Are you looking to ensure uninterrupted operation of your LED screens? Redundancy backup might just be the solution you need.
In the world of digital displays, redundancy backup is an essential safeguard that ensures your LED screens continue to function even in the face of signal interruptions or hardware failures.
In this article, I’ll guide you through the process of setting up redundancy backup for your LED screens.
Don’t worry!
While configuring redundancy backup might sound technical, you don’t need any specialized technical or engineering knowledge to follow the straightforward steps outlined in this tutorial.
In This Article
What is Redundancy Backup?
Redundancy backup for LED screens is like an insurance policy for your visual displays, ensuring continuous performance even when parts of the system fail. It’s a setup that includes alternative data pathways, allowing your screen to maintain its image delivery without interruption.
Common scenarios where redundancy backup is beneficial include:
- Large-scale advertising billboards
- Concert and event displays
- Public information screens in transportation hubs
- Educational institution presentations
- Conference room LED screens
- Sports on-real time LED screens
- Station train information display screen
- And lots more
Why You Need Redundancy Backup
Redundancy is crucial for maintaining the reliability and continuity of LED displays, especially in high-stakes environments. For example, as shown in the following image. Consider a scenario where an Ethernet cable becomes disconnected or damaged between two receiver cards.
What will happen?
It is easy to understand that the signal will not transmitted to the other receiver card from the broken point as the signal is in chain design. So the result is some LED displays (Where the background is Green in the image) operate work normally and other LED screens (Where the background is Grey in the image) will malfunction and display no image.
To prevent such disruptions, implementing redundancy measures is necessary.
There are primarily four reasons for utilizing rerduncancy in LED screen connection:
- Minimizing Downtime: The primary reason is to avoid screen outages that can negatively impact events, advertising campaigns, or digital signage.
- Preventing Revenue Loss: For commercial and advertising screens, downtime can translate to lost revenue and missed audience engagement.
- Maintaining Brand Reputation: Consistent performance projection is crucial for brands that utilize large displays. Sudden losses of service can harm a brand’s image.
- Ensuring Safety: In areas where information dissemination is critical, such as airports or public transport hubs, maintaining display integrity is essential for safety reasons.
Basic Structure of LED Control Systems
Before diving into specific redundancy configurations, it’s essential to understand the basic structure of LED screen control systems. Typically, the setup follows this sequence:
- Control PC: Where the video content is controlled and processed.
- Video Processor: Distributes the video signal to the sending card.
- Sending Card: Connects to the first receiving card via Ethernet; it forwards data to subsequent receiving cards.
- Receiving Cards: Sequentially connect each LED panel, ensuring each panel displays part of the overall image.
- Ethernet Cables: Act as the primary transmission medium between the various components.
- HDMI/DVI/OP/SDI cable: send video source signal
- USB cable: signal control
In a standard setup, if any cable or device fails, the display will go blank or not function properly.
Setting Up Redundancy Backup
Now that we understand the importance of redundancy, let’s explore how to set it up effectively. We will cover three scenarios: redundancy on a single sending card, cascading sending cards, and non-cascaded sending cards.
To better understand the process, we will demonstrate using Novastar sending cards and the related software NovaLCT.
1. Setting Redundancy on a Single Sending Card
In this setup, redundancy is established within a single sending card unit, which requires multiple ports for backup.
Hardware Setup
- One port on the sending card is used as the main channel.
- An additional port is designated as the backup channel.
- Both ports connect to corresponding Ethernet cables leading to the receiving cards.
Here is a simple connectin structure for your review:
As shown in the figure above, it is easy to understand that we use Output 1 as the main channel and Output 2 as the backup channel.
Software Configuration
After the hardware connection is over, next we will process the software part.
First, launch the NovaLCT software and log in by selecting “Advanced Synchronous System User Login” and then enter the password “admin“.
Once logged in, check the device details by clicking on “Video Details of Device“. This will provide information such as the communication port, device type, number of devices, and serial number (SN). In this example, the device type is MCTRL660 Pro, with a total of 1 device connected.
Next, click the “Screen Configuration” button. A new interface will appear, showing only one communication port; select this port and click “Next”. You will see another screen with three tabs: Sending Card, Receiving Card, and Screen Connection.
In this interface, we do all settings as normal. For detailed configuration steps, please refer to this post: NovaLCT Screen Configuration Guide.
After that, another key step we have to process: we need to set up the redundancy information in the interface of the “Sending Card”.
In the redundancy section, click the “Add” button. A pop-up titled “Redundancy Setting” will appear, prompting you to enter four parameters: Serial Number of the Primary Sending Card, Primary Port Serial Number, Serial Number of the Backup Sending Card, and Backup Port Serial Number.
In this case, it is obvious that both the Serial Number of the Primary Sending Card and the Serial Number of the Backup Sending Card will be set to 1, as we are using only one sending card. The Primary Port Serial Number is 1, and the Backup Port Serial Number is 2 since we use Outport Port 1 as the main channel and Output Port 2 as the backup in the hardware connection.
After entering the correct values, click “Add” to save the redundancy settings. Finally, remember to click “Send” to save the information to the sending card.
To this point, all setting is over,
Test
To validate the setup, disconnect the Ethernet from the primary port and observe if the display remains unaffected. If it does, the redundancy bakup is properly configured.
2. Setting Up Redundancy on Cascaded Sending Cards
When using cascaded sending cards, you will need an additional controller to serve as a backup.
Hardware Setup
Here is a simple connection diagram for your review.
In this example, the first sending card connects to the control PC and serves as the main channel, while the second sending card cascades with the first and functions as the backup channel. Both controllers utilize output 1 to connect to the LED screen. Remember, you can use any other output you prefer; just make sure to adjust the corresponding settings in the software accordingly.
Please note that the two sending cards are cascaded using a USB cable. For more information about cascading, check this post: LED Display Cascade Connection Full Instruction.
Software Configuration
Once the hardware setup is complete, we will proceed with the software configuration.
First when we have login. Click on “View Details of Device” to check the device information. In this instance, we are using two sending card units for cascading, so you’ll see that the Number of Devices is 2.
Next, navigate to the Screen Configuration main interface and then open the “Screen Connection” tab. Here, you’ll see both sending cards listed at the top left of the interface. As shown as following image, it display two Sending Card Number,
It is worth noting that since we are using the first sending card as the main channel, here we only need to configure this sending card, in other words, it is the Number 1 Sending Card. Then follow the same logical steps based on your actual LED screen setup, and also click “Save Hardware” to store the configuration.
After that, go to the “Sending Card” tab to set up the redundancy information. Click the “Add” button in the redundancy section. When the pop-up window appears, enter the same information as above mentioned. In this case, the Serial Number of the Primary sending card is 1, the Serial Number of the backup sending card is 2, and both the primary port and the backup port correspond is 1.
Also don’t forget to send the setting to the hardware. Please note, that if you adjusted the port numbers during the hardware setup, make sure to update them too.
Test
Disconnect the first sending card (main channel) and check if the screen continues to display content normally. If it works, it confirms that the backup is functioning properly; if not, we will need to check the hardware and software settings.
3. Setting Redundancy on Non-Cascaded Sending Cards
Unlike the last case, In this case, both sending cards connect directly to the control PC and they have no direct cable between them, in other words, they have no cascading relation.
Hardware Setup
First, let’s establish the hardware connections. As shown in the above image, this connection still involves two sending cards, but they are not linked by a USB cable. Instead, the control PC connects to each sending card with its own separate cable—one for the first sending card and another for the second.
Software Configuration
After completing the hardware setup, we will proceed with the software configuration for this setup.
Before diving into the settings, click on “View Details of Device” to check the device information. In this example, there are two separate USB communication ports, each connected to one device. This explains the presence of two ports, as the sending cards are independently connected to the control PC.
Next, access the “Screen Configuration” interface where you’ll need to select which communication port to set up first. First, choose the first port to move forward. In the Screen Configuration interface, configure the “Screen Connection” with the same rules. There’s no need to revisit this process in detail, as you should be familiar with it by now.
An important step at this point is to save the “Screen Configuration” settings as a local connection file (*.src) for use with the other sending card. Be sure to save the hardware settings as well.
Next, navigate to the “Sending Card” tab to configure the redundancy settings. Click on “Set as Primary” and then hit “Save”. Now we have done the setting for the first sending card.
After this, close the “Screen Configuration” interface and click the button “Screen Configuration” again. Here we select the second communication port to continue, which means, we will set the second sending card.
For the “Screen Connection” settings on the second sending card, you can click “Load from File” to select the file you just saved. This will automatically load the same settings for the second sending card, saving you the effort of configuring everything manually.
Afterward, save the settings to the hardware again. Finally, go back to the “Sending Card” tab to configure the redundancy settings for the second card. Select “Set as Backup” then click “Send” .
Now, all configurations for this situation are complete.
Test
Once configured, test by disconnecting the primary sending card. The LED display should continue functioning if the backup setup is successful. If not, check the settings including hardware and software.
Suitable Sending Cards for Redundancy Backup
When considering redundancy backup for LED display systems, selecting the appropriate sending card is crucial for ensuring reliable operation. For the Novastar brand, several models are well-suited for redundancy: MSD300, MSD600, MCTRL300, MCTRL600, MCTRL 4K, MCTRL R5, MCTRL 660, MCTRL 660 Pro, MCTRL1600, MCTRL700, VX400, VX600, VX1000, NovaPro UHD Jr, etc.
While this discussion focuses on Novastar controllers, the principles also apply to other brands. For example, Colorlight offers models like S2, S4, S6, S6F, S20, and S20F that can be configured for redundancy. Other manufacturers such as Linsn and Huidu also have suitable options.
To Sum Up
In this post, we discussed what is redundancy backup and the three types of solutions through various configurations like single sending cards, cascaded setups, or non-cascaded systems. With these backup, you can prevent costly downtime and maintain high reliability in various applications.
If you have any further questions or concerns about the advanced redundancy solution, please feel free to contact us. For more LED display tutorials, check here.