Dynamo LED Displays built a custom curved LED arch at 2mm pixel pitch for the Etisalat directors’ box at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. The arch measures 8 m by 1.92 m in total, frames the entrance to the suite, and shows live match feeds alongside content made for the club’s guests.
Updated October 2026. Case study first published October 2022.
Project facts
| Client | Etisalat, now trading as e&, in its directors’ box at Manchester City |
| Venue | Etihad Stadium, east Manchester, home of Manchester City Football Club |
| Display | Custom curved LED arch, 8 m × 1.92 m in total, 2mm pixel pitch |
| Resolution | 4,000 × 960 pixels across the arch, as published with the project |
| Content | Live feeds from the match plus content created for visitors to the directors’ box |
| Scope | Design, build and installation by Dynamo LED Displays |
The brief: an arch, not another rectangle
A directors’ box is a small room with a lot of eyes in it. The club and its sponsor wanted the LED to be part of the architecture rather than a television bolted to a wall, so the brief was a single shaped piece that frames the way into the suite and carries the match while play is on. Dynamo designs shaped screens like this through its custom LED displays service: the shape comes first and the LED is built to fit it.
What Dynamo installed
A curved 2mm LED arch 8 m long
The arch runs 8 m end to end and stands 1.92 m tall at its sides, with a continuous curve across the top. Dynamo used 2mm pixel pitch LED so the image holds up at the one-to-two-metre viewing distance of a hospitality suite, where guests stand next to the screen rather than across a concourse from it. The published pixel count for the whole arch is 4,000 × 960.
Live match feeds and content for the suite
The arch takes a live feed of the match and shows it across the shape, and between those moments it plays content produced for the people in the room: sponsor messages, club branding and welcome graphics. Because the screen is one continuous LED surface, a single piece of video can wrap round the curve without a join.
Part of a stadium full of LED
Manchester City’s ground has had LED added throughout since the club’s 2008 change of ownership, from concourse screens to pitch-side boards. The directors’ box arch is a different kind of job: a small, shaped, fine-pitch piece built around people rather than a big-format screen built around sightlines. It is one of the projects behind our LED display company Manchester page.
Current Dynamo options for a curved or shaped LED display
A curved arch today would be built with flexible LED modules on a frame made to the drawing, so the face is one continuous curve rather than a set of flat steps. Flat runs either side can use rigid fine-pitch modules. The figures below are from Dynamo’s product specifications; prices depend on the shape, so we quote each piece from a drawing.
| Format | Pixel pitch | Module | Suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFX flexible modules | 1.86mm | 320 × 160 mm flexible module | Tight-radius arches, drums, columns and soffits |
| DIT Pro P1.9 | 1.95mm | 250 × 250 mm, 128 × 128 px | Flat fine-pitch walls beside a shaped piece |
| DX Series | 2.5mm to 3.9mm | 250 × 250 mm | Larger flat walls and right-angle corners |
Our flexible LED screens guide explains how curved builds are specified, the DX Series page covers the rigid cabinet sizes, and stadium LED screens and displays sets out pitch and brightness by position around a ground.
Related Dynamo custom and stadium LED projects
- Arsenal FC’s Armoury store at the Emirates Stadium: window screens, fine-pitch walls and a custom LED ticker
- Four-sided LED cube for a charity gala hosted by Lewis Hamilton
- Custom LED snowflake for VMLY&R’s reception
- Ten custom LED triangles for Warner Music Group offices
- 13 m four-sided LED tower at Muscat Grand Mall
- Dubai Airport Terminal 3 arrivals LED
LED arch displays: frequently asked questions
What is an LED arch display?
An LED arch display is a direct-view LED screen built as a curved or arched shape rather than a flat rectangle, so it can frame a doorway, a bar or a stage. Dynamo builds arches from fine-pitch LED modules on a frame cut to the client’s radius. The Etihad Stadium arch is 8 m by 1.92 m at 2mm pitch and plays live and pre-made content.
How is a curved LED arch built?
The curve is set by the frame. Dynamo makes the carcass to the drawing, fixes the LED modules to its face and runs power and data inside the structure so nothing shows at the edges. Tight radii use flexible LED modules; gentler curves can use rigid cabinets. The LED processor maps the content so an image wraps cleanly round the bend.
What pixel pitch does a hospitality-suite LED arch need?
Guests in a directors’ box stand within one or two metres of the screen, so the pitch needs to be fine enough that the pixels disappear at that distance. The Etihad arch uses 2mm. Today Dynamo would offer 1.86mm flexible modules for the curved sections and 1.95mm rigid modules for flat runs, with brightness set for an indoor room rather than a pitch-side position.
Can an LED arch show live match feeds?
Yes. The arch is driven by an LED processor that accepts a live video input in the same way as a flat screen. At the Etihad the arch shows live feeds from the match as well as content created for visitors to the directors’ box. Any feed the venue already distributes to its screens can be mapped onto the shape, with the picture scaled to the arch rather than letterboxed.
Where else is shaped LED used?
Shaped LED suits any space where a rectangle would look like an afterthought: stadium hospitality, hotel lobbies, retail atriums, exhibition stands and broadcast studios. Dynamo has built a four-sided LED cube for a charity gala, a custom LED snowflake for an agency reception, LED triangles for a record label’s offices and a 13 m LED tower in a shopping mall atrium.
Get a quote for a custom LED arch
Send us a sketch or a photo of the space, the rough dimensions and how close people will stand to it, and we will come back with a pitch, a build method and a written quote. Get a quote or call 020 3489 9878.
