01
A TV (you have one)
Any TV with HDMI. Size and brand don't matter. Wall-mount it near an outlet; portrait or landscape both work — you set the aspect when you design the board.
Guide · TV to signage
Any TV can be digital signage. Here's the honest recipe.
Digital signage is just a TV plus a small player plus software that updates it remotely. You probably own two of the three already. CanvasRelay is the third.
The managed-screen difference
The TV becomes a device you can see and update.
A player turns an HDMI television into a paired screen with an assigned board, heartbeat, release state, and remote actions—not just a slideshow target.- Pair the player to your account
- Assign and publish a complete board
- Monitor health and update remotely
Cloud basedAccess anywhere
Design onceUpdate in real time
Relay everywhereAny screen, any size
Reliable & secureOffline playback built in
The three ingredients
02
A player ($0–50)
A $30 Fire TV Stick or Android box is the cheap answer; a Raspberry Pi is the bulletproof one; an old laptop or mini PC costs nothing. The player runs CanvasRelay and talks to your dashboard.
03
CanvasRelay (free to start)
Design boards in a real canvas editor, link your data so prices update everywhere, publish, and manage every screen's health from one dashboard. One live screen free, forever.
Why not just a USB stick of photos?
01
The USB-stick tax
Every price change means re-exporting a JPEG, finding the stick, driving to the location, and hoping the TV's slideshow app cooperates. Multiply by every screen and every week. Most USB-stick signage is months out of date — customers notice.
02
The managed-screen difference
Change a price from your phone and it's on the wall in under a minute. Schedule by time of day, push an announcement to every screen, get an email if a screen goes dark, and see what's playing without visiting. That's the job signage software actually does.
Pick your player
Compare Fire TV & Android TV paths
See the available browser route and the honest development and Store status of each native target.
Read more →Raspberry Pi
The bulletproof option for unattended, always-on screens.
Read more →Any web browser
Old laptop, mini PC, or a smart-TV browser — zero new hardware.
Read more →Board templates
Start from a real menu or promo layout instead of a blank canvas.
Read more →Questions, answered
01Can any TV really do this?+
Any TV with an HDMI port, yes — the smarts live in a small player (Fire Stick, Android box, Raspberry Pi, mini PC), not the TV. Even a ten-year-old TV works. Smart-TV built-in browsers can preview a board but we don't recommend them for unattended playback.
02What can I show on it?+
Menus, promos, announcements, photo slideshows, video, clocks, weather, QR codes, countdowns — laid out freely on a canvas, not squeezed into a fixed template. Multiple scenes can rotate or switch on a schedule.
03Do I have to walk to the TV with a USB stick to update it?+
Never. You edit in a web dashboard and screens update themselves in under a minute — one TV or fifty, in one building or five towns. If the internet drops, screens keep playing their cached content.
04What does it cost?+
One screen is free forever with a small watermark. Paid plans start at $9/screen/month. Hardware is whatever you have — a $30 Fire Stick is the cheapest reliable option.
Start with the part that's free.
Design your screen in the real editor — no account — and pair a device when you're ready to see it on the wall.
Try the editor — no account neededFree plan includes one live screen. No credit card. No trial clock.