing, brightness and contrast in more detail.
Where do you start?
If the wall uses one player per screen, ask how the players share a clock and whether every player gets a wired network connection.
For a single screen or a few screens that don't need to play as one, our guide to the five ways to run a business screen is the better starting point. And if you'd like the content for your screens designed and kept current, that's our digital signage service.