New York’s Times Square unveils enormous advertising billboard

New York's Times Square has been illuminated by the world's highest resolution video display screen of its size, with a monitor nearly as big as a football field.

The first images broadcast from the enormous screen when it lit up on Tuesday evening included a digital film featuring images of mountains, skyscrapers and bursts of colour accompanying a musical soundtrack.

The panel, located on the side of a hotel, is eight storeys tall and intended for advertisements similar to those on dozens of other screens lining the bustling New York crossroads.

Hundreds of tourists braved frigid temperatures to see the screen come to life, snapping photos of the digital billboard that spans the length of a city block.

As "the highest resolution LED video display in the world of this size", it could produce "deep, rich black levels and unsurpassed vertical viewing angles", said Clear Channel Spectacolor, which sells advertising for the space.

The 24-million-pixel display, which measures more than 2,320 square metres, will feature digital art by Universal Everything studio until Google takes over with ads on Monday until the new year.