LED – Light-emitting diode. For LED display they come in 2 common form factors: DIP and SMD.
SMD – Surface mounted diode. Each SMD contains red, green and blue inside of one encapsulated diode.
DIP – Direct inline package. These are through-hole discrete LEDS. They can be brighter than SMD but have a reduced viewing angle.
Pixel Pitch – The distance from center to center on the LED diode.
Pixel Matrix – The total pixels inside of the sign, for example a 4′ x 8′ 10mm sign would have a pixel matrix of 128×256. The same size sign in 16mm would be 80×160.
LED Module – The building blocks of the LED screen. Common sizes are 12.6″ x 12.6″ and 9.45″ x 9.45″.
Driving IC – The chips on the back (or front) of the LED module.
Control System – The hardware that turns a video signal into a format the driving ICs can understand. Usually involves: Sending Card, Receiving Card, Hub Board.