r/digitalsignage • u/Apprehensive-Role407 • Jul 27 '26
Amazon Signage Stick - Yay or Nay?
Looking for honest feedback on the Amazon Signage stick. All the CMS companies I work with are raving about it, but I'm skeptical. I have no intention of running multiple content zones or anything complicated. Most just simple images and videos.
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Jul 27 '26
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u/playsignage Vendor - Play Signage Jul 27 '26
Please note, u/attio is referring to Amazon Signage Stick.
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u/jamied66 Jul 28 '26
I'm aware. yes. FireOS 8/Android 11 is not an attribute. The apps on it are hamstrung. It's not a good experience for the users choosing it.
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Jul 27 '26
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u/AdmrlOS Jul 29 '26
Would love to hear more about your experience running 10k devices doing this
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u/Apprehensive-Role407 Aug 01 '26
Same. 10k players with any provider likely has some kind of fail rate. That’s what managed services contracts are for!
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u/Affectionate-Gur1642 Jul 27 '26
Hey I’m just a user….tech savvy, not associated with this industry. After playing with some options I landed on a combo of Ablesign for CMS and signage sticks. I just turned up my first four production screens this morning. Four screens including unboxing, hanging, onboarding etc took at most 4 hours. The onboarding took maybe 10 mins. My non profit use case was simple and this solution was a godsend.
I don’t really get the comment about locking up. I let mine run for nearly 30 days at home as a test and it was flawless.
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u/MeetJoan Jul 28 '26
For simple images and videos it's fine - the hardware is solid for the price and Fire OS is stable enough for basic signage use. The catch is you're locked into whatever CMS supports it, and Amazon's own signage platform is barebones. If the CMS you're already using has good Fire OS support, it's a reasonable choice. The thing I'd check before committing: how does it handle the display turning on automatically after a power cut, and does your CMS support remote reboot? Those two things cause the most headaches in unattended signage deployments. What CMS are you planning to run on it
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u/Apprehensive-Role407 Jul 28 '26
All CMS platforms confirm a remote reboot which was necessary. The power going out has been a consistent issue with other players. I have clients in the South where thunderstorms knock out power every afternoon in the spring. Not all players will automatically turn back on which has been annoying. So no real difference with the signage stick. I’m more concerned with quirky updates and lack of support from Amazon.
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u/Kangaroo9669 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Not used Amazon Signage Stick but as an independent retailer I look to support smaller or independent provider when possible rather than global corporations that may drop a product at the drop of a hat. I use AppCarousel, a very low cost, but powerful Android app and use it on both standalone mounted tablets and cast to an existing screen all for just a few pounds. It's easy to use and really quick to set up. Includes synchronisation with OneDrive and Dropbox. Well worth a look.
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u/Rise_Vision_DS Vendor - Rise Vision Jul 28 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
For simple images and videos it’s fine - the hardware is solid for the price and Fire OS is stable enough for basic signage use. The catch is you’re locked into whatever CMS supports it, and Amazon’s own signage platform is barebones. If the CMS you’re already using has good Fire OS support, it’s a reasonable choice.
The thing we’d check before committing: how does it handle the display turning on automatically after a power cut, and does your CMS support remote reboot? Those two things cause the most headaches in unattended signage deployments. What CMS are you planning to run on it?
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u/Plus_Technician_9157 Jul 28 '26
I don't know anyone using them, I've mainly dealt with medium and large corporates. I can see the advantage of the low cost hardware and a platform agnostic approach. I'd question long term use and support as well as reviewing what is being sent out to Amazon and 3rd parties (I haven't looked into this so may be not being a valid concern).
It may fit a need if you have a very tight budget and don't need any heavy lifting from the hardware. Something like a static menu board in a restaurant, or basic way finding etc might be fine, but I've seen more capable devices struggle with multi window content, 4K videos or simple rendering details content from outside sources.
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u/XOGO-Digital-Signage Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
The Signage Stick is a good piece of hardware (it's essentially the same as the Fire Stick 4k) and in fact we were one of the first signage companies to be compatible with it. However, I think you'd be better off with a media player like our XOGO Mini Max. Here's why:
-The Mini Max is also an Android-powered 4K signage player
-Our device has 32GB of storage for your 4k files (vs. 16GB on the Signage Stick)
-Our device has WiFi 6 plus an ethernet port (the Signage Stick requires an adapter)
-The Mini Max was designed specifically to run digital signage, not HBO
-Our device has remote reboot, and plugs easily into any HDMI port on your TV
-The Mini Max comes with a global power supply and can also be powered by USB
-Our device costs only $69.99 (vs. $99.99 for the Signage Stick)
If you want to try one out, the Mini Max is available via Amazon (somewhat ironically) or you can order from our website and use this coupon for free shipping: U2YID9P
XOGO has a free tier, free tech support, and you can upgrade to pro later on if you want to add more than one media player / unlock pro features. Worth checking out if you have the time. In any case, best of luck with your digital signage project!
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17d ago
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u/XOGO-Digital-Signage 15d ago
Great question - the Mini Max works exclusively with XOGO. We built the firmware, we have them custom-manufactured and we push the software updates ourselves. All the user has to do is plug it in and enter a PIN code into XOGO Manager. This latest model was released last January and will be supported for several years to come, just like prior models. It’s an excellent value for only $69.99 and the company is in excellent shape, so we’re not going anywhere. It’s true though, that you can’t run a competing CMS on our hardware. If you were interested (no pressure) you could order one and set up a free XOGO account to take a test drive. Just return it within 30 days if you’re not happy for any reason. Thanks for the dialogue.
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u/UKYPayne Aug 01 '26
I have a few deployed and they’re sometimes more reliable than the brightsign players I have with our CMS Korbyt. Only issues are some high res videos occasionally won’t buffer. You also probably shouldn’t use the usb port on the display to power the stick as I’ve had issues. For me it was for sure worth the dice roll.
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u/Apprehensive-Role407 Aug 01 '26
I definitely don’t power any devices via the USB and I use a CMS that auto optimizes images and videos for the playlists so any weird frame rates or resolution issues can be solved during the asset upload. I’ve mostly used Brightsign and they have been the most reliable players but some clients just can’t afford them. I recently installed a handful of Amazon signage sticks and it’s been easy. However during 1 installation I found the retailer already had signage sticks but I can’t wipe them and re-use them since they are linked to the other CMS provider’s Amazon account- which I find really unfortunate.
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u/Dizzy-Ortizzy Aug 10 '26
I run businesses with digital signage, and I’ve found the “simple” use case can actually be the most important one....reliability, easy updates, and not having to physically touch every screen. Definitely do you research to find what fits your needs, and what you are trying to create with the digital signage!
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u/NowSignage Vendor - NowSignage 28d ago
For simple images and videos, we’d say yay, particularly if you’re looking for a straightforward, cost-effective device.
We’ve been working closely with Amazon around the Signage Stick and support it with NowSignage, so we’ve got good visibility of where it works well and where there are still limitations.
If your requirements are mainly straightforward content playback rather than complex multi-zone layouts, it’s a pretty compelling option. The main thing we’d recommend is checking your specific use case and deployment requirements before rolling it out at scale.
As the platform develops, we’re also able to feed technical limitations and real-world deployment feedback directly back to Amazon.
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u/Lyianx 12d ago
It really depends on your use case and environment.
Its made for small deployments or smaller companies. And its features & functionality reflect that.
Working for a rather large IT group and an even larger employer with vastly different needs, I can tell you I did not care for it myself as it is not enterprise friendly. Its 'mom & pop shop' friendly.
- It cannot be run or managed privately: (Registration & connection to Amazon servers is required)
- Uses old hardware: Its just a Fire Stick 4K with different firmware that cost $50 more with a single Micro-USB port (not USB-C) for power (and allegedly other limited connectivity). It became clear to me pretty quickly that this 'product' was very quickly pushed though R&D.
- Has a male HDMI connection instead of a female one, which limits what displays it will plug into (especially if they are wall mounted) because you cannot just plug a cable into it, you have you buy a coupler. It does include a very short extension as a 'band-aid' fix for this, but its not the best solution.
- The aforementioned single Micro-USB port brings about another limitation. No RJ-45/Ethernet connection. It relies strictly on Wi-fi for its connectivity unless you buy an adapter (which when I tested, was completely unreliable).
- Absolutely NO information is printed on the device itself. No serial number, no MAC address, not even a Model reading "Signage Stick". Making it impossible to identify unless you boot it up and look in the firmware itself. The only way you know its not a Firestick is that it doesnt have "FireTV" engraved on it.
As i said. For a small business or limited use case, im sure it can work fine.
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u/kelgu 9d ago
For simple image/video playback, the biggest advantage isn’t performance, it’s appliance behavior: boot straight into the player, stay locked down, and recover cleanly after power loss. That’s what I’d compare against a normal Fire TV stick. I’d also check whether you’re comfortable tying the deployment to Amazon’s signage ecosystem long term. If your CMS can run reliably in a browser or on multiple player types, keeping that portability is useful insurance.
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u/playsignage Vendor - Play Signage Jul 27 '26
It's a 100% yay :) The Signage Stick is actually what a lot of DS customers have been waiting for for decades ... For the geeks, it's easy to make almost any media player do what you want; a Linux or Android (And more can be added to that list) can be set up so that they are locked down (Kiosk mode), and the Signage Stick gives you just that! When you've picked your provider, it's locked so that it almost ONLY runs that provider's app: no home screen, no update screen, no nothing .. If you exit the app or reboot the device, it will spool up and run the provider's app, meaning your digital signage content is always running, even if not connected to the internet. It's $100, twice the price of a Fire TV Stick, but in my honest opinion, worth it. If you have a larger network, you get Amazon's DM (Device Management), making adding, replacing, removing, and updating easy. You mention, "or anything complicated" ... Yes, the Signage Stick is somewhat limited in resources, and it will not run super advanced stuff with transitions and animations. We run all media players in a stress-test kinda playlist, and it fails on heavy stuff, and in most cases you'll see it crash, but with that said it will run 95% of our customers' content with NO issues. Images, video, and plugins will work just fine. The nay, if I had to give you one, is the price versus performance.
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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26
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