It was another busy week in Pro AV. AVIXA announced scholarship winners, Shure welcomed a new sales channel leader, Almo Pro AV is heading North for its fall E4 Experience Tour, and LG has a new partnership.
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Four people on the move, seven partnerships you should know about, company announcements, and product enhancements dominated last week's news cycle. Sit back and get caught up in this week's Pro AV Newsmakers.
People News
Advanced Systems Group Adds Mark Vinten to Audio Team
Advanced Systems Group(ASG) welcomed Mark Vinten as senior account executive on its expanding Audio and Post Production team. In his new role, Vinten helps grow ASG's business by fortifying relationships with existing clients and developing new opportunities throughout Southern California.
Before joining ASG, Vinten spent 10 years with Evertz, where he advanced from service technician to director of West Coast sales and service. His career spans professional recording, broadcast technology, manufacturing, and systems integration. His range of experience gives him a unique perspective on media workflows and enables him to help clients see beyond individual products to how each part of a facility works together.
Grass Valley Appoints Ronny Van Geel as VP Cameras
Grass Valley has appointed Ronny Van Geel as VP, cameras, bringing more than 25 years of experience in camera technology, product management, strategy, and media production workflows to the role. He is focused on connecting the camera team’s deep technical expertise with the realities of modern production, and on turning that understanding into products that give operators, creatives and production teams more freedom and confidence in how they work.
Van Geel has worked across the camera business from both technical and product perspectives, most recently as director of product marketing at Grass Valley. He now returns to the camera organization with a broad understanding of how production is changing and what that means for the people working with these systems every day.
Keith Bountom Joins PrimeTime
PrimeTime Lighting Systems welcomed Keith Bountom as sales executive. Bountom focuses on building relationships with customers, chief engineers, lighting directors, dealers, systems integrators, and industry professionals while helping them identify professional lighting solutions for broadcast, video streaming, production, corporate, and other studio applications.
“PrimeTime has an impressive lineup of studio lighting products,” said Bountom. “What really stands out to me is the combination of professional light quality, rugged construction and innovative features like passive cooling and VariWhite. These are products designed for the demands of real-world studios, and I’m excited to help customers find the right lighting solution for their specific needs.”
Shure Appoints Monique Rezaei as Sales Channel Leader in North America
Shure has appointed Monique Rezaei as senior director, channel sales, North America. In this role, Rezaei leads Shure’s North American channel sales organization, helping strengthen partner engagement and drive growth as the convergence of AV, collaboration, and IT continues to reshape the industry.
Rezaei brings more than two decades of leadership experience spanning channel sales, strategic alliances, partner ecosystem development, and go-to-market strategy. She has helped organizations build high-performing partner programs, drive transformational growth initiatives, and strengthen collaboration across AV, IT, and unified communications markets. She is focusing on advancing Shure’s channel strategy, supporting partners’ evolving business needs, and identifying new opportunities to create value for customers across North America.
Partnerships
Arkona Partners with BFE for Arkona-Branded Control Panels
Arkona technologies GmbH has announced a new OEM partnership with BFE Studio und Medien Systeme GmbH. The partnership will allow arkona to offer arkona-branded control panels for their SDI-IP routing systems.
The agreement follows increasing demand from end users for arkona-labeled control panels as the company's EASY-IP concept has gained traction in the market. Since introducing EASY-IP, a solution which helps broadcasters make the transition from SDI to IP-based production facilities, arkona has attracted significant interest from broadcasters building larger SDI-IP routers, creating a need for comprehensive control solutions, both software and hardware-based.
Future Ready Solutions Announces Partnership with Lowell Manufacturing
Future Ready Solutions has formed a strategic partnership with Lowell Manufacturing to serve the custom installation market across the United States. Effective immediately, Future Ready Solutions has been appointed master distributor of Lowell AV racks, cable management, connectivity, power, and audio reinforcement products for audiovisual resellers, strategic buying groups, and Pro AV industry organizations.
Founded in St. Louis in 1947 by Ben and Dorothy Lowell, Lowell Manufacturing is a third-generation, family-led manufacturer of AV Racks and professional audio and AV infrastructure solutions. Based in Pacific, MO, the company produces more than 1,000 products across its equipment rack, power distribution and audio product lines. Lowell combines a long history of patented product innovation with advanced robotic manufacturing, powder-coating capabilities and domestic production of many power products to deliver practical, installer-focused solutions for professional AV system integration.
GUDE, Lightware Collaborate on Automation Platform
GUDE Systems' smart PDUs now integrate into Lightware’s LARA (Lightware Advanced Room Automation) platform. With the new GUDE driver module, AV equipment and smart power distribution can now be managed together via unified automation workflows—configured directly within the LARA environment.
GUDE’s “Expert Power Control” series can be managed directly through LARA, making energy management part of the same automation logic as AV device control. For system integrators and AV professionals, this means simplified deployment, operation, and maintenance. Features include unified control environment, automated Power Management, remote reboots, and faster commissioning.
LEA Professional Partners with Atlantic Integrated
LEA Professional has partnered with Rockleigh, NJ-based manufacturer’s representative Atlantic Integrated. This partnership brings LEA’s extensive technology catalog to customers in the New York metropolitan area.
With extensive experience in the custom installation and integration business, the Atlantic Integrated team will represent LEA’s Network Connect series of professional amplifiers and companion Dante Connect series featuring Dante and AES67 connectivity.
LG and Marriott Enhance Hospitality and the Guest Experience
Marriott International and LG Electronics announced a long-term strategic collaboration focused on enhancing the guest experience, beginning with a cloud platform for guest room entertainment and technology. Marriott plans to adopt the jointly developed platform across its participating hotel portfolio, bringing a modern approach to in-room entertainment and laying the foundation for device management and connected guest experiences across Marriott properties.
Given Marriott's long-standing relationship with LG, the company was selected to expand its work with the hotel company to support its hospitality tech ecosystem, starting with an innovative guest room entertainment and technology platform for next-generation guest experiences. Marriott is shaping the platform around guest experience, property operations, and enterprise integration needs, while LG is co-developing the platform, device management, and technical support behind it.
Beyond enhancing the guest room experience, the platform provides Marriott with a centralized enterprise management environment for its in-room technology. Marriott associate teams will now have the ability to monitor device health, performance, and status across individual guest room televisions, entire hotel properties, specific brands or groups of hotels, and even its broader property portfolio. This centralized approach enables faster issue identification, more efficient content and application updates, and improved operational visibility across Marriott's global hospitality network.
Telestream and NVIDIA Bring AI-Powered Upscaling into Vantage Workflows
Telestream announced advanced AI video enhancement capabilities powered by NVIDIA in Telestream Vantage, expanding upon Telestream’s existing practical AI capabilities embedded across the media pipeline. Vantage Super Resolution will be one of the first solutions developed through the collaboration.
Built on the NVIDIA Video Effects SDK, part of the NVIDIA AI for Media collection, the new capability brings AI-powered super resolution directly into Vantage as a transcoder option, allowing media companies to automatically upscale legacy SD and HD content into modern HD, 4K, and UHD deliverables without leaving the workflow. The integration is designed to help broadcasters, sports organizations, post-production teams, and content owners modernize archive libraries by improving the visual quality of the content, qualify older assets for today’s distribution requirements, and turn dormant content into new revenue opportunities.
Zixi and Ateme Deepen Strategic Alliance
Zixi and Ateme have expanded their strategic partnership to help broadcasters and content owners accelerate the transition from satellite to resilient IP and cloud-based workflows. By combining Zixi’s software-defined transport platform with Ateme’s video processing and delivery solutions, the companies are evolving their long-standing relationship into a jointly engineered, co-marketed collaboration focused on premium live event contribution and distribution.
As broadcasters and content owners face rising satellite costs, shrinking transponder availability, and mounting pressure to deliver premium live experiences at scale, the combination of Ateme's encoding efficiency and Zixi's reliable, protocol-agnostic IP transport layer gives customers a proven, end-to-end alternative that spans contribution, distribution, and delivery across on-premises, hybrid, and fully cloud environments.
Company News
AIMS Announces Certification of 14 Additional IPMX Products
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) announced the results of its second IPMX Product Certification Test Event, held August 24-28 at European Broadcasting Union (EBU) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Eight manufacturers submitted 14 products for testing, and all 14 were officially certified to the IPMX standard, qualifying them to carry the IPMX branding and signaling verified compliance with published transport, control and interoperability requirements.
The EBU serves as the independent certification authority for IPMX and conducted the testing at its Geneva facility, while AIMS administers the certification program overall. This event, the second since the program's inaugural session in January 2026 that certified 48 products from 10 manufacturers, was open to AIMS, VSF and AMWA member companies and continues the shift from informal plugfests to a formal, repeatable certification process, giving integrators and end users an independent basis for verifying IPMX interoperability.
Following rigorous testing, solutions from Bridge Technologies, Cobalt Digital, EvertzAV, ITDev, intoPIX, Matrox Video, Macnica, and PlexusAV successfully passed certification. Testing covered the baseline IPMX requirements along with uncompressed video and audio, the JPEG XS profile, the JPEG XS TDC profile mode, and the HKEP and PEP capabilities. Certified products and their tested capabilities are listed in the IPMX certification registry at registry.ipmx.io/registry.
Almo Pro AV Brings the E4 Experience Back This Fall
Almo Pro AV is taking the E4 Experience back on the road this fall, stopping in Dallas on September 15 and Boston on October 15. Billed as the Pro AV industry’s original traveling regional event for integrators, consultants, IT Managers, and end users, the E4 Experience is a customizable day-long format designed to give local attendees endless networking opportunities, a showroom of newly launched products, AVIXA-credited CTS RU education, and practical, optimizable tips and tools that can be immediately implemented.
“As humans, we know that nothing replaces the impact of face-to-face experiences,” explained Greg O’Rourke, director of tradeshows and events for Almo Pro AV. “Industry professionals who attend an E4 Experience can expect to spend time with technical and service professionals, shake hands, catch up and network in our ‘family-like’ professional atmosphere. Following an E4 Experience, attendees should be able to immediately utilize the information and relationships they gain in a way that is both practical and profitable for them.”
Get the full agenda for Dallas and Boston by clicking here!
EN 54 Certification Extends the L-Acoustics Ecosystem to Voice Alarm Applications
Sports venues have long run two audio systems in parallel: one for the announcer, the playlist, and the halftime show, and a second, specified against EN 54, for evacuation. That has required two sets of loudspeakers in the same concourse, two sets of electronics, two maintenance contracts. For L-Acoustics systems, that duplication is no longer necessary.
L-Acoustics has attained EN 54 certification across a growing portfolio of loudspeakers, amplified controllers and network products, to EN 54-24 for loudspeakers forming part of a voice alarm system and to EN 54-16 for voice alarm control and indicating equipment. The enclosures and electronics that the industry specifies for concert-grade sound reinforcement now also hold the certification required for life safety announcements. EN 54-16 certification covers the LA7.16i, LA1.16i, LA4X and LA2Xi amplified controllers, as well as the LC16D network audio converter and the LS10 Milan-AVB switch when integrated into the PAVA Facilities VACIE rack. Amplification, processing, monitoring and fault reporting therefore stay within the same platform that drives the entertainment system.
Products Enhancements
Canon U.S.A.'s upcoming firmware updates for its PTZ lineup will deliver new advanced functionality and improved performance. The new array of firmware updates for Canon’s 4K remote PTZ camera systems improve convenience and efficiency across a wide range of shooting needs and applications, from live events, news production, reality television, houses of worship, and much more. All Canon IP-enabled PTZ cameras, including the CR-N700, CR-N500, CR-N400, CR-N350, CR-N300, CR-N100 and CR-X300, as well as the RC-IP1000 controller are receiving updates for performance and feature improvements. Select PTZ cameras are receiving significant new features that include On-board recording and Face Registration Auto Tracking for enhanced workflows and maximum creative control.
FOR-A expanded its viztrick AiDi into an overarching AI technology brand encompassing two dedicated products: Go Vertical! AiDi and AiDi Sports Hub. Developed by Nippon TV and delivered globally by FOR-A, viztrick AiDi brings advanced AI capabilities directly into live production workflows, with on-device processing designed to deliver the speed and responsiveness live content demands. The new product structure makes it easier for broadcasters, sports producers, and other content creators to choose the AI tools that fit their needs. Go Vertical! AiDi addresses the growing demand for mobile-first video delivered in a 9:16 format, while AiDi Sports Hub applies AI to create more engaging live coverage with tools that provide additional context.
Haivision's Makito ONE video transport platform, the company’s low latency, dual channel multi‑codec encoder/decoder designed for pristine 4K, HD, and high dynamic range (HDR) broadcast contribution, now supports live video contribution over bonded cellular networks through seamless integration with the CellLink 5G external modem and antenna array. Commonly used as a low latency contribution encoder over Ethernet-connected networks, Makito ONE is now reported to be the first device of its kind to also leverage cellular connectivity for contribution, all from a single hardware blade. This gives broadcasters maximum flexibility and additional resiliency from diverse network options, ensuring the best video quality for live productions in remote, mobile, and unpredictable network environments.
QuickLink expanded its StudioEdge remote contribution platform, introducing new support for WhatsApp and Cisco Webex, along with enhanced integration for Microsoft Teams. These updates further strengthen StudioEdge as a unified, multi‑platform solution for connecting remote guests, experts, and contributors into professional production environments.
