Samsung Electronics on Wednesday said it has started mass production of a 46-inch "high-bright" digital signage panel.

The thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display, which Samsung claims is "the brightest LCD panel in the world," is built for use in transit centers, bus shelters, museums, shopping malls, and at point-of-sale retail locations as a replacement for poster advertisings. The panel is designed to accommodate the wide range of lighting conditions that affect displays, the company said.

The new panel has a luminance of 1,500 NITs, which is about three times the brightness of a typical LCD TV, according to Samsung. Flat-panel LCD screens used with PCs typically have a luminance of about 300 NITs. The higher luminance in the Samsung digital information display means it can be seen under bright indoor lighting or strong natural lighting.

The new product has a screen resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels and a viewing angle of 178 degrees. The panel is designed so it can be tiled to create outdoor and indoor "video wall" effects, Samsung said.

Samsung claims to have achieved the extreme brightness level through the use of high-performance cold-cathode fluorescent lamps that operate on a very high current, and use an extremely thin color filter. CCFLs are commonly used for LCD backlighting.

Samsung plans to begin volume shipping of the new displays this month.

Besides making display signage, Samsung also is a manufacturer of LCD TVs. The company edged out Sony in the first quarter of this year as the top LCD TV maker in North America, accounting for 12.8% of the total units shipped, according to DisplaySearch. Sony was No. 2 with a 12.6% share and Vizio third with 12.5%.