Norzad
A Captive Audience With Nowhere Else To Look
Aug 2026
Free screens for venues, a captive local audience for advertisers, and Norzad owns and runs the hardware in between.
Norzad is a digital signage network that places free screens in barbershops, salons, and waiting rooms across Waterloo Region, then sells local advertisers access to the captive audience sitting in front of them.
Visit NorzadOverview
Norzad puts screens where people wait. Barbershops, salons, waiting rooms: places where someone is sitting still for a haircut, a manicure, or a late appointment, looking at whatever is in front of them. Norzad puts a screen in that eyeline, fills it with a curated video loop, and sells local businesses the chance to show up in it. It’s a physical business as much as a software one: hardware in real venues, content that has to keep playing whether or not anyone’s watching the dashboard.
The Model
Norzad runs two sides of the same network. Venues get a screen for free: no contract beyond thirty days’ notice either way, no hardware to buy, nothing to maintain. Norzad installs it, owns it, and keeps it running. In exchange, the venue gets a curated video library with a kids mode, plus the ability to promote its own business on the screen at no cost.
Advertisers pay for the other side of that same screen. A local business tells Norzad the area, the dates, and how many slots per loop it wants, and Norzad puts together the venues and timing to reach that audience. Nothing goes on a screen automatically: a person reviews every request and confirms availability and pricing in writing before anything runs. The venue never touches the screen, the advertiser never touches the venue, and Norzad sits in the middle keeping both sides honest.
Key Features
- Free screen installation for venues, no contract beyond thirty days’ notice either way
- Norzad owns, installs, and maintains all hardware, the venue never has to
- Curated video library with a kids mode, plus free promotion of the venue’s own business
- Screens work without internet and recover from power cuts on their own
- Every item that appears on a screen is logged: what, where, and for how long
- No cameras, no tracking, nothing collected about the customers in the seat
- Advertisers submit area, dates, and slots per loop; Norzad confirms availability and pricing in writing within two business days
- A play only counts when at least 90% of the item was shown
- 95% uptime guarantee, with a credit for any shortfall below it
- Reports show every play by venue and by day, exportable as a spreadsheet
- One price, the same for every advertiser, confirmed before anything is agreed