AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.
Thought Leader: Roberto Musso, Technical Director at NDI
As organizations continue adapting to hybrid operations and geographically distributed teams, cloud infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important part of modern AV workflows. However, the discussion is often more nuanced than simply moving everything into the cloud.
In many cases, the real value of cloud adoption is flexibility. Organizations can deploy resources more dynamically, support remote collaboration, simplify content distribution, and scale operations without being constrained by fixed physical infrastructure.
At the same time, not every workflow benefits equally from a cloud-first approach. In professional AV environments, operational requirements such as latency, reliability, synchronization, bandwidth availability, and overall system predictability remain extremely important. For this reason, many organizations are adopting hybrid models where cloud and on-premises infrastructures coexist depending on the specific application.
The future of AV will likely be defined less by fully centralized cloud models and more by intelligent hybrid infrastructures that combine local performance with the flexibility of distributed and cloud-connected environments.
Roberto Musso, Technical Director at NDI
One of the biggest shifts happening across the industry is the move toward software-defined and IP-based infrastructures. Rather than building isolated hardware silos, organizations increasingly want workflows that can adapt over time, integrate different technologies, and operate across multiple locations without forcing a complete redesign of the infrastructure.
This is where technologies such as NDI are helping accelerate the transition. By using standard IP networking and software-driven workflows, organizations can build infrastructures that are significantly more flexible than traditional hardware-centric approaches, while still enabling operation across local, remote, and cloud-connected environments.
This is also changing the relationship between AV and IT teams. Media workflows are no longer isolated systems; they are becoming part of broader enterprise networks and operational strategies. As a result, interoperability, visibility, security, and network management are becoming central considerations for AV deployments.
Another important trend is the growing demand for open and flexible ecosystems. Organizations are increasingly reluctant to lock themselves into a single vendor, workflow model, or deployment architecture. Interoperability is no longer viewed as an optional feature, but as a fundamental requirement for long-term operational flexibility.
Ultimately, the future of AV will likely be defined less by fully centralized cloud models and more by intelligent hybrid infrastructures that combine local performance with the flexibility of distributed and cloud-connected environments.
