Partnerships and product updates were abound last week in Pro AV. The big news of the week was a personnel change.
Longtime FORTÉ CEO Jeff Stoebner will transition to executive chairman of the board as former CFO Christopher Mounts was tabbed to become the company's next CEO. We broke the news last Tuesday, so you can get all the details in our article by clicking here.
Now, on with the show.
Partnerships
Audiologic Appointed as Authorised Distributor for Lumens
Audiologic was named an authorized distributor of Lumens across the U.K. and Ireland beginning on Oct. 1. Lumens is a specialist manufacturer of PTZ and auto-tracking cameras, voice-tracking, meeting room solutions, and AV over IP infrastructure for corporate, education, government, and civic environments – markets at the core of Audiologic's integrator-focused, project-led business.
The appointment extends Audiologic's premium portfolio into camera and video distribution, complementing brands such as Yamaha, Shure, and Sennheiser, already frequently specified alongside Lumens technology on integrated AV projects.
dBTechnologies USA Strengthens Northeast Presence with Richard Dean Associates
dBTechnologies USA has appointed Richard Dean Associates as its manufacturers’ representative for the six New England states and Upstate New York. The partnership expands the company’s sales and technical presence across the region while providing dealers, integrators, rental companies, consultants and end users with direct access to an experienced local team.
Founded in 1975 by Richard Bazirgan and Dean Goodwin, Richard Dean Associates has represented professional audio and video manufacturers throughout the Northeast for more than five decades. Principal Partners John “JD” Davidson and Bill King purchased the company in 2022 and have continued to build upon its established position in the market.
In addition to sales representation, RDA provides marketing assistance, product training, system-design assistance, technical support, order processing and management, and site and project assessment. The company works with dealers, distributors, rental companies and AV design consultants while also supporting end users through its established dealer network.
LEA Professional Announces Partnership with Adagio Pro
LEA Professional has partnered with Adagio Pro, a Barcelona-based commercial audio distributor. This partnership brings LEA’s extensive technology catalog to customers in Spain.
Adagio Pro is part of Holmusic, a family-owned business with over 50 years of industry experience. This partnership will represent LEA Professional’s Network Connect series of professional amplifiers and companion Dante Connect series featuring Dante and AES67 connectivity. These series enable integrators to utilize cloud-based remote control, monitoring, notifications, and more from any internet-enabled device, allowing them to stay connected anywhere in the world.
Nureva and AudioCodes simplify Teams Rooms with MDEP
Nureva introduced its joint Android platform solution—powered by the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP)—has received Microsoft Teams Rooms certification for medium-sized spaces. The solution combines the Nureva HDL310 audio conferencing system with the AudioCodes dual-lens RXVCam70PTZ Camera, RXV200-ES Android Intelligent AV Hub, and RX-PAD-ES Meeting Room Controller to deliver a seamless, scalable and easy-to-manage conferencing experience.
The joint solution from Nureva and AudioCodes offers plug and play simplicity without complex DSPs, custom programming, tabletop mics or ceiling microphones. Built on MDEP, the certified solution supports enterprise-grade security and compliance, giving IT teams the ability to manage devices through familiar Microsoft tools. It features full-room audio pickup enabled by Nureva’s patented Microphone Mist technology, which creates a grid of thousands of virtual microphones for clear and consistent coverage throughout the space. With AI-powered camera tracking, a Teams Room AV hub and room controller from AudioCodes, the combined solution ensures natural conversations and inclusive meeting experiences for both in-room and remote participants.
The combination of the RX-PAD-ES controller and RXV200-ES hub simplifies management of the complete room experience, including the HDL310 system. Through the intuitive interface of the RX-PAD-ES controller, users can adjust settings such as volume, mute and microphone gain, prompt calibration and run device updates — eliminating the need for a separate management application. The HDL310 audio system connects directly to the RXV200-ES hub through a USB cable, simplifying deployment with less cabling and fewer network devices to manage.
This joint solution is part of a broader collaboration between AudioCodes and Nureva to deliver best-of-breed room systems for today’s hybrid working and learning environments. It also expands both companies’ ecosystems of reference designs, certifications, platform integrations and management tools.
Symetrix Expands Benelux Distribution with Audio-Technica
Symetrix has expanded its exclusive distribution partnership with Audio-Technica Benelux to include Belgium and Luxembourg. Building on the companies’ existing relationship in the Netherlands, the expanded agreement strengthens Symetrix’s presence and local support across the entire Benelux region.
For nearly 50 years, Symetrix has developed advanced AV and control solutions that help consultants and integrators design and deliver sophisticated systems with confidence. Through the expanded partnership, customers in Belgium and Luxembourg will gain local access to Symetrix’s complete portfolio, including Cognio, the company’s next-generation AV and control ecosystem built around distributed intelligence, inherent scalability, and a software-driven approach to system design and deployment.
Audio-Technica Benelux brings deep regional market expertise, an established network of professional AV partners, and decades of experience representing premium audio brands and technologies. Its local sales and technical teams will provide customers across the region with knowledgeable, responsive support throughout the design, deployment, and ongoing operation of Symetrix systems.
Product Updates
New LYNX Technik Series 5000 Card Provides Frame Sync with Audio and UPXD Processing
LYNX Technik's new PVD 5440 DO combines frame sync, up/down/cross conversion, motion adaptive de-interlacing, and comprehensive audio embedding and de-embedding in a single 12G-SDI Series 5000 card.
At the heart of the PVD 5440 DO is the Up/Down/Cross (UPXD) processing engine, incorporating LYNX Technik’s high-quality, motion-adaptive de-interlacing technology. The de-interlacing process uses motion-adaptive processing followed by diagonal interpolation—delivering clean, detailed images while minimizing common interlacing artifacts. The processing engine also supports conversion between virtually all broadcast formats, including resolution and frame rate conversion. Additional features include crop and zoom, horizontal flip, and a built-in test pattern generator with automatic failover when the input signal is lost. The PVD 5440 DO also provides comprehensive audio processing across 12G-SDI, MADI, and AES.
The PVD 5440 DO provides one 12G-SDI input and four 12G-SDI outputs, with one output configurable as loop-through. Optional fiber connectivity is available through a wide range of SFP modules, and two GPI inputs provide remote control for input switching, video freeze, and more. Configuration, monitoring, and status are managed through LynxCentraal control software.
d&b audiotechnik Introduces System Auralization for ArrayCalc
d&b audiotechnik has added a new software feature, System Auralization, that enables sound professionals to listen to their loudspeaker system design before it is deployed. With System Auralization, d&b adds a new dimension to the workflow, allowing users to hear the direct sound of a system design and assess aspects of system performance that are often easier to evaluate by listening than by studying graphs alone.
System Auralization generates a real-time binaural rendering of the current system configuration. Users can move freely through a virtual venue in first-person mode, listening from different audience positions and exploring how design decisions influence the listening experience across the coverage area. This makes it possible to hear how design choices impact coverage, imaging, and tonal balance across the audience area.
Users can immediately hear the impact of changes to loudspeaker positioning, array geometry, amplifier settings, filters and ArrayProcessing configurations, helping them refine and validate decisions before arriving on site.
Panopto Launches New Features to Enhance Video
Panopto released three new capabilities that help people find answers faster, turn trusted video into active learning, and bring organizational knowledge into the AI tools they already use.
Panopto Folio turns trusted lecture, training, and other Panopto content into an active study partner. Instead of rewatching a full recording to find the part that matters, learners can generate study guides, flashcards, and practice quizzes from that content, or work with an AI tutor grounded in the material itself. AI Search lets people ask questions conversationally across their entire Panopto library and get a synthesized answer with links back to the exact source clip and timestamp, instead of guessing which recording has the answer or scrubbing through hours of footage. And lastly, Panopto's MCP Server connects with approved tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft 365 Copilot directly to knowledge stored in Panopto, so organizations can securely bring that knowledge into the tools their people already use. Panopto's existing permissions and administrative controls carry over, access is read-only, and organizational content is never used to train external AI models. Teams get the flexibility to build without giving up security, permissions, or control.
Verkada Brings Cloud-Managed Control to Enterprise Sound Systems
Verkada launched Verkada Sound Systems, a cloud-managed audio platform that gives enterprises a single interface to manage audio hardware, announcements, and commercially licensed audio across sites. The launch addresses a longstanding AV operations challenge: enterprise sound environments are often assembled from separate components, making remote management and scaling difficult.
Verkada Sound Systems offers two paths to cloud management. New network audio players connect existing third-party speakers and amplifiers to Verkada Command, enabling organizations to modernize existing environments without replacing wiring. Additionally, new Power over Ethernet network speakers connect directly to Command, eliminating the need for dedicated processors, racks, and amplifiers – for simpler deployment.
Through Command, teams can monitor hardware health, stream commercially licensed music through native integrations, and route announcements across an entire organization or down to an individual site, space, or zone. The platform also connects with Verkada Alarms for AI-powered deterrence and Desk Station for one-tap audio control.
