Water Curtain Fountains
Water Curtains and Digital Water Curtains, From One Supplier
Two families: decorative water walls for still architectural sheets — digital water curtains that write text, logos and animation in falling water.
Water curtain vs digital water curtain
A water curtain releases water over a machined weir so it falls as one continuous, still sheet — decorative, silent apart from the water itself, and used as a water wall, room divider or façade feature. A digital water curtain replaces that weir with a row of individually controlled solenoid nozzles, so the same falling water can be broken into droplets that form readable text, logos and animation. HuiQi builds both, and both share the same basin, pump, filtration and stainless architecture.
2Product families
128Max channels
0.5-10 mFall height range
304 / 316LStainless options
Every System Includes
- ▤Discharge device — machined stainless weir, or solenoid nozzle array for digital models
- ⚙Header beam or trough — 304 stainless, sized to your clear span
- ≋Recirculation pump — duty matched to width, flow and fall height
- ◍Staged filtration — 100 µm for decorative sheets, 50 µm with UV for digital
- ◈Control layer — basic flow and lighting, or DMX512 driver with content software
- ◆Basin package — collection trough, screened return, overflow and makeup
- ✔Factory test — sheet uniformity or per-channel firing logged before packing
Product Range
Which Water Curtain Do You Need?
Two configurations built on the same water loop. The decision is not about size — it is about whether the surface has to carry content.
Decorative
Standard Water Curtain & Water Wall
Water leaves a machined weir as one continuous, unbroken sheet. No programming, no content, no moving parts in the water. Used as a water wall, room divider, façade feature or sound-masking backdrop.
Programmable
Digital Water Curtain
The weir is replaced by a row of solenoid nozzles, each addressed individually. The controller opens and closes them in sequence so falling droplets form readable characters, countdowns, logos and simple animation.
How They Work
One Water Loop, Two Discharge Principles
The plumbing below the basin is nearly identical in both families. What differs is the device at the top — and that difference drives every downstream decision on filtration, control and maintenance.
A
Standard water curtain: a continuous sheet
The engineering problem is uniformity. Any variation in the weir edge shows immediately as a streak or a dry patch.
- 01
Water fills a header trough. A stainless trough runs the full width, fed at a steady rate so the water level stays constant along its length.
- 02
It spills over a machined weir. The weir edge is level to a tight tolerance — this is the single component that decides whether the sheet looks glassy or streaked.
- 03
Surface tension holds it together. The sheet stays continuous for the first few metres, then accelerates and thins. Beyond roughly 3 to 4 metres it tends to tear, so taller walls use guide wires or a segmented weir.
- 04
It lands in the basin and returns. Filtration around 100 µm keeps debris out of the weir; scale control keeps the edge true.
B
Digital water curtain: a droplet display
The engineering problem is timing. Each nozzle is a pixel, and the image only exists while the water is falling.
- 01
Solenoid array fires in sequence. Each channel is a fast-acting valve on a header beam, addressed individually by the driver at up to 25 frames per second.
- 02
Droplets fall as a pixel field. Water leaving an open valve becomes a vertical line of droplets. While it falls, the row it belongs to is held in place by gravity — that falling sheet is the display surface.
- 03
Persistence of vision completes it. At roughly 15 to 25 frames per second the eye integrates successive rows into stable characters rather than flicker.
- 04
Light finishes the image. RGBW lighting turns droplets into bright pixels against a dark backdrop. Lighting angle and background contrast matter as much as the valve timing.
Side by Side
Decorative vs Digital: What Actually Changes
Use this to settle the specification internally before you send an enquiry. Most projects that start on the digital side and move to decorative do so on maintenance and budget grounds, not on looks.
| Factor | Standard water curtain | Digital water curtain |
|---|---|---|
| Discharge device | Machined weir | Solenoid nozzle array |
| Carries content | No | Yes — text, logo, animation |
| Control layer | Pump on/off, optional lighting | Driver plus DMX512 |
| Typical fall height | 0.5-4 m unbroken, taller with guide wires | 2-10 m |
| Filtration | Around 100 µm | Staged to 50 µm, UV optional |
| Ambient light tolerance | High — readable in daylight | Moderate — needs a dark backdrop |
| Wind tolerance | Good — runs outdoors routinely | Poor above roughly 2 m/s |
| Sound | Water only, often used deliberately | Valve ticking plus water |
| Maintenance focus | Weir level, scale, sheet uniformity | Orifice cleanliness, per-channel test |
| Capital level | Lower of the two | Higher — valves, driver and control add up |
Applications
Where Water Curtains Are Installed
Decorative sheets go where the water itself is the point. Digital curtains go where the water has to say something. Both appear in the same three settings.
Hotels & Lobbies
Behind a reception desk, lining a lift lobby, or as an atrium feature wall. Decorative sheets run all day with little attention; digital curtains go where guest names, welcome messages or brand marks need to appear. Indoor work means splash containment, a slip-resistant floor finish and a pump set quiet enough for occupied space.
Best fit: standard curtain, or digital where content is required
Malls & Commercial Interiors
A vertical attraction visible from every gallery level. Decorative sheets give calm movement and sound masking; digital curtains take scheduled content, seasonal campaigns and tenant logos changed from the control PC without touching the hardware.
Best fit: either family, sized to the void
Events, Plazas & Landscapes
Brand launches and exhibitions on the temporary side; plazas, parks and building façades on the permanent side. Outdoor work adds wind assessment, drainage for stormwater, freeze protection in cold climates and higher IP ratings on everything electrical.
Best fit: standard curtain outdoors; digital only in sheltered positions
Also specified for
Museum and exhibition halls
Office headquarters atriums
Residential clubhouses
Shopping mall voids
Restaurant and bar partitions
Airport terminals
Building façades
Theme park entrances
Specifications
Technical Parameters
Two tables, one per family. Figures cover standard configurations; final values are engineered to the span, fall height and water quality of your site.
A · Standard water curtain and water wall
Sized by width and flow rate rather than channels. Sheet quality depends on the weir, so the trough is always built to the measured span.
| Parameter | WC-100 | WC-200 | WC-300 | WC-Custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curtain width | 1.0 m | 2.0 m | 3.0 m | 3.0 m and above |
| Recommended fall height | 0.5-2.5 m | 1-3 m | 1.5-4 m | Segmented or guide-wire above 4 m |
| Weir construction | Machined 304 stainless | Machined 304 stainless | Machined 304 stainless | 304 or 316L |
| Filtration | Media to 100 µm | Media to 100 µm | Media plus cartridge, 100 µm | Per site water analysis |
| Lighting | Optional LED strip | Optional LED strip | Optional RGBW | RGBW or DMX |
| Environment | Indoor | Indoor | Indoor / sheltered | Indoor or outdoor |
| Typical use | Feature wall | Room divider | Atrium wall | Façade, plaza |
B · Digital water curtain
Sized by channel count. Beam length, fall height and droplet size are engineered together — a wider curtain is not simply a taller one.
| Parameter | DWC-32 | DWC-64 | DWC-96 | DWC-128 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control channels | 32 | 64 | 96 | 128 |
| Curtain width | 1.6 m | 3.2 m | 4.8 m | 6.4 m |
| Recommended fall height | 2-4 m | 3-6 m | 4-8 m | 5-10 m |
| Frame rate | 25 fps | 25 fps | 25 fps | 25 fps |
| Content input | Text / bitmap | Text / bitmap / logo | Text / logo / animation | Full animation plus live input |
| Control protocol | Driver plus DMX512 | Driver plus DMX512 | Driver plus DMX512 | Driver plus DMX512 |
| Filtration | Sand plus cartridge, 50 µm | Sand plus cartridge, 50 µm | Sand + cartridge + UV | Sand + cartridge + UV |
| Construction | 304 stainless | 304 stainless | 304 / 316L | 304 / 316L |
| Environment | Indoor | Indoor | Indoor / sheltered | Indoor / sheltered |
Why HuiQi
One Supplier for Both Technologies
Most projects start undecided between a decorative sheet and a programmable one. Specifying both from the same manufacturer keeps the basin, pump and filtration design consistent — so the decision can be made later without redoing the plant room.
2 in 1
Both Families, One Water Loop
We build the weir trough and the solenoid beam to the same basin, pump and filtration standard. If you decide to upgrade a decorative wall to a programmable one, the plant room does not change.
50 µm
Filtration Sized to the Device
A decorative sheet tolerates around 100 µm. A digital array with 1.2 to 2.0 mm orifices does not. We stage filtration to the actual discharge device rather than selling one package to every job.
100%
Factory Test Before Packing
Decorative troughs are run and checked for sheet uniformity. Digital arrays have every channel fired, timed and logged. The test sheet ships with the unit either way.
304
Stainless Throughout
Header trough, weir, manifold, nozzle bodies and basin fittings in 304 stainless, upgraded to 316L for coastal, chlorinated or high-salinity water. Fasteners and brackets specified to match.
25 fps
Driver Included, Not Licensed
Authoring software for text, logos, bitmaps and animation ships with the digital system. No per-year licence, no dongle, and any font installed on the control PC can be rasterised.
24/7
Remote Commissioning Support
Installation guidance, content setup and driver training delivered remotely, with spare valve and solenoid kits shipped alongside the main unit.
What is the difference between a water curtain and a digital water curtain?
A standard water curtain releases water over a machined weir so it falls as one continuous, still sheet — decorative only, with no content. A digital water curtain replaces the weir with a row of individually controlled solenoid nozzles, so the sheet can be broken into droplets that form text, logos and animation. Both share the same basin, pump and filtration architecture; the difference is the discharge device and the control layer on top of it.
Which one do I need?
Choose a standard curtain or water wall if you want a calm architectural surface, a room divider, or sound masking with low maintenance. Choose a digital curtain if the surface has to carry content — welcome messages, brand marks, countdowns or animation. Budget, filtration precision and control infrastructure are all higher on the digital side, and it is common to start decorative and upgrade later.
How tall can a decorative sheet fall before it breaks up?
A falling sheet accelerates and thins as it drops, and beyond a certain height it tears into separate streams. Practical unbroken height is typically up to about 3 to 4 metres. Taller installations use guide wires, a segmented weir or staged re-feeding to keep the sheet continuous. Send us your available drop and we will specify which method applies.
How does a digital water curtain actually write text?
A row of solenoid valves sits on a header beam above the fall line. The controller fires each valve in a timed sequence while the water falls past it, so droplets leaving at a given moment occupy the shape of a character row. At 15 to 25 frames per second the eye integrates those rows into readable text.
Can it display Chinese, Arabic or other non-Latin scripts?
Yes. The software rasterises any font installed on the control PC — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Cyrillic and Thai included. Stroke-dense scripts need more vertical resolution, so we recommend 96 or 128 channels and a taller curtain for those languages.
Can water curtains run outdoors?
Standard curtains run outdoors routinely and are far more tolerant than digital ones, because a wind-broken sheet still looks intentional. Digital curtains are the sensitive case: above roughly 2 m per second the droplet pattern distorts and legibility is lost, so they need a sheltered position, a solid back panel or a windbreak screen.
How much water does it consume?
Both are closed loops. Water collects in the base basin and is returned by the pump through staged filtration, so consumption is limited to evaporation, splash carry-out and periodic backwash — typically a few hundred litres per day on a mid-size installation.
What water quality is required?
It depends on the family. A decorative sheet needs filtration mainly to stop debris tearing the water and to control scale on the weir, around 100 µm is usually sufficient. A digital array with 1.2 to 2.0 mm orifices needs staged filtration to about 50 µm with cartridge polishing — poor filtration is the main cause of blocked nozzles and characters that slowly break up.
What is the lead time?
Standard water curtains and water walls typically ship in about 20 to 30 days. Digital curtains ship in roughly 25 to 35 days including factory channel testing. Custom widths, non-standard beam spans and bespoke structural design usually take 45 to 60 days depending on the engineering involved.
Ready to Start Your Project?
Let's discuss how we can bring your vision to life with a stunning water feature that will become the highlight of your space.
