Colorlight's top-tier receiving card for fine-pitch displays, with HDR10/HLG support, in a DDR2 SO-DIMM format.
Colorlight · top-tier fine-pitch receiving card
Colorlight i9 LED receiving card
The Colorlight i9 is a top-tier receiving card developed specifically for fine-pitch LED displays, with a high load capacity (up to 256×1024 pixels) and support for 32 groups of parallel or 64 groups of serial data. Its small size and DDR2 SO-DIMM interface make it easy to integrate into HUBs and display modules, allowing flexible display design.
Alongside every function of the mainstream receiving cards, the i9 also offers a set of advanced functions required for high-grade displays: 8/10-bit video source input, HDR10 and HLG support, 10-bit full gamma adjustment, high refresh rates of 120/144/240 Hz, and 14-bit per-pixel brightness and colour calibration. The grayscale enhancement (Infi-bit) increases the displayed grayscale depth by up to 64 times.
Its reliability functions include loop redundancy, dual receiving card hot backup and power supply redundancy, as well as monitoring of cabinet temperature, humidity, power supply and smoke (given suitable cabinet design). The i9 is well suited to both rental and fixed-installation fine-pitch LED walls.
Where the Colorlight i9 sits in an LED wall system
It works inside fine-pitch cabinets: Colorlight sender or processor → Cat5e/Cat6 → i9 → HUB → module. Because of the DDR2 SO-DIMM socket format it does not connect with a ribbon cable but plugs into the HUB card — at 67.6×35.5 mm it takes up very little room, and in the tight space behind a cabinet that is the decisive argument. One card is loadable to 256×1024 pixels and accepts 32 groups of parallel or 64 groups of serial data (expandable to 128). It handles 8/10-bit video sources, HDR10 and HLG, at refresh rates of 120/144/240 Hz, which is a basic requirement for a studio wall going in front of a camera. On the software side, LEDVISION and LEDSETTING/iSet, exclusively with the Colorlight protocol.
WHEN IT IS THE RIGHT CHOICE
Fine-pitch, high-prestige indoor LED walls, rental and fixed-installation projects where HDR, a high refresh rate and detailed cabinet monitoring matter.
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
The advanced monitoring functions (temperature, humidity, smoke) are only available with suitably designed cabinet electronics (an M3 module, for instance); the DDR2 SO-DIMM format has to be taken into account when designing the HUB.
The Colorlight i9 in practice
The SO-DIMM format constrains the HUB design: for the i9 the cabinet manufacturer has to supply an i9-compatible HUB card, and it cannot be freely fitted to a HUB75 motherboard — something to settle in advance when expanding or replacing. Nor do the advanced monitoring functions (cabinet temperature, humidity, power supply, smoke detection) come from the card: they only work if the matching sensor electronics are present in the cabinet, so the datasheet's promise has to be checked against the cabinet specification. The 14-bit per-pixel calibration and the Infi-bit grayscale enhancement work from coefficients stored in the card's flash memory: when a card is replaced, that cabinet's calibration is lost, so on a rental wall that gets moved a lot the calibration files have to be archived per project. Mixing the i9 and the 5A series in one wall causes visible differences in tint; it is worth keeping a uniform type per cabinet. Spares at 3–5%, but for a rental fleet more like 5–10%.
Alternatives to the Colorlight i9
If the wall is not fine-pitch and does not go in front of a camera, the 5A-75B or the 5A-75E solves the same job for a fraction of the price — HDR and 14-bit calibration are superfluous there. In other ecosystems the NovaStar A8s Pro and A10s Pro are the comparable competitors, and the CA50E in a COEX system. If the project is rental work in international event production, where processor-side calibration is the standard, a Brompton Tessera or Megapixel HELIOS environment may be justified. The deciding factors: whether a camera will face the wall, how high the pixel density is, and whether there is an i9-compatible HUB in the cabinet.
Colorlight i9 manual and datasheet
The documents live on the manufacturer's own site and open in a new window — so you always get the latest version. We do not copy or translate their contents.
Related receiving cards
LED receiving card — but what does it go into?
On its own the Colorlight i9 is a component. With us it works inside these displays — design, manufacturing and installation included.
