Skykit Webinar Flags Firmware Security and TCO Risks in Enterprise Signage Buys
2026-08-14 · via Digital Signage Today
Skykit CEO Irfan Khan and CTO Paul Lundberg used a recent webinar to warn enterprise buyers that the features vendors usually pitch, ease of use, template libraries, hardware flexibility, are not what determines whether a large-scale signage deployment succeeds. According to Skykit, the real risks show up in firmware control, vendor accountability during outages and total cost of ownership over years, not months.
The most striking example Khan gave involved a customer that chose system-on-chip displays for their flexibility. A penetration test later found the devices were generating VPN connections to China. Skykit says the cause was the SoC manufacturer pushing firmware updates through its own channel, outside Skykit's control. Khan called the situation "the Wild West" when a vendor does not control device firmware. The announcement does not name the manufacturer or say when this occurred, only that it predates Skykit's current firmware-level integration work with Hisense.
The episode is being used to argue against "hardware agnostic" as an unqualified selling point. For security teams managing signage at scale, every mixed-vendor device is a potential entry point, and buyers should be asking who controls firmware updates and whether they arrive through signed, secure channels.
Cost and accountability
Skykit also frames fragmented deployments, separate vendors for hardware, CMS and content, as a hidden cost driver. The company's argument: when a screen fails overnight, a single-vendor stack means one call resolves it, while a multi-vendor stack invites finger-pointing. Skykit says CFOs are increasingly asking about five-year total cost of ownership rather than just license fees, which pushes procurement conversations earlier into technical due diligence.
Revenue use cases beyond DOOH
Beyond digital-out-of-home ad sales, Khan described "revenue-influencing" signage, citing a logistics company using Salesforce dashboards to gamify truck loading, and retail media triggered by point-of-sale scans suggesting adjacent products. Lundberg noted that running dashboards like Power BI across hundreds of screens involves handling authentication, session timeouts, SSO platforms such as Okta, and offline operation, problems that do not show up when demoing a single screen.
The piece, originally published on Skykit's own site, ends with a list of questions Skykit recommends buyers ask vendors: who controls firmware, what happens during an outage, whether the vendor is SOC 2 compliant and pen-tested, how authentication and offline operation are handled, and what five-year TCO looks like including service calls and IT overhead.
Readers should note this is Skykit's own account of its webinar and reflects the company's competitive positioning around full-stack, firmware-controlled deployments. The announcement does not include independent verification of the China VPN incident or specifics on which competitors it might be describing.
The announcement in full
Reproduced from Digital Signage Today for reference. Digital Signage Magazine did not write the text below.
Digital signage solutions are great, but not if your screens start creating VPN connections to foreign countries without your knowledge.
If you're evaluating digital signage solutions right now, most vendor demos focus on the same things: how easy their interface is to use, their library of ready-made templates and how they work with "any hardware" you choose.
But here's what we're hearing from enterprise buyers in 2026: None of that matters if your screens start creating VPN connections to foreign countries without your knowledge. Or if a screen outage at midnight triggers a blame game between three different vendors. Or if your CFO can't see the business case beyond "better employee communications."
In a recent webinar with Skykit CEO Irfan Khan, CTO Paul Lundberg and industry veteran Stuart Armstrong the insight went beyond the usual vendor talking points. The conversation focused on technical realities, security implications and business outcomes — the things that actually determine whether an enterprise deployment succeeds or creates ongoing headaches.
When "hardware agnostic" becomes a liability
The industry has long celebrated hardware agnostic as a selling point: the flexibility to use any media player, any screen, mix and match as you please. It sounds appealing in demos. Then you try to scale it.
Khan shared a story that should make any IT leader's blood run cold: A customer had opted for specific system-on-chip displays — screens with integrated Android systems that run digital signage software without external hardware. (This was before Skykit had developed irmware-level SoC integrations like its current partnership with Hisense.) Everything seemed fine until their security team ran a penetration test and discovered the devices were generating VPN connections to China.
The culprit? This particular SoC manufacturer was creating those connections to push firmware updates, completely outside Skykit's control. The customer thought they were getting flexibility. What they got was a security vulnerability that could have compromised their entire corporate network.
As Irfan put it: "When we're not controlling the firmware, it's the Wild West."
This is why chief information security officers don't think hardware agnostic is a benefit — they think it's a problem. When digital signage is deployed at scale across an enterprise, every device becomes a potential entry point for bad actors.
Security teams need to know exactly what's running on those devices, who controls the firmware, and whether updates happen through secure, signed channels.
The hidden math of "saving money" on digital signage
Let's talk about something that rarely comes up in vendor pitches: permutations.
Every variation in your technology stack — different hardware models, firmware versions, integration points — creates permutations. And permutations are expensive.
When a screen goes down at 3 a.m. and you're managing a fragmented solution (one vendor for hardware, another for CMS, maybe a third for content creation), who do you call?
And they'll all point fingers at each other while your revenue-generating displays sit dark or your factory floor dashboard shows nothing.
The difference is stark. Compare what happens when a screen fails in a fragmented environment versus a full-stack solution: → In the former, you're playing detective across multiple vendors. → In the latter, one call resolves it because one team controls the entire stack — from device firmware to cloud infrastructure to application layer.
This matters especially when you're making a five-year decision, not a one-year pilot. The upfront cost of an integrated solution gets spread across thousands of screens and years of operation. Meanwhile, the "cheaper" option racks up costs in service calls, IT overhead, and downtime that never appear in the initial quote.
As Khan noted: CFOs are now entering these conversations early, asking about ROI and payback periods. They want to understand total cost of ownership, not just monthly licensing fees.
From cost center to revenue driver (and revenue influencer)
Here's where the conversation gets interesting for anyone who's been told digital signage is just a "nice to have" communications tool.
The obvious revenue play is digital out-of-home advertising — selling ad space on your screens. But the more sophisticated use case is what Irfan calls "revenue-influencing digital signage."
Example : A logistics company uses Salesforce dashboards on their sales floor to gamify truck loading. They're not generating ad revenue from those screens, but they're influencing revenue by driving employee behavior that impacts sales performance.
Another example from the webinar : Retail media networks where content gets triggered based on items scanned at point-of-sale, suggesting adjacent products customers can add to their purchase. These aren't futuristic concepts. They're happening now. And they require a fundamentally different technical architecture than basic content rotation.
The technical reality nobody talks about
If you think displaying a Power BI dashboard on a screen is as simple as hooking up a desktop and logging in, Skykit CTO Paul Lundberg has news for you.
Try doing that across 500 screens. Now handle the authentication challenges: service accounts, multi-factor authentication, single sign-on platforms like Okta. Deal with session timeouts that happen unpredictably. Remove the interactive elements that make sense on a laptop, but are useless on a fixed display. Handle the random pop-ups announcing new features that a human user would click through — but an automated device needs to detect and dismiss autonomously.
And make sure it all works offline when network connectivity drops, because those dashboards are often mission-critical. Warehouse employees might not have workstations or corporate phones. That screen on the floor is how they know what to do that day.
This is why "we integrate with Power BI" means very different things depending on who's saying it.
The most interesting trends aren't about new features. They're about new business models and use cases that came up in the webinar.
Irfan highlighted how software companies are using Skykit as an invisible backbone to get their products onto screens. A restaurant management software builds menu views, then leverages Skykit's APIs and white-labeled hardware to deliver them. Their customers get a solution that just works out of the box. Skykit powers it behind the scenes.
Paul discussed how edge computing enables the revenue-generating use cases they're seeing. Skykit's devices can orchestrate multiple content sources in real-time (programmatic ads, enterprise data, connected TV feeds) while operating offline. This matters for proof-of-play: ad networks still get their data even during connectivity issues.
On AI, Skykit takes a partnership approach. Rather than building image generation tools into their platform, they integrate with Canva and other tools customers already use for content creation.
If you're evaluating digital signage vendors in 2026, here are the questions to prioritize:
Who controls the firmware on the devices, and how are updates managed?
What happens when a screen fails in the middle of the night? Who do I call, and how fast can they diagnose the problem?
Are you SOC 2 compliant? Do you conduct annual penetration testing?
How do you handle authentication to data dashboards, and what happens when sessions time out?
Can your platform operate offline and still collect proof-of-play data for advertising networks?
What's the total cost of ownership over five years, including support, service calls, and IT overhead?
These aren't the flashiest questions. But they're the ones that determine whether your deployment scales successfully or becomes a cautionary tale.
Editor's Note: This blog appeared originally in Skykit's showcase .
Skykit provides scalable and secure digital signage solutions to mid-size and large-scale enterprises, empowering them to transform spaces into dynamic hubs of communication and connection. From factories to hospitals to retail, Skykit makes digital signage accessible, intuitive, and impactful.
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