A media wall is an aluminium frame with a printed skin over it, standing behind whoever is being photographed. We print the graphic and pack the hardware at Ravenhall, then send it out in a case.
A media wall is a free-standing printed backdrop that people are photographed in front of. The frame is aluminium tube, the graphic is either a fabric skin stretched over that frame or a printed vinyl banner hung on it, and the artwork is nearly always a logo repeated in a grid. The repeat is where the other names come from. Step and repeat banner, press wall, backdrop wall, all the same object.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
The reason to own one is simple: every photo taken in front of it carries the branding somewhere else. The reason to think twice is that it is a large flat thing that has to travel. It wants a case, a vehicle with a real boot and two people for ten minutes. For a single small function, a printed vinyl banner on a stand does a lot of the same work for a fraction of the handling.
Graphics and hardware both come together at our Orbis Drive workshop in Ravenhall, so the skin gets test-fitted to the frame it will actually ship with rather than arriving from two different suppliers. There is no minimum, and one wall for a product launch is a perfectly normal order. Our crews install and pack down too, which earns its money when a venue gives you a two-hour bump-in window.
A media wall is four decisions: how the frame is shaped, what the skin is made of, how the whole thing is weighted down, and how it packs. Each one shows up in the finished picture.
| Component | Standard | Alternative | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame tube | 32 mm aluminium | Heavier tube past 4 m wide | Thin tube on a wide span sags visibly in the middle |
| Graphic | Tension fabric skin | Printed vinyl banner face | Fabric kills glare, vinyl copes better with weather |
| Fabric weight | Around 210 to 260 gsm knit | Blockout-backed for two-sided | Heavier cloth hides the frame and hangs without ripple |
| Print method | Dye sublimation into the fibre | UV or solvent onto vinyl | Sublimated colour cannot crack, peel or rub onto clothing |
| Weighting | Base plates on the feet | Sandbags or stage weights | A draught through an open loading door is what tips walls |
| Height | 2.3 m | 2.5 m or 3 m for stages | Past 2.4 m the venue ceiling becomes the limit, not the frame |
| Pack down | One wheeled case | Two cases past 4 m | Case length decides whether it fits in a sedan or needs a van |
Frames come in fixed increments, so an unusual width usually means the next frame up with the graphic sized to suit. Send the ceiling height as well as the width. Venues limit these jobs more often than frames do.
Nearly every media wall question comes down to fabric against vinyl, and straight against curved. Here is what each choice actually does once the wall is standing up and a camera is pointed at it.
A flat wall, and the cheapest way to get width. It reads as one clean plane behind a group and stores in the shortest case. The drawback is that a flat surface bounces a direct flash straight back, so a photographer working close will usually shoot it at a slight angle.
The tube is bent so the wall wraps gently forward at each end. Two things happen. Flash scatters instead of returning a hot spot, and the ends resist a side gust far better than flat feet do. It costs more and packs into a slightly longer case.
A printed sleeve that slides over the assembled frame like a pillowcase and zips shut at the bottom. Because the cloth is under even tension there is no visible seam or fixing, and it takes two minutes to fit. This is what most media walls use now.
A 440 gsm banner with eyelets or a pole pocket, hung on the same frame. It is the tougher option outdoors, wipes clean after a muddy day and does not mind drizzle. It is also shinier, heavier to freight, and it creases along a fold line permanently.
The grid matters more than people expect. We stagger rows so no vertical line of logos can be fully blocked by one person, and we keep the marks large enough to survive a crop. A tight repeat of tiny logos reads as wallpaper in the photo, not as branding.
A blockout layer behind the fabric stops light and stops the reverse image ghosting through. That matters when a wall stands in the middle of a room, or when a window behind it would otherwise silhouette the graphic and wash the colour out under camera.
Two clamp lights on stands, angled in from either side at about 45 degrees, do more for the finished photo than anything else on this page. Even light stops the top of the wall going grey. Venue downlights alone will hot-spot the middle and leave the corners dark.
The frame breaks into sections held on bungee cord, so it goes together in a fixed order and cannot be assembled wrong. Everything lives in a padded wheeled case with the fabric folded, not rolled. Cases are worth labelling if you run more than one wall.
Launches, openings and press calls where photos are the deliverable. Agencies tend to keep one frame and reskin it per client, which is much cheaper than buying a wall each time. We hold the frame dimensions on file so a new skin fits first go. If the job also needs directional signage and a registration desk, our sister company Event Signs handles that side.
Post-match interviews, presentation nights and junior club photo days, with sponsor logos laid out in tiers. The layout question here is political as much as visual, so we set the artwork up with sponsor levels sized proportionally and send a proof before anything prints. Clubs generally go fabric, because the wall lives in a shed between uses and folds away small.
Awards nights, AGMs, internal town halls and the photo point beside a conference registration desk. These usually want the wider 3 m or 4 m frames and a clean single-colour ground, so headshots crop nicely for the intranet without a logo cutting through somebody’s ear. Multi-day conferences often run two walls, one at the entry and one near the stage door where the speakers get photographed on the way out.
Shopping centre pop-ups, sampling stands and influencer photo points where the wall goes up on a Thursday and comes down on a Sunday. Centre management normally sets a maximum height and bans anything screwed into a floor, so weighted feet matter here. Run the same artwork across every site and the photos read as one campaign rather than eight separate ones.
Media wall artwork is really a tiling exercise. Get the repeat right and the wall works from any crop. Get it wrong and half the logos end up behind somebody’s shoulder.
A vector logo and a note on which sponsors sit at which level is enough for us to lay out the grid. We proof it flat, then as a frame mock-up so you can see where a standing person lands.
Fabric skins are printed, cut and sewn here, so the queue is ours to manage rather than a supplier’s. Frames are stocked in the common sizes. Tell us the event date when you enquire and we will say plainly whether it is achievable. Pickup from Ravenhall during business hours, delivery across Melbourne metro and regional Victoria, and freight interstate in the case it ships in.
Start at 3 × 2.3 m if the wall is for group photos, and 2.3 × 2.3 m if it is mostly one or two people at a time.
Width is decided by how many people stand in front of it. Allow roughly 700 mm per person and add a margin at each end so the outer logos are not cut. Height is decided by the room. Standard walls are 2.3 m, and anything taller needs the venue ceiling checked, along with whatever runs under it.
Yes, and the creases fall out on their own within an hour or two of the skin going onto the frame.
Knitted polyester recovers because the tension of the frame pulls the fibres straight. Fold the skin loosely rather than pressing it flat, and fit it early rather than five minutes before doors open. If a crease is stubborn, a steamer held a hand’s width away clears it. Do not put a hot iron directly on the fabric.
Yes. Cold water, gentle cycle, no bleach, and line dry out of direct sun.
Because the dye is sublimated into the fibre rather than sitting on top of it, washing does not lift the print. This is the main practical advantage fabric has over vinyl, which has to be sponged and never really recovers from a red wine stain. Take the skin off the frame first, and skip fabric softener, since it dulls the colour over repeated washes.
Choose curved if a photographer will be using flash, and straight if you want the most width for the money.
A flat surface returns a direct flash as a bright patch in the centre of the shot. A curve scatters that light away from the lens. The curve also makes the wall more stable side-on, which is worth having in a foyer with doors opening nearby. Straight frames pack shorter and cost less.
Usually yes, as long as we can get accurate frame dimensions.
Send us the make and model if the frame has one, or measure the assembled outer width and height and the tube diameter. Tension fabric is cut undersize deliberately so it pulls tight, and that undersize allowance differs between manufacturers, so a skin cut for one brand can be loose or unfittable on another. If in doubt, we would rather see the frame first.
It will, in still conditions, but it is not an outdoor product and we will say so before you order.
A 3 m wall is a sail. Base plates hold it in a breeze and nothing holds it in real wind. If the photo point has to be outside, use the vinyl face rather than fabric, weight every foot properly, and put it against a building rather than in open ground. For a genuinely exposed site, a mesh banner on a fence is the safer answer.
Still deciding? See our sign and banner sizes guide.
Need panels, counter wraps or a fast reprint for an expo stand? See exhibition printing.
The event and wedding version of the same idea, with softer artwork and stands sized for smaller rooms rather than sponsor grids and press calls.
See the detail →Full booth fitouts using the same tension fabric system, with counters, lockable storage and backlit walls for 3 × 3 m and larger expo spaces.
See the detail →Printed feather, teardrop and bow flags with pole kits and a base to suit the ground — the outdoor half of most event setups.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send the width you need, the ceiling height at the venue and the logos going on it. We will price it inside two business hours.