University of Utah: From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah’s Digital Signage Evolution
A Case Study with Jake Sorensen, Director of Sponsorship & Advertising.
78%
Setup Time Reduction
500+
Display Enterprise Scale
34,000+
Students on Campus
The Challenge:
Over 500 displays across campus ran on aging consumer devices (Fire TV Sticks, mini-PCs, Raspberry Pis).
Maintenance was time-consuming (30–45 min per device), unreliable, and costly.
The Switch:
The team, led by Jake Sorensen (Director of Sponsorship & Advertising), replaced Fire TV Sticks with Amazon Signage Stick (< $100 each), which is designed specifically for continuous digital signage, it offered the stability and support the university needed.
Key Benefits:
Setup time slashed: from ~45 to 10 minutes per device.
Centralized control via CMS with role‑based access and device oversight.
Faster procurement: pre-approved Amazon purchase avoids lengthy RFPs, which meant deployment next day, not weeks.
Impact:
Streamlined operations, reliable performance, major cost savings.
Scalable blueprint for future campus-wide expansion, and applicable to other education institutions.
