Plan a portrait building directory by total wall projection: bracket standoff plus cabinet depth. Set 25 mm as the flush-look target, recess a commercial panel into the stud wall when the sum goes over, size the capitals at 20 ft of viewing distance per inch, and buy only after the exact signage player proves it switches that panel fully off over CEC.
A building directory that has to sit like a framed picture changes the buying question. The panel size matters less than two numbers. First, how far the screen stands off the wall once it is mounted. Second, whether your signage player can switch it fully off at the scheduled hour. Work the first as one sum, bracket standoff plus cabinet depth, and hold it under 25 mm if the flush look is the point. At 40 to 50 inches that sum lands near 70 mm on any surface bracket, so the recess becomes the honest route. The second settles on the bench: some consumer sets answer the off command by lighting an art screen instead of going dark. This page gives the depth arithmetic, the sizing math for a portrait directory, and the quote list that keeps both decisions honest.
How flat can a 40 to 50 inch portrait display sit against the wall?
Work to one number, total projection: the bracket standoff plus the cabinet's depth behind the screen face. Set the target at 25 mm for the flush picture-frame look. No 40 to 50 inch cabinet reaches it on a surface bracket.
Total projection runs from the finished wall face to the front of the bezel, so it is the only depth that matters on a finished wall. The 25 mm target is a planning figure. It marks the band where a wall screen reads as a framed picture instead of a screen on a bracket.
A cabinet at this diagonal cannot reach the target in the open. Bodies measure roughly 45 to 70 mm front to back, because the LCD panel, the backlight and the main board stack to that floor. The bracket adds its own standoff behind them. Surface mounting therefore lands at 50 mm and up before the first cable is bent. That leaves two builds: accept the projection where nobody judges it, or cut the wall and recess the cabinet so the screen face finishes at the wall plane.
What adds the depth behind the screen?
Three layers stack up: the bracket's standoff off the wall, the spacers or molded bosses that set the VESA screw gap, and the cabinet body. A low-profile plate adds about 12 mm and the cabinet adds the tens behind it.
Measure the layers separately, then add them. The slimmest wall plates sit close to the wall: the fixed steel plate in our accessories range, cut for VESA 75 and 100 patterns, stands about 12 mm off the wall. It is listed for 14 to 24 inch displays and up to 30 lb, so at 43 inches it gives you the benchmark number a minimal plate reaches. The part you actually buy is a plate rated for your panel's weight and size.
Behind the panel, the VESA mounting standard sets the screw rules: the four screws engage about 10 mm, and a display's holes may stop as shallow as 12 mm. Each spacer needs a screw sized to its own length plus about 10 mm of engagement, never a bolt that can run past that and bottom out inside the panel. The cabinet is the layer you cannot buy down, and the quote states it as depth front to back.
Should the base screen be an art TV or a commercial display?
Base it on a commercial display for a scheduled directory. An art-mode consumer TV answers the player's off command by switching to its art screen and staying lit. A commercial panel built for player control cuts power on the same command.
The consumer art sets earn their reputation on the wall: a slim body, a mount that tucks in, and at 40 hours a week, which is ordinary evening television use, they hold up in a hallway. Their problem is control. The off command arrives and a scene changes. The backlight stays lit through every dark hour on your schedule.
A commercial display gives up a few millimetres of body depth and takes the flush look from the wall instead of the cabinet. Recess it, and the bezel finishes where the art set's does, with the off command still working. The full tradeoffs are in our consumer-versus-commercial comparison for a public sign. For a scheduled directory, control behavior decides it, and panel endurance is a non-issue at this usage. Pick the consumer set only where a mains timer is already the control plan.
Will your signage player turn the screen fully off?
Make the power-off behavior a bench test. Connect the exact player unit to the exact panel on your quote, send the scheduled off command, and buy only if the backlight goes out and the next command wakes it.
What you are verifying: the player sends a standby command over HDMI-CEC at the scheduled time, a suitable panel answers by cutting power to the backlight and the boards, and the next command wakes it. An art-mode set intercepts the same command and switches screens instead. So a week that holds 168 hours and runs the sign for 40 leaves the panel lit for the other 128.
The test takes an afternoon on a bench. Connect the player you already run to the panel on your quote, set the player's daily on and off schedule, and check three things across one full cycle: the backlight goes out at the off time, the panel shows no image overnight, and the directory is back on the wall before the first reader arrives.
The setting that makes the command work is covered in our HDMI-CEC control article. The schedule side, including repeat days across several screens, is in our CEC scheduling article. If the panel fails, put a timer on the circuit as the fallback and test that path on the bench too.
What size portrait screen does a building directory need?
Size the screen from reading distance: 20 ft per inch of capital letter height for fast reading, 30 ft per inch as the floor, with line spacing at 1.7 times the capital height.
Those are the FHWA highway-sign planning figures, and they suit a directory people walk toward. Measure the farthest place a reader stands. Divide by 20 for capitals that read at a glance, and by 30 for the bare minimum. Line spacing rides on the capitals: 1.7 times their height gives each entry its air.
Distance moves the line count harder than anything else. Capitals sized for 20 ft stand twice as tall as capitals for 10 ft, so the same panel carries half as many entries. Portrait is where directories win, because the tall frame lets one column run. But it works only if the player drives the panel at its native portrait resolution. A player that feeds landscape pixels to a portrait panel scales or crops, and the failures range from a squeezed layout to a quarter of the design filling the screen. Our note on the quarter-layout portrait failure walks through why.
Scenario: what fits and how deep does it sit at 14 ft?
At 14 ft, the directory needs 0.7 inch capitals, fits about 26 lines on a 43 inch portrait panel, and the whole stack ends 72 mm off the wall on a flat bracket, so this lobby recesses the panel.
The building is a two-storey office lobby. The directory hangs on the wall opposite reception, and the farthest reader stands 14 ft away at the entry doors.
Capital height: 14 ft ÷ 20 ft per inch = 0.7 in, sized for fast reading. The minimum at 30 ft per inch is 14 ÷ 30 = 0.47 in, and a directory built on the minimum gets squinted at.
Line pitch: 1.7 × 0.7 in = 1.19 in per entry.
Screen: a 43 inch commercial panel at 16:9. The active area works out to 0.872 × 43 = 37.5 in on the long side and 0.490 × 43 = 21.1 in on the short side, so in portrait the image stands 21.1 in wide and 37.5 in tall. Hold 3 in clear at top and bottom for a title strip: 37.5 − 6 = 31.5 in of column, and 31.5 ÷ 1.19 = 26.5, which is 26 entries.
Characters per entry: plan 0.6 in of width for each character at this capital height, 0.6 × 0.7 = 0.42 in, because capitals and figures average about 0.6 of their height in width. One column across the panel with 1.5 in margins each side gives 21.1 − 3 = 18.1 in, and 18.1 ÷ 0.42 = 43 characters, enough for a suite number and a tenant name. Two columns give (18.1 − 1) ÷ 2 = 8.55 in each, about 20 characters, which fits a suite number only.
Sensitivity: move the farthest reader to 20 ft and the capitals grow to 1.0 in, the pitch to 1.7 in, and the same column carries 31.5 ÷ 1.7 = 18 entries.
Depth: the panel on the quote measures 60 mm front to back, a typical 43 inch commercial figure; use your quote's number. On a flat plate standing 12 mm off the wall, the bezel sits 12 + 60 = 72 mm proud, which is 47 mm over the 25 mm target. Recessed in the 2x4 stud wall instead, which finishes at 3.5 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 4.5 in, about 115 mm, the stack inside is 19 mm of plywood backer + 12 mm plate + 60 mm cabinet = 91 mm, leaving 115 − 91 = 24 mm of wall depth. A trim ring about 25 mm deep bridges that gap, and the screen face finishes at the wall plane.
Decision: one column of 26 entries at 0.7 in capitals on a 43 inch portrait panel, recessed to a trim ring. The flat bracket loses because 72 mm of projection misses the flush target by 47 mm.
Which mount hits the depth target?
Pick the mount by one subtraction: cabinet depth plus bracket standoff against your target. Recess into a 2x4 stud wall, about 115 mm finished, when the sum goes over.
| Mount route | Stack that sets the depth | Result at the wall | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat fixed bracket, fixed-length spacers | 12 mm plate + 60 mm cabinet | 72 mm proud | Back corridors and service stairs, where nobody judges the gap |
| Recessed box between studs, on a backer | 19 mm backer + 12 mm plate + 60 mm cabinet in a 115 mm wall | Face at a 25 mm trim ring | Lobbies and elevator lobbies, the built-in look |
| Furred chase on masonry | A 115 mm stud frame built off the wall, then the recess above | Same flush result, 115 mm added to the wall face | Block or concrete walls with no pocket to cut |
The subtraction decides: bracket standoff plus cabinet depth against the target, and the recess absorbs whatever the sum goes over. Two checks apply to every row. The opening is a cut-out job, and the real cut-out sizes guide covers measuring the hole so the bezel lands clean against the ring. The bracket and the fasteners carry the panel's whole weight in portrait, so the plate must list the weight and the orientation, and the anchors bite into the backer or the studs, never into the gypsum alone.
On masonry there is no bay to open, which is why the third row exists. Fur out a 115 mm frame and recess inside it, or accept the flat bracket and its projection in an area where the look carries no weight.
What goes in the quote and the bench test?
Put three numbers and one test in the quote: cabinet depth, bracket standoff, VESA screw depth, and a CEC power-off proof run with your player.
Work the list before money moves:
- Cabinet depth front to back in millimetres, the whole body, not the glass or the bezel. Every sum above hangs on this number.
- Bracket standoff in millimetres and the VESA pattern it fits, so the subtraction runs before delivery. Size the spacer screws once, from the engagement the standard allows.
- Portrait in writing: the panel is rated to mount upright at 90 degrees, and the player drives it at native portrait resolution. Proof the layout on the real panel before the cut-out opens.
- The CEC run: your player, this panel, one scheduled off and on cycle, backlight out at the off time and the directory back before opening. No bench pass, no order.
- The schedule the player will run, in hours per week, so the panel never has to survive hours it will not see.
If you would rather buy the screen and player as one wall unit, our lobby and reception displays are quoted per project. The quote states the cabinet depth, the mounting orientation and the control behavior before you order.
Recommendation: For a lobby directory that must look built in, recess a 43 inch commercial portrait panel in the stud wall on a fixed plate over a 19 mm plywood backer, size the capitals from the farthest reader, and hold the order until the exact player has switched that exact panel fully off and on over CEC on your bench. Use the flat bracket only in back-of-house areas, and only with a panel that passed the same bench run.
Questions
What resolution should the directory artwork be?
Build the page at the panel's native pixel count turned portrait: a 1920 x 1080 panel takes a 1080 x 1920 canvas, with capitals drawn at the height the distance math gives. Proof it on the real panel with the real player, because a player that cannot drive portrait natively will scale, crop or rotate the file, and those quirks only show on the screen they ship to.
Can a mains timer replace CEC control?
As a fallback, yes. A timer that cuts the circuit at the scheduled off time turns any panel off, art mode included, and brings it back with the morning supply. The costs: the player loses power with the screen, so confirm on the bench that it boots straight into playback unattended, and a fixed timer cannot wake the screen for a one-off evening event. It suits a building with a hard closing time.
Where does the power outlet go in a recessed install?
Inside the chase, on the backer beside the bracket, so the plug adds nothing to the projection. Use a right-angle connector if the cabinet's plug stands proud of its back panel, and fit the player's power brick inside the chase too when it fits. A brick hanging under the screen is the first thing that spoils the flush look, and it is also the part people unplug.
Planning information, not legal or engineering advice. Rules differ by place: check codes and permits with your local authority and your licensed trades.