About VESA Standard - VESA Mount for LCD Monitors, LCD Displays and Plasma Screens

- How to attach your LCD or plasma monitor to a mounting device including wall mounts, monitor mounts on desktop, pole or ceiling mounts

A great number of monitors are compliant with the VESA standard.  Manufacturers of monitors have agreed on a industry interface standard, which means a hole pattern on the back of the monitor, screen or display that fits any mounting device whether for VESA wall mounts, desktop or ceiling mounts. The following summarizes VESA standard mounting hole patterns that are used today: For smaller and medium flat panels, LCD monitors and screens from 12" to 22.9" diagonal, and falling in a weight range up to 30.8 lbs (14 kg): 75 x 75 mm or 100 x 100 mm (2.95" x 2.95" or 3.94" x 3.94")

For larger monitors with viewing screen from 23" to 30.9" diagonally, weight range up to 50 lbs: VESA 200mm x 100mm and 200mm x 200mm

For large Plasma screens and LCD TV displays 31" to 90" diagonal, but weights not greater than 250 lbs. there are various hole patterns in 200 mm increments: 400mm x 200mm, or 600mm x 400mm, or 800mm x 400mm

What does the term, VESA, stand for and what is the focus of the VESA mount guidelines? The initials, VESA, stands for Video Electronics Standards Association. This is an international non-profit corporation, which represents more than 300 corporate members worldwide. The corporation promotes and develops timely, relevant, open standards for the display and display interface industry, ensuring interoperability and encouraging innovation and market growth.  The standards provide specific guidelines of the mounting hole pattern placement, screw size, and guidelines for the mounting pad or mounting apparatus to be utilized by equipment manufacturers based on a the size of the screen and monitor's weight. 

As a service to our customers, ErgonoFlex is providing this brief informational overview, though this is not meant to be taken as a complete, detailed or technical explanation. Additional details can be found by ordering the specific FDMI mounting design specification directly from theVESA organization

The VESA MIS-E, 100/200 standard interfaces has a six hole mounting methodology that applies to monitors weighing up to or less than 50 lbs and with a viewing screen measuring approximately 23" to 30.9" diagonally. VESA - defined standards provide manufacturers with specified guidelines for either center mounting, edge mounting, or center and edge mounting.

The ability to mount an LCD or plasma monitor from various manufacturers is becoming even easier as monitor and mounting arm manufacturers begin complying with the updated 2006 VESA mounting standard, the Flat Display Mounting Interface (FDMI) standard. The original 1997 standard (Flat Panel Monitor Physical Mounting Interface Standard) established the first "industry standard" for mounting plates and hole patterns to ensure easy mounting of monitors and arms from different manufacturers based on size and weight of the screens. Those standards set the precedent for the smaller and medium sized screens available. Since that time, however, there has been the development and explosion of popularity for much larger plasma and LCD screens that were not covered by the 1997 published guidelines. With the release of this updated mount standard, manufacturers of flat panels sized up to 90" diagonally, have been provided upgraded standards to follow so that screens from numerous manufacturers can be built within standards easily matched by various mounting arm manufacturers. All of the computer monitor mounting options at EErgonoFlex are VESA compliant.

Most manufacturers had already begun following the original VESA mount guidelines for LCD monitors, LCD displays and plasma screens, covering from the smaller, medium flat panel LCDs up to the larger plasma TVs. For monitors that were not VESA compliant, alternate interface brackets are often available for purchase separately, though this caused added inconvenience and expense to consumers. Regarding the larger plasmas and LCDs that have been on the market in recent years, until the new FDMI guidelines were published, monitor arm manufacturers and consumers were in a similar situation of having to develop or find interface brackets allowing screens of similar size and weight from numerous manufacturers to be, for example, wall mounted, by various arm manufacturers.

The MIS-F defined hole patterns have been instituted to provide strong mounting capability for larger plasma and LCD displays with screen sizes from 31" to 90" diagonal, but weights not greater than 250 lbs. These monitors may be built with a 200mm-spaced approved hole pattern variation, such as 400mm x 200mm, or 600mm x 400mm, or 800mm x 400mm that are based on VESA specifications. At ErgonoFlex, our product experts can match a mount to the correct bracket for your large LCD or plasma display.

Is weight or size most important when manufacturers are choosing the standard hole pattern they will use? According to the standard's organization summary document (Section 1.3.7), "...in all cases the display diagonal viewing area size shall be used as the primary guideline for selecting the part of the standard to be utilized for a given display."

What if you don't find any visible mounting hole pattern on your flat panel? If a series of mounting holes are not visible in the rear of your monitor, often the foot (or stand/base) has to be removed to find the hole pattern. If the electronic is located in the foot, however, don't remove it. In that case your LCD will not mount to any arm. However, first, check your owner manual for information about the location of the mounting holes. 

Check to see if your monitor's manufacturer states the flat panel is built to the VESA standards. Your manufacturer is the main source of information about the construction of the LCD or plasma flat panel. Contact us for assistance