the exemplary embodiments herein provide a transparent liquid crystal display assembly having a glass panel with an lcd panel placed in front of the glass panel . a light guide may be positioned between the lcd panel and the glass panel and the light guide may have an edge . a substrate containing a plurality of leds is preferably positioned adjacent to the edge of the light guide and a thermal plate is preferably attached to both the substrate and the glass panel . the thermal plate may contain two portions which are substantially perpendicular to each other , where one of the portions is substantially parallel to the glass panel . in some embodiments , the lcd may be sandwiched in between a pair of glass panels , held opposite one another by a spacer .