Who We Partner With
Digital Signage for AV Consultants: A CMS You Can Specify
Your drawings outlive the bid. Name a CMS that runs on the hardware you choose, comes with the evidence the owner's IT team will ask for, and has more than 20 years of signage software behind it.
"CMS by others" is where specs come apart
You specify the displays, the mounts and the conduit. Then the software line says "CMS by others", and three years later the owner is running a platform nobody on their IT team reviewed.
Naming the CMS in the spec settles that, as long as the platform can pass the owner's security review and doesn't lock them into one display brand. That's the test we built firmChannel to pass.
What AV consultants can put in the digital signage spec
Lift any of this straight into your specification. Our pre-sales team will check the wording with you.
| Spec item | firmChannel |
|---|---|
| Media players | Windows, Android, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, BrightSign and Amazon Fire Stick, with the same features on each |
| Display control | Native on Samsung Tizen and LG webOS; RS-232 on other commercial displays, schedulable and permission-controlled; HDMI-CEC |
| Architecture | Each customer is its own enterprise, with a dedicated instance, a private database and its own sign-in |
| Hosting | AWS in Canada and the US; the owner's data stays in its own country |
| Resilience | Players keep showing cached content if the connection drops |
| Sign-in | SSO on the Enterprise edition; MFA with passkeys or authenticator apps; inactive accounts locked after 90 days |
| Encryption | AES-256 at rest with AWS-managed keys, and backups encrypted with AWS KMS; TLS 1.2 or higher in transit |
| Independent assurance | SOC 2 Type II (unqualified opinion, no exceptions noted); annual third-party penetration test |
| Audit and reporting | Detailed activity logs; proof-of-playback reports with CSV export |
| Data | Smart Lists from OneDrive and Google Drive spreadsheets, CSV links and SFTP feeds; REST API |
| Emergency messaging | CAP alerts prioritized by severity, with per-location opt-out and, on Enterprise, automatic translation into 22 or more languages (alerts included in Enterprise; paid add-on on Standard) |
| Wayfinding accessibility | WCAG 2.2 Level AA (wayfinding application) |
Wayfinding that holds up to an accessibility review
Accessibility reviews can stall wayfinding late in a project. firmChannel Wayfinding comes with a written WCAG 2.2 AA conformance statement, and these are the features behind it.
- Routing: multi-floor routes, step-free routes the visitor can choose, and four routing profiles
- Accessibility aids: spoken directions, a text-size toggle and an on-screen keyboard
- Languages: 16 direction languages, including right-to-left Arabic
- Phone handoff: a QR code sends the route to the visitor's phone, with no app to install
- Resilience: kiosk bundles that keep working offline
- Conformance: WCAG 2.2 Level AA, with a written conformance statement
Specify the displays you'd specify anyway
The owner can run the lobby on BrightSign and the break room on a Raspberry Pi, with the same features on both. We control any commercial display: natively on Samsung and LG, and over RS-232 on the rest. Frost & Sullivan's 2025 Frost Radar credited firmChannel's hardware-agnostic design, and rated firmChannel the top-rated Canadian platform and among the top three globally.
So your spec doesn't need to pick a display brand to get a working system.
Evidence for the owner's IT team
When the owner's IT team reviews your spec, we'll send them what they need:
- our SOC 2 Type II report (independent audit, no exceptions noted), under NDA
- the full report from our annual third-party penetration test
- confirmation that their data is hosted on AWS in their own country, Canada or the US
- how the platform is built: one enterprise per customer, with a private database and its own sign-in, so a leaked password can only ever reach one organization
Hospital and bank security questionnaires are routine work for us, so the owner's will be too.
Help from design through handover
During design, our pre-sales team answers your technical RFIs and joins the owner meeting when you want us there. At bid time, the integrator who wins gets the same help: a demo, a quote and the security evidence. And after handover, the integrator provides first-line support with our Customer Success team behind them.
Specify it, then resell it or refer it
Some design-build firms resell firmChannel themselves, with the full partner program behind them, from software only to a turnkey job including installation and content creation.
If you'd rather stay independent, that works too. Pass the project on once it's specified, and we'll pay you a referral fee.
Questions to ask any platform before you name it
| Question | firmChannel | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Do your features work the same on every player you support? | Yes. The same CMS features run on every supported player. Display control is native on Samsung Tizen and LG webOS, and over RS-232 on other commercial displays | The owner keeps the freedom to choose hardware |
| Will you send your SOC 2 Type II and pen test reports to the owner? | Yes. SOC 2 under NDA, and the full pen test report | Owners' IT teams want the real report, not a letter about it |
| Is each customer its own enterprise, with a private database? | Yes, every customer, by default | Isolation is the first architecture question a security team asks |
| Can you meet the owner's data-residency requirements in Canada or the US? | Yes. We host in both countries | Public sector and healthcare projects increasingly require it |
| What happens to the screens if the connection drops? | They keep playing cached content | Nobody wants a black screen in the lobby |
| Do you offer wayfinding, and does it meet WCAG 2.2 AA? | Yes, with a written conformance statement | Accessibility reviews can stall a project late |
| Do you support passkeys? | Yes, along with authenticator apps | Passkeys resist phishing in a way passwords can't |
FAQ
Questions consultants ask
Is firmChannel tied to a display brand?
No. It runs on every player platform listed above, with native control of Samsung and LG displays and RS-232 control of other commercial displays.
Can the owner's IT team see your audit and test reports?
Yes. We send the SOC 2 Type II report under NDA, and the full penetration test report with it.
Does the wayfinding meet WCAG 2.2 AA?
Yes. firmChannel Wayfinding conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
Where is the data hosted?
On AWS in the owner's own country. We host in both Canada and the US, so either set of requirements is covered.
Will you answer RFIs during design?
Yes. Our pre-sales team handles the technical questions.
Can we lift the spec table into our documents?
Yes. That's what it's for, and our pre-sales team will check the wording with you.
Can we earn from a project we only specify?
Yes. Refer it on and we'll pay you a referral fee.
Who installs and supports it?
An integrator partner or our own installation team, with our Customer Success team backing whoever provides first-line support.
Send us the drawings
Working on a project with screens in it? Send us the drawings or the spec section, and we'll come back with technical answers, hardware options and anything the owner's IT team is likely to ask.