How Much Should A Screen Install Cost?

Some projects are purely dictated by budget and that’s OK. Getting what you need for as little as possible is the ultimate goal of every business. Trouble is, especially in the technology space, two common phrases hit home really hard.

“You get what you pay for”.

“Buy cheap, buy twice”.

But what are you paying for? And what is ‘too cheap’?

Considerations for a boardroom screen install

One screen, 4 screens, 159 screens. It doesn’t matter how many screens are being installed, they all have the same requirements to be considered before understanding a price. Not considering them properly means headaches down the line and is also the primary reason for one of the more interesting installs we have previously seen. But more on that later…

What is the wall made of?

Screens can be heavy and can pull a wall to pieces of not installed on the correct surface. In an ideal situation, a stud wall would be lined with 18mm plywood inside to gain a strong fixing, or the bracket can be installed directly to a solid wall.

Often walls are double skin plasterboard which is fine for a number of screen types, providing you use the correct fixings. We trust fixings that open up behind the plasterboard such as cavity anchors. Either way, the substrate needs to be considered and dictates a number of the following factors.

What is the screen being used for?

If it’s just receiving a signal via a HDMI for instance, you can get the screen nice and close to the wall. The closer the screen is to the wall, the less pressure is exerted on the wall and the fixings. If you need to install a PC or AV equipment behind the wall, consider getting a larger bracket that doesn’t require putting lots of spacers behind the screen.

Do you need to service equipment behind the screen?

It may be that all of the equipment is installed behind the screen. It is cheaper in the long run to fit an articulated or push-to-service bracket which allows you to send a single engineer to service the equipment. One man can pull the screen out of the way, fix that problematic cable and get on with life.

What is the access like?

We have heard many stories of people buying large format displays, maybe 86”-110” just because it suits the room. However, the only access may be a single flight of stairs. Depending on the size of screen and where it is being installed, you might find that 4 or even 6 people are needed simply to get the screen from the reception to your meeting room upstairs.

Buy Cheap, Buy Twice

All of the above factors can help dictate the type of equipment you then need to install the screen. Fixings are generally fairly cheap. Depending on what substrate you are fixing to, it can be around £5-20 for a set of hollow wall anchors, rawl plugs, extra long bolts and washers. This may simply be bundled into your installation price for ease.

If you need a close fit mount, consider the Peerless SF640P or a similar to suit your screen type. These brackets provide a small amount of adjustment with simple bolts, meaning that even if your wall bracket isn’t perfectly level, you can get it level by winding bolts up or down. The cheap models found on Amazon tend to be made of very thin metal and provide no opportunity to align the screen properly, making the install take longer and provide unsatisfactory results. Don’t just buy on screen size as well. Making sure they match your screens VESA and weight is far more important than ‘it is a 75” screen’. Expect to pay around £65 for a suitable bracket.

If you’ve got kit to fit behind, consider moving up to the Chief LSM1U. These provide a huge amount of adjustment and provide a far greater depth behind the screen. It means you don’t need to spend time finding longer bolts and spacers just to fit your screen onto a wobbly wall bracket. Having a solid mount provides greater certainty and longevity of your installations. Expect to pay around £200 for a professional greater depth screen bracket.

If you are building a video wall, or need to provide servicing capabilities to screens, then consider a push-to-service type of bracket. These typically require an engineer to push the screen for it to ‘pop away’ from the wall. These provide a greater amount of space to fix equipment but can be pushed back to provide a nice, clean look. When building a video wall, having infinite amount of adjustment is crucial in getting the final look right so purchasing the right bracket will make the world of difference. Both Chief and Peerless provide these types of mounts and typically cost around £300-£500.

OK, but what about the cost of the engineer?

That depends.

If you need to carry 100kg screen up 4 flights of stairs, you will need vastly more people to lift that screen than installing a 43″ on the ground floor. Typically you will pay anywhere between £100-£1000 depending on what and where the screen needs to go.

Can anybody install a screen into a boardroom?

Yes. It isn’t difficult with a little forethought. As promised earlier, a brief story about not thinking.

We were asked to install a video wall into a service centre. Another company had already installed 15 other single displays around the centre on cheap mounts. When we set our laser level up, we noticed that EVERY single screen was installed to a different height (and different angle…). Not only that, but every screen needed to be taken down and packed out with spacers because the installers had neglected to fit the power cables because they didn’t fit behind the tiny bracket. This meant spending more time and money that the customer had already spent in getting the screens fitted in the first place.

Don’t just dive into putting a screen on the wall, give it a little bit of thought.