NovaStar's entry-to-mid-range compact receiving card for indoor and outdoor LED walls, with solid calibration functions.
NovaStar · general-purpose compact receiving card
NovaStar A5s Plus LED receiving card
The A5s Plus is a general-purpose compact NovaStar receiving card which, with a PWM driver IC, handles resolutions up to 512×384 pixels on a single card with an 8-bit video source, and up to 256×384 pixels with a 10/12-bit source, at 60 Hz. With a common driver IC these figures fall to 384×384 and 192×384 pixels respectively.
It supports NovaStar's Color Management function (Rec.709/DCI-P3/Rec.2020 and custom colour spaces), 18bit+ grayscale enhancement, per-pixel brightness and colour calibration, and mobile phone seam correction (with a TU-series device). The high-density connectors make it dust and vibration resistant, and it accepts 32 groups of parallel or 64 groups of serial RGB data (expandable to 128 groups).
Where the A5s Plus sits in an LED wall system
It sits at the end of the signal path, inside the cabinet: sending card (MCTRL300, VX400/VX600 or a Taurus box) → Cat5e/Cat6 → A5s Plus → HUB card → HUB75 ribbon cable → module. Roughly 650,000 pixels fit on one gigabit Ethernet port at 60 Hz with an 8-bit source, so 3–4 such cards can be daisy-chained on that port, with up to about 100 metres of copper cabling. On the data side it outputs 32 groups of parallel or 64 groups of serial RGB data (expandable to 128): the parallel arrangement belongs to conventional HUB75 modules, the serial one to higher pixel density panels with their own drivers. It measures 70×45 mm and has a high-density connector, so a HUB card is always needed between it and the module's HUB75. It works exclusively with NovaStar senders and the NovaLCT software.
WHEN IT IS THE RIGHT CHOICE
Small to medium-sized, price-sensitive indoor/outdoor LED walls that need the NovaStar software ecosystem (NovaLCT) but not the capacity of the top-tier A8s/A10s Pro.
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
The resolution that can actually be loaded depends heavily on the driver IC type (PWM vs. common) and on the bit depth – this has to be checked together with the module datasheet.
The A5s Plus in practice
The card gets its address from software rather than from a switch: the cabinet map — which port sees which card and in what order — has to be drawn on the NovaLCT `Screen Configuration` → `Screen Connection` tab. The scan mode and the HUB arrangement can be entered with the `Smart Settings` wizard, or — faster and safer — by loading the .rcfgx configuration file supplied by the cabinet manufacturer. The most expensive beginner's mistake is that the setting only goes into memory: if `Save Configuration Files to Hardware` (burning) is skipped, the whole wall has to be reconfigured after the first power cut. With cards of mixed versions — where a wall contains cards of differing firmware or type — the cabinets differ in tint and grayscale rendering, so the firmware has to be brought into line. The calibration coefficients and the configuration live on the card itself: if one has to be replaced, the cabinet's calibration is lost too, unless there is a backup of it (a NovaCLB file) or it is stored in the module's own flash memory.
Alternatives to the A5s Plus
If HDR, hot backup redundancy and the finest grayscale handling are required, the A8s is the next step up in the same 70×45 mm format — which makes the physical swap simple. For a larger cabinet, the A8s Pro (512×512 px) or the A10s Pro. Downwards, on a high-volume outdoor advertising wall, the DH7512-S is cheaper, and its 12 built-in HUB75E ports mean no separate HUB card is needed. In other ecosystems the Colorlight 5A-75B and the Linsn RV908M32 are its counterparts — but switching also affects the sending card and the software, because the protocols are not compatible. The deciding factors: cabinet size, picture quality expectations, and which manufacturer's software the installer knows.
A5s Plus 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.
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LED receiving card — but what does it go into?
On its own the NovaStar A5s Plus is a component. With us it works inside these displays — design, manufacturing and installation included.
