NOW AVAILABLE! AV Technology Manager’s Guide to The State of AV/IT

30+ AV/IT Thought Leaders On The State of AV/IT: They address pain points, such as existing infrastructure and major AV equipment that hasn't reached the end of its lifecycle, the importance of security, and the role of the cloud and AI.

154 Award-Winning Products—Best of Show at InfoComm: Check out what the judges had to say about the products they evaluated while at the show.

AV/IT Team: Check out how state-of-the-art networked audio, control, distribution, and switching bring an esports program to the next level in a 500-seat arena—and leave their opponents in the dust.

3 Case Studies: Montréal Transit Hub Gets a Digital Signage Overhaul | With Assistive Listening, Every Voice Is Heard in Midrealm | Dynamic dvLED Enhances Civic and Community Events

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AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Zec Voislavm, Director of Product Development at WyreStorm Technologies

Let’s be honest: For a long time, the cloud just sounded like more work for AV teams. It meant more security hoops to jump through and more things for the IT department to say "no" to. But the industry is shifting for a very blunt reason: The old way of managing hardware is killing our margins and our schedules.

For integrators, the cloud is a pivot from reactive firefighting to actual profit. We’ve all been there—sending a tech across town at rush hour just to power-cycle a box or toggle a setting. It’s a waste of talent and gas. With a cloud-based dashboard, you’re seeing the "check engine" light before the client even walks into the room. You can push firmware at 2 a.m. from your couch instead of 2 p.m. in a boardroom. It turns a frantic service call into a quiet, remote fix, keeping your best techs focused on new builds rather than truck rolls for minor glitches.

For operators, it’s about the Monday morning panic. When you’re managing 50 rooms across three floors or three time zones, visibility is everything. Cloud tools mean you aren't walking the halls testing mics manually. Instead, you know the status of every codec and display before the first meeting starts.

Of course, this isn't a shortcut. If you don't bake in security and network policy from day one, then you’re just building a bigger headache. But when done right, the cloud doesn't replace the expertise of a solid AV pro; it just stops them from wasting time on the boring stuff so they can focus on what actually matters: making sure the tech just works.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Amber Ward, Senior Marketing Director at Carousel Digital Signage

Cloud-based digital signage has transformed how organizations design and scale their signage networks. By connecting media players to cloud-hosted servers, organizations avoid complex inbound configurations, resulting in a much cleaner security and network landscape than in the on-premise era. The flexibility of cloud architecture allows seamless scaling across buildings, geographies, and device types—all without the need to rebuild the system each time. Content is no longer tied to dedicated displays: The same messaging can now reach web browsers, tablets, and mobile devices, which is crucial when audiences are spread across retail floors, campuses, or remote workforces.

For IT teams evaluating platforms, SOC 2 compliance should be on the short list of non-negotiables. It signals that a vendor has independently audited controls for data security and availability, and its absence is a serious network concern for any system that touches enterprise infrastructure.

One of the biggest pain points among IT professionals is that ownership of a cloud-based digital signage system can get murky. The team responsible for securing the system is not the same as the team managing its content. Before deployment, end users should establish clear roles and workflows for content creation, approval, and placement. This ensures accountability and prevents confusion about responsibilities.

Mixed-device environments are the norm. Media players, smart displays, mobile devices, and embedded hardware coexist on the same network. Finding digital signage software that works across that variety is essential, and one that integrates with your device management systems—not works outside them.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Tom Lureman, Director of Engineering and Product Management at AtlasIED

End users across a wide range of industries are increasingly adopting cloud solutions, motivated by the benefits of improved business continuity and preventive maintenance. This shift enables companies to provide ongoing, immediate support rather than unique, one-time fixes that integration partners can charge a premium for. Instead of waiting for unpredictable issues to arise and dispatching technicians, cloud solutions enable end users to proactively manage systems remotely. This approach helps prevent downtime and ensures that systems are operating efficiently.

Remote software and firmware updates play a vital role in proactive AV management. They ensure that systems remain secure, compatible, and up to date, reducing the need for on-site maintenance and enabling faster deployment of new features and fixes.

From deployment to maintenance, the cloud delivers unparalleled value compared to traditional systems. As end users look to upgrade their AV systems, solutions like Atmosphere Cloud will become the norm. This platform facilitates monitoring, updating, and modifying hardware settings, greatly enhancing operational efficiency. AtlasIED is dedicated to leading this transformation by providing tools that are not only powerful but also user-friendly and supportive of the evolving AV landscape.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Nancy Knowlton, Chief Executive Officer at Nureva

The debate over whether on-prem systems or the cloud are better has been running for years. The advantages of the cloud—scalability, flexibility, and the ability to deploy and manage systems remotely—are well understood. For many organizations, these advantages enable faster innovation and lower the burden on internal IT teams.

And yet, hesitation around cloud-based solutions remains.

Concerns about security, cost predictability, data sovereignty, and simple loss of control often hold organizations back. These are not irrational fears, especially for those with regulatory requirements or long-lived infrastructure investments. But avoiding the cloud altogether can also come with risks: missed efficiencies, slower response to change, access to fewer leading-edge apps, and growing technical debt.

Rather than treating the decision as all-or-nothing, a more productive mindset is to explore how cloud solutions could work in practice.

One approach is to start with a small pilot project. Pick something low risk and noncritical, and use it to understand how deployment, management, security, and costs actually play out. A pilot project can turn assumptions into evidence.

It’s also worth involving people early. Survey staff who will use or support the system to understand their reactions and concerns. Talk with peers in other organizations about how the cloud is working for them. Ask what went well, what surprised them, and what they would do differently. Benefit from their experiences.

Vendors can play a role, too. Ask suppliers of cloud-based applications for trials and detailed explanations of how their solutions address security, reliability, and long-term cost concerns.

The key is to get started—to do something. Getting started, even in a small way, creates insight that no amount of debate can replace.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Chris Merrill, Director of Product Management and Engineering at Panasonic

When we talk about cloud in Pro AV, we're rarely talking about the same thing. For some, cloud means a software interface accessible from anywhere on the network; for others, it's a remote data center operated by an application vendor, independent processing on a hyperscaler like AWS or Azure, or a hybrid combining several of these. The term has become so elastic that it's almost meaningless without context—and that ambiguity creates real risk for AV managers making infrastructure decisions.

In practice, what we're seeing across the industry is that most professional AV operations keep the heavy lifting on-premises. The reasons for this are practical: data security, content ownership, and the unforgiving latency requirements of live production, where buffering simply isn't an option. Cloud becomes a tactical resource—something you burst into for surge capacity or to access a specific capability that a hyperscaler handles better than local infrastructure. This isn't a failure to adopt; it's a mature recognition that Pro AV workloads have structural constraints that differ from general enterprise IT.

That reality is exactly what shapes our approach at Panasonic. Our KAIROS live production platform is built around the assumption that environments are hybrid by nature and not by compromise—supporting operators who need to integrate content and media sources across multiple formats and infrastructures without being locked into a single deployment model. Our recent partnership with NEP Group, integrating NEP Platform's software orchestration with KAIROS, is a concrete example: enabling live event providers to deploy workflows that move fluidly between traditional and IP-based infrastructure based on what the production actually demands.

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.

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.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Shannon Byrne, Vice President of Marketing at NETGEAR Enterpris

The professional AV industry is experiencing its most significant transformation in decades. The shift from hardware-centric, proprietary systems to cloud-managed, software-defined infrastructure is fundamentally changing how AV systems are designed, deployed, and operated—and the pace of that change is accelerating.

For AV and IT teams, the benefits are real and substantial. Remote management eliminates the need for most routine on-site visits. Centralized visibility across distributed installations turns proactive maintenance into standard practice. Auto-discovery and intelligent configuration compress commissioning timelines from days to hours. And the shift from capital expenditure to an operational expense model gives organizations greater financial flexibility, allowing them to scale capacity as needed rather than front-load infrastructure investments.

Perhaps most importantly, cloud-managed AV is finally closing the gap between AV and IT. IT teams gain the management consistency they expect from modern infrastructure, and AV professionals retain the specialized performance their applications demand.

But the opportunity comes with real risks. Cloud readiness is not automatic. Organizations must honestly assess whether their devices, networks, and internet bandwidth are prepared for cloud-dependent workflows, particularly with high-resolution video. Cloud storage costs can also surprise teams accustomed to the economics of local infrastructure. Security architecture requires deliberate design—not an afterthought.

The organizations navigating this transition most successfully treat it as both a technical and a business decision. They ask hard questions about readiness, total cost, and value rather than simply following industry momentum.

The future of AV is cloud-managed and software-defined: Getting there strategically is what separates the organizations that benefit most from those that struggle.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Aaron Rollins, Vice President of Product Management and Customer Experience at BrightSign

As AI creates possibilities for more customizable digital signage content, from personalized recommendations to real-time data overlays, the pressure grows for AV technology managers to oversee more endpoints and keep content running smoothly. Cloud platforms make these advanced deployments more manageable.

Running multiple screens from one cloud-based solution is the current baseline, but AI pushes it even further. Predictive alerts let AV managers detect playback issues before customers see a blank screen. Similarly, anomaly detection can identify when one digital signage player from a fleet of thousands drifts out of spec. Meanwhile, remote diagnostics can help resolve issues quickly without sending a repair technician onsite. This helps AV managers scale digital signage deployments at a lower operating cost and less manual work.

There are three major factors to consider that can help avoid operational concerns: open APIs, data ownership, and system security.

First, cloud platforms with published, documented APIs are critical. With visibility into how the system talks to itself, AV managers can audit it, integrate it, and transition off of it when needed. While branded as a security feature, closed APIs pose a lock-in risk.

Second, with digital signage players generating telemetry, content performance data, and audience engagement metrics, it’s critical to consider who owns the data and whether it can be exported.

And finally, SSO, certificate management, and role-based access ensure seamless, secure control for a well-managed fleet, minimizing liabilities. And cloud connectivity powered by a secure, reliable operating system ensures consistent performance and maximum uptime.

While AI has the potential to make digital signage deployments more engaging, they also grow increasingly complex. That’s where it’s critical to adopt a cloud platform with the control and visibility these activations will require.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Jim Kidwell, Principal Product Marketing Manager at Audinate

From boardrooms to live concert arenas, AV-over-IP has brought incredible flexibility to AV systems in almost every application. Now that cloud-based solutions have come to the AV world, the decision about when and how to use them should be part of the discussion. Multiple companies, including Audinate with Dante Director and Dante Director Professional, now offer management and monitoring applications that provide superior insights into AV networks, in effect elevating AV systems into the professional IT space. These management solutions are worth considering, as they offer new capabilities for remote device management that can positively affect your daily customer service and support.

Where the cloud is still evolving is the full adoption of production-based workflows hosted entirely in the cloud. Mature solutions for professional broadcast, such as Grass Valley’s AMPP, can provide a fully realized cloud-based broadcast production environment with hardware connectivity, including Dante audio.

Moving production environments into the cloud is a bit of an internal accounting shift for many organizations. It may no longer include as much capital expenditure up front, but will have higher operational expenses as you utilize cloud production systems. This is a shift that can have real financial benefits, as you only pay for the systems when you are actively using them. So, with some up-front budgetary planning, organizations can effectively shift their accounting and make systems more cost-effective and flexible when needed.

A few weeks ago, while doing some research, I came across a Harvard Business Review article titled “Welcome to the Experience Economy” by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore.

Turns out I was reading an article authored in 1998.

In technology terms, 1998 feels like another world. Before smartphones. Before cloud collaboration. Before hybrid work. And certainly, before AI became part of the daily operating vocabulary of almost every organization.

Yet what struck me was not how outdated the article felt, but how relevant its underlying logic of value still was.

The article explored two ideas that feel particularly important to this moment.

The first is the progression of economic value—from commodities, to goods, to services, and ultimately to experiences. As markets mature, each layer of value becomes more vulnerable to standardization and commoditization. What was once differentiated becomes easier to compare. So the opportunity for value has to keep moving upward, toward experiences that are more personal, more memorable, more relevant, and harder to reduce to a line item.

The second idea is more commercial, but just as important. Pine and Gilmore argue that companies reveal a great deal about the business they are really in by what they actually charge for. I think the end-user version of that question is equally important: if what we charge for reveals what we value, then what are you actually willing (and able) to pay for?

Those two ideas stayed with me because I believe they ask uncomfortable questions of the enterprise collaboration space in this moment.

The Experience Proposition

For years, the AV and collaboration industry has spoken the language of experience; moving from products to solutions, from systems to services, from rooms to outcomes, and from technology to workplace experience.

Yet, if we are honest, we have moved further in the opposite direction. We talked about outcomes, but optimized for standards. We talked about workplace experience, but bought and sold around equipment, deployment, support, and refresh. We talked about delivering strategic value while creating efficient operational and commercial models.

There were, of course, valid reasons for those strategies at the time. As standardization became the dominant operating principle of enterprise AV, the goal was to create confidence that had been lost in these spaces in the past.

From a user standpoint, could people walk into a room and know what to do? Would the call connect? Would content share? And from a management standpoint, could support teams manage hundreds or thousands of spaces without being overwhelmed by variation?

Personalization, Adaptability, and Differentiation

Today’s AI age, however, makes that contradiction much harder to ignore. While AI can certainly further accelerate commoditization—making the familiar easier, faster, and cheaper to deliver—it also offers the potential for incredible new levels of personalization, adaptability, and differentiation.

Pine and Gilmore’s article reminds us of something uncomfortable. In the experience economy, consistency is not the highest form of value; it is the foundation on which higher value can be created.

Consistency may prevent disappointment, but it is not inspiring. It does not exceed expectations. It does not create the energy, memory, momentum, or meaningful differentiation that anchor exceptional experiences and outcomes.

A reliable room prevents failure.

A remarkable meeting creates value because people came together.

So, if we are talking about “experience” in enterprise collaboration, what experience are we really pursuing? Is it simply reliability and predictability? Or is it, indeed, can it become something far more connected to the purpose of gathering itself?

Let’s stay with that for a moment.

When we borrow the word “experience,” it is easy to imagine theatre, hospitality, immersive design, or event production. Great events are designed around attention, energy, resonance, memory, and motivation to act. They take enormous amounts of preparation and planning, but deliver returns to justify that effort.

Most enterprise meetings will never justify months of planning or event-level production, nor should they. They operate at a different scale. But the objective is not as different as we might think. Our events brethren understand something enterprise collaboration often underplays: just bringing people together is not enough.

So, in meeting or learning environments, the future question should not only be whether the technology simply equips the meeting. It should be whether the environment, and the experience it creates, actually increases the value of gathering.

Here’s an analogy that may help picture one example of that potential future more tangibly.

A great Executive Assistant (EA) is, in many ways, an experience enabler. They anticipate and proactively prepare. They understand context and act in response. They remove friction before it appears. They recall individual preferences and priorities, and add small but resonant touches. They help executives show up better than they would have otherwise.

Great EAs create exceptional experiences because they consistently exceed others' expectations in how well they proactively enable better outcomes.

An AI-Powered Collaboration?

So what if, powered by the increasingly intelligent and human-aware technology capabilities of AI, collaboration environments were architected in the future to behave less like passive containers and more like spaces equipped with trusted and proactive executive assistants?

What if they understood the purpose of the meeting? What if they could sense signals, understand initial objectives, help adjust the room to the activity, leverage and react to real-time context, quickly assemble additional supporting data or reach out to additional parties to contribute. To take collaboration infrastructure from merely operational enablement to something more.

Would that be something worth paying for?

To be clear, I am not suggesting completely abandoning the commoditisation-driven path overnight in a market still struggling to break free of that. But it cannot be the only path.

The actionable path ahead is not only about how your organization completely rewrites the foundations of every RFP (yet). But it is about more actively thinking about how you create some permissions, incentives, structures, and rewards that allow the market to explore something more valuable with you.

The more practical short-term opportunity is to run two collaboration strategies at once. Keep optimizing what is known, though with a new eye to future risk mitigation and objectives. But in parallel, begin to create another protected lane that enables you to actively explore what is becoming possible.

>> That may begin with a pilot, a different partner conversation, or a small proof of concept.

>> It may mean exploring ways to effectively understand and measure meeting impact and outcome.

>> Perhaps creating a shared risk/reward model that allows both customer and provider to baseline, refine, and prove it before the proposition is fully mature.

>> It may also mean broadening the voices in the strategy & planning room beyond traditional collaboration technology stakeholders to include voices who understand the likes of human behaviour, learning, culture, facilitation, organizational change, and how people actually create value together.

The right balances will be specific to your role, your organization’s structures, and ultimately your organization’s ability to embrace AI transformation generally and the “future of collaboration” opportunity specifically. But foundationally, there must be a recognition that organizations cannot procure their way into that future of collaboration if their processes only reward the commoditized providers they already know how to compare.

The question in this moment is not whether your organization can yet deliver the remarkable meeting of the future today. It is whether the decisions being made today increase your ability to pursue it tomorrow. That future will not be defined only by what AI technically makes possible. It will be defined by what organizations decide is worth valuing.

Perhaps that is why a nearly 30-year-old article still matters. It reminds us that technology may keep changing the tools, but value still returns to something deeply human: what people notice, what they remember, what they trust, what helps them, and what they believe was worth more than just what it costs.

For the enterprise collaboration space, generally, AI now forces a choice. Either collaboration becomes even more commoditised as the market gets faster, more automated, and easier to compare. Or the industry, in part at least, led by end-user organizations prepared to value something more, truly redefines its definition of experience around the outcomes people actually gather to create.

That is the move from pursuing reliable rooms to enabling remarkable meetings!

Not simply better spaces, but better reasons to believe that gathering was worth it.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Jonathan Gryckiewicz, Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions at Ross Video

Cloud-based AV is reshaping how organizations produce, manage, and distribute video content. One of the biggest trends driving adoption is the convergence of traditional Pro AV with broadcast-quality production. Companies now expect executive town halls, virtual events, and internal communications to deliver the same polished experience audiences see in professional broadcasts. Cloud-enabled workflows help organizations achieve this by supporting remote production, centralized control, and scalable collaboration across teams and locations.

Another major trend is the shift from hardware-focused systems to workflow-focused environments. Modern AV strategies are less about purchasing standalone equipment and more about building flexible ecosystems that integrate production, automation, streaming, and content management. Cloud infrastructure allows organizations to scale resources as needed, reduce reliance on large, on-premises systems, and deploy updates or new capabilities more efficiently.

The benefits are significant. Cloud-based AV environments improve operational flexibility, enable remote collaboration, and help organizations respond faster to changing production demands. IP-based and software-defined workflows also support scalability, allowing companies to expand capabilities without rebuilding entire infrastructures. For many organizations, this can lower long-term operational costs while improving agility and system resilience.

However, there are important cautions. Cloud AV depends heavily on reliable network infrastructure, bandwidth, and cybersecurity. Without proper planning, organizations can face latency, interoperability, or reliability issues that impact live productions and user experience. Vendor lock-in is another growing concern, making open standards and interoperable platforms increasingly important when evaluating long-term AV strategies.

Ultimately, successful cloud AV adoption requires more than simply moving technology online. Organizations that focus on workflow design, scalability, and long-term operational strategy will be best positioned to maximize the benefits of cloud-based production and collaboration.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Kelly Harlin, Director of Solutions Marketing and Commercialization at Sharp Imaging & Information Company of America

The cloud is fundamentally changing the AV landscape, shifting it from hardware-heavy setups to more flexible, software-driven platforms. As organizations adopt hybrid ways of working, AV has become essential to making collaboration feel seamless—whether people are in the office or working remotely. Cloud-based AV makes it easier to connect through video conferencing, shared content, and real-time collaboration tools, helping teams stay engaged and productive from anywhere.

One of the biggest advantages of cloud-based AV is how easily it scales. Organizations can roll out and manage AV across multiple locations without the need for large, upfront hardware investments. They can also adjust capacity as their needs change. With centralized, remote management, IT teams can monitor systems, push updates, and troubleshoot issues from anywhere, reducing downtime and lowering operational overhead.

We are also seeing that innovation drives faster adoption. Technologies like AV-over-IP and cloud-managed platforms are bringing AV and IT closer together, allowing systems to run on standard networks and integrate more easily with business applications. AI is adding another layer of intelligence, powering smarter cameras, better audio, and meeting spaces that can configure themselves. At the same time, open APIs are making it easier to build more connected, data-driven ecosystems.

As digital transformation continues to accelerate, cloud-based AV is evolving beyond a supporting tool into something much more strategic, helping organizations innovate, improve engagement, and better support how people work today.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Daniel Renne, Director of Emerging Technologies and Projects at Hall Technologies

Cloud-connected AV is rapidly shifting from a hardware-centric model to a data-centric ecosystem. Historically, the AV industry has lacked meaningful operational intelligence because most devices functioned as isolated endpoints with limited telemetry, analytics, or centralized visibility. As organizations continue adopting hybrid work, distributed campuses, and enterprise-wide collaboration standards, that model is no longer sustainable.

The next evolution of AV in the cloud is not simply remote management; it is intelligent data aggregation. Manufacturers and technology providers should be designing AV and IoT-enabled devices that securely capture operational, environmental, and usage data and route that information into centralized cloud platforms and data warehouses. Once data context exists at scale, organizations can apply AI and advanced analytics to uncover trends that were previously invisible.

The benefits are significant. End users gain deeper insight into room utilization, user behavior, technology adoption, and recurring integration issues. IT teams can proactively identify failures before they impact meetings—while also optimizing lifecycle planning, reducing downtime, and making more informed infrastructure investments. Cloud intelligence also creates opportunities for predictive maintenance, energy efficiency, and more personalized user experiences across enterprise environments.

However, organizations should approach cloud-connected AV strategically. Data governance, cybersecurity, and privacy must remain foundational considerations. Increased connectivity also introduces additional operational costs related to cloud infrastructure, storage, and ongoing device management. The industry must ensure that the value of data intelligence outweighs the complexity and cost associated with collecting and securing it.

Ultimately, AV in the cloud should not just connect devices; it should create actionable intelligence.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Jakub Kolacz, Manager of Product Management Software at Sennheiser

The shift to AV in the cloud reflects both a technological and operational evolution—one where systems are no longer treated as isolated room-based setups but as part of a broader, networked ecosystem. The defining trend is the move to centralized, cloud-based management platforms that provide continuous visibility into device health, configuration, and performance across multiple locations.

A key benefit of cloud platforms is the ability to remotely configure, monitor, and diagnose systems, allowing AV and IT teams to manage deployments proactively. For audio specifically, this means maintaining consistent performance by tracking device health, RF conditions, and firmware alignment from a unified interface. This is especially valuable in hybrid work scenarios, where the expectation is that every meeting delivers a reliable, high-quality experience regardless of location.

At the same time, centralized data unlocks deeper insights into usage patterns, fault trends, and environmental factors, informing better system design and ongoing optimization. Over time, this data foundation supports more advanced capabilities, including AI-driven monitoring and automated corrective actions, shifting teams toward oversight and governance rather than manual intervention.

That said, this transition comes with some important considerations. As AV systems become true network endpoints, they inherit IT-level requirements for security and compliance. Network stability is critical, and without it, the benefits of cloud management diminish. There is also a need for closer alignment between AV and IT teams, as shared ownership of systems can create complexities if responsibilities and workflows are not clearly defined.

Ultimately, cloud-based AV marks a shift from managing individual devices to managing system intelligence—but success depends on balancing innovation with infrastructure.

For more than a decade, AV Technology and Systems Contractor News have joined forces to deliver a full day of hot-topic panels, peer networking, and intimate conversations with vendors at the AV/IT Summit.

If you are a CTO, CIO, AV/IT director, consultant, or integrator, the AV/IT Summit on Aug. 5, 2026, in Times Square, is the must-attend event of the summer.

Space is truly limited, so apply now.

Check out the video below and learn why SCN’s Mark Pescatore and AVT’s Cindy Davis think you need to register to attend.

Designed to Engage, Inform, and Inspire

Our keynote, "The AI Moment for the Collaborative Workplace," delivered by Byron Tarry, founder and chief transformation officer of NΞXXT, is sure to inspire you and challenge your assumptions of AI in the workplace. Tarry will explore how analytics, automation, and intelligent agents can anchor the digital layer of a space, offering the ability to generate insight, optimize performance, and increasingly collaborate with the people who use it.

Pain Points 2026: Bring yours and get answers!

Designing the Modern Higher Ed Classroom: Moderated by HETMA's Joe Way

Broadcast-Level AV for Enterprise and Higher Ed: What you need to know to get started and level up.

The Consultant’s Roundtable: Learn how they can help your organization plan, design, deploy, and manage AV and IT infrastructure solutions—and, of course, simplify the process.

The State of Collaboration: We discuss the new collaboration space and the drivers for high-quality solutions.

The Great AI Debate: We discuss how AI is truly impacting Pro AV.

Better Every Year

“Each year I have been involved with the AV/IT Summit, it gets better and better,” said Cindy Davis, content director for AV Technology. “Last year, we introduced the Pain Points session, and it was so much fun. Attendees bring their top AV/IT pain points, and our panel of experts and other attendees attempt to solve them.”

On a more serious note, our panels cover some of the most important topics in the AV/IT industry today. There’s plenty of networking time to talk further with our speakers, your peers, and the AV/IT Summit vendors to share ideas.

You might think that stating that space is limited is a marketing ploy, but it’s not; we can only accept a limited number of people. Attendees must qualify to attend, so register today!

We look forward to seeing you at the AV/IT Summit!

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Lital Grossman, Executive Director for OpenAV Cloud

The cloud has transformed nearly every corner of enterprise technology. CRM, HR, finance, communications—all managed remotely, integrated seamlessly, and accessible from anywhere. It is now AV’s turn. But unlike those industries, AV is arriving at this moment carrying decades of proprietary infrastructure and siloed thinking.

The opportunity is significant. Cloud-connected AV means IT and facilities teams can monitor device health across hundreds of rooms from a single dashboard, respond to issues before they disrupt a meeting, automate workflows based on room status, and integrate AV systems with the scheduling, collaboration, and security platforms already running the enterprise. For end users, this translates to fewer disruptions, more reliable spaces, and technology that behaves like the rest of the IT stack—predictable, manageable, and scalable.

But the shift comes with real cautions. Not all cloud AV is created equal. Many vendors have moved infrastructure to the cloud while keeping their APIs closed, their data inaccessible, and their ecosystems locked. Organizations risk trading one form of dependency for another—swapping on-premise silos for cloud-based ones.

Security is another consideration that cannot be overstated. AV devices are increasingly IP-connected endpoints, and they need to be treated as such—with proper authentication, encrypted communication, role-based access, and documented protocols that IT and security teams can actually evaluate.

The path forward is openness. Cloud AV that exposes consistent, secure, read-write APIs gives organizations real choice—the ability to integrate best-of-breed solutions, build unified management layers, and avoid lock-in entirely.

The cloud moment for AV is here; the question is whether the industry will seize it openly, or simply rebuild the same walls in a new place.

Technology leadership does not only mean asking an industry for better products or faster roadmaps. Sometimes it means looking back at the assumptions that have served us well, and asking whether they still serve the future we now need to build.

One of those assumptions in the AV industry is standardization.

For years, standardization has been one of the most important operating principles in enterprise AV and collaboration. It has helped organizations scale, reduce complexity, improve supportability, control cost, and create more consistent user experiences. Indeed, I spent more than a decade leading an organization that built its value proposition on the principle of Scale, Standardization, Simplification, & Speed.

We all know our industry's journey. There was a time when AV-enabled spaces were relatively few. Organizations invested only in the most important rooms. Bespoke design was possible because the volume was manageable.

Then the world changed.

Collaboration became more central to how organizations worked. Video became normal. Hybrid work expanded the pressure on meeting environments. Costs came down. Expectations went up. The challenge was no longer a handful of premium rooms. It was tens, hundreds, or thousands of spaces. In that reality, standardization was not only logical. It was a rational and required response to scale.

We have seen similar patterns in other industries. Local, highly human-scale models gave way to larger systems built around consistency, efficiency, and scale. Then, disruptive digital platforms introduced a third possibility: combining scale with greater personalization and relevance. We all know those stories, from Amazon to Netflix and beyond.

I believe that moment has arrived for our industry!

Change in an Era of AI

There will always be a place for highly customized spaces: executive environments, boardrooms, innovation labs, teaching studios, immersive rooms, command centres, and other spaces where deeper tailoring is justified. But for the broader enterprise estate, the old trade-off between scale and personalized fit is going to change in an AI era. Not because AI is a magic wand, but because it is relevant to addressing the very frictions that standardization was designed to manage.

We know that in the past, more capability meant more complexity. More flexibility meant more support burden. More customization meant more cost and inconsistency. That was not practical, which is why we simplified and standardized. Simplified room types, user interfaces, and feature sets. Exactly what was required to make the overall experience usable and manageable.

But there is a difference between simplifying because users have simple needs, and simplifying because our legacy systems and workflows could not manage complexity.

And that distinction matters.

Meeting and learning spaces were not simplified because users all wanted the same experience, but because more capability created too much friction to justify otherwise. So we designed interfaces to meet the lowest common user denominator. And in turn, we answered the needs of the supporting stakeholders as well, because the cost of variation was too high.

That made sense, but it also created a hidden effect. One of the hidden risks of standardization is that it does not only standardize solutions, it can standardize imagination. Over time, the constraints of a model become so familiar that we stop seeing them as constraints.

But what if some of those assumptions were actually just necessary coping mechanisms? Did we standardize because it represented the best possible experience, or because variation was too difficult to deliver, support, govern, or evolve?

That is not a criticism of the past, but a challenge for the future. It is not that we built the wrong rooms in the past. It is that in a new AI reality, the game itself has changed.

And that is what makes this new era so difficult.

Decisions in a Period of Unparalleled Uncertainty

End-user AV technology managers are being asked to make decisions in a period of unparalleled uncertainty, yet with traditional inertia. The investment decisions being asked of them today are expected to serve organizations for years ahead, yet they are being made in a reality where AI will change workflows, user expectations, interface models, support structures, and the role of the physical workplace itself in ways we cannot yet fully imagine.

That is a hard position to be in. It is easy to say “be more innovative, evolved, prepared” from the outside. It is much harder to put your name to decisions when the crystal ball is murkier than ever, and the consequences of getting it wrong may become visible sooner than ever.

So, the practical question is not whether every future capability is ready to deploy tomorrow. The better question is whether today’s standards, partner relationships, and decision criteria are preparing your organization to take advantage of that future potential or constraining it.

I do not believe the future is a pendulum swing from standardization back to customization. The better proposition is that the very definition of standards needs to evolve to create an entirely new paradigm.

Consider that historically, a room standard meant a fixed room type, equipment package, UI, capability set, and lifecycle expectation. A comprehensively defined answer built heavily upon the realities of traditional physical construction and real estate lifecycles.

In the next model, a standard may need to become more than just a defined answer. It may need to become more of a foundation.

The physical infrastructure, network requirements, security model, platform architecture, interoperability principles, and support processes may still need to be standardized. But above that foundation, the experience layer must become increasingly adaptive and digitally agile. One that can behave and equip users differently for a project review than for executive alignment. Differently for training than for ideation.

The room may be physically the same. The experience may not be.

That is the new possibility. The emergence of standardized infrastructure with adaptive experience.

That is how we can truly serve diverse users, activities, and outcomes, while leveraging that diversity as the very reason we convene people in the first place. All the reasons that were not possible in the past are eroding before our eyes.

Embrace that concept, and it frankly changes the role and importance of the end-user AV technology manager. The job is no longer simply to define the right room standards and defend them over a five-year lifecycle. Rather, the job is to build the conditions through which collaboration environments can evolve as capability, user expectation, organizational need, and AI-enabled possibility change around them. It is to recognize that we cannot deliver tomorrow’s adaptive collaboration expectations through models built around yesterday’s static propositions.

So the next leadership question is not simply “what can we standardize?”

It is “what should our standards enable?”

That is a very different question.

Manage and Mitigate Opportunities and Risks

Of course, I am not suggesting we all just embrace AI enthusiasm and unbridled optimism. But as in any time of change and lack of clarity, it means developing a strategy to manage and mitigate both the opportunities and risks ahead.

That strategy will, of course, not look the same for every organization. A global bank, university, healthcare provider, government agency, technology company, law firm, and manufacturer will each have different collaboration realities. But here are a few universal questions you might ask of your current standards to catalyze the mindset shifts we all need to embrace.

>> Which current standards still deliver value because they improve reliability, consistency, security, supportability, or user confidence?

>> Which exists because variation was historically too difficult to manage?

>> What infrastructure truly needs to remain fixed and physical, and what could become more flexible and digital?

>> Where might today’s standards, even unintentionally, limit tomorrow’s capability?

A “medium meeting room” is not a meeting purpose. A classroom is not automatically a learning experience. As we move from an era of equipping rooms to enabling outcomes, true leadership will be about understanding what people are actually trying to achieve in these spaces: deciding, creating, teaching, selling, learning, aligning, innovating, or responding to change. Understanding those patterns will become the critical capability in enabling spaces to adapt to real-time context and application.

Of course, that should change conversations with the supply chain: vendors, integrators, consultants, and service providers. They should not only be challenged on what they can deliver today, but on their vision of the future, and how they can help you prepare for it. In an AI era, the value of a partner may increasingly depend less on whether they can deliver an agreed standard today and more on how they can help that standard evolve tomorrow.

The risk of not making these sorts of foundational adjustments is not just technical debt, financial write-off, or user dissatisfaction. If collaboration is becoming the critical infrastructure of innovation, then the cost of rigidity becomes a constraint on organizational speed. A room standard anchored in yesterday's thinking that cannot evolve may slow more than a technology refresh. It may slow how quickly an organization can embrace the new ways of working of an AI age. And that should be a critical concern for every organization.

Across the industry, we need to embrace the fact that the game has changed. The constraint set is changing. The expectations of users, teams, and organizations are changing faster than traditional meeting room lifecycles were ever designed to absorb. So if that old model treated standards as fixed answers, the next model should treat them as adaptive foundations. The goal is not to choose between consistency and personalization. It is to create the conditions where consistency, governance, supportability, and scale can coexist with far greater human relevance, flexibility, and transformative future capability.

The industry can build products. Vendors can develop platforms. Integrators can deliver systems. Consultants can advise. But end users live in the real organizational context. They know the workflows, constraints, cultures, frustrations, security realities, support burdens, and business priorities that determine whether technology creates value and impact, or merely fills rooms.

So, whether you are an end-user Collaboration Enablement leader, or wherever else you might sit in the industry, I leave you to consider this.

Will the next “standard” you develop be anchored on a room type at all? Or might it be based upon the foundational principle of adaptability itself?

And if that is indeed the case, what might need to change in you, your team, and your organization to make that a reality?

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Steven Hoenig, Senior Director, Portfolio Expansion Program Management at Legrand | AV

The shift to cloud-managed AV isn’t just a technology upgrade; it’s a fundamental rethinking of how AV/IT teams operate. For institutions and organizations managing dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of spaces, the traditional break-fix model has a ceiling. Cloud platforms remove that ceiling.

The clearest benefit is visibility. Cloud-managed infrastructure lets you see early warning signs—unusual power draw, devices going offline, and patterns that precede failure—before anyone picks up the phone. That shift from reactive to proactive fundamentally changes what a small AV/IT team can manage effectively.

Scalability follows naturally. A team of three shouldn’t be limited to what three people can physically touch. Remote power management, automated monitoring, and developer-accessible APIs scale reach far beyond headcount. Automation handles the routine; staff focus on work that requires human judgment.

Energy management is underappreciated. Scheduled power-down routines for high-draw equipment during off-hours yield meaningful consumption reductions—relevant for any organization with sustainability commitments or operating cost pressures.

The cautions are worth noting. Network reliability becomes foundational; monitoring is only as good as your connectivity. Data security and access control require deliberate architecture, especially in sensitive environments. And cloud management without an operational framework generates a lot of data with no clear use for it.

The organizations getting the most out of AV in the cloud aren’t just using new tools; they’re redefining what their teams are capable of.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: John Kruse, Senior Field Solutions Architect at ViewSonic

Cloud is no longer an emerging concept in Pro AV; it’s becoming the operational backbone for how systems are deployed, managed, and scaled.

For many organizations, the primary benefit is visibility. Cloud-based platforms provide centralized monitoring across rooms, buildings, and global campuses, allowing IT teams to proactively identify issues, push updates, and maintain consistent performance without being physically present. This shift is especially valuable as AV footprints expand and support resources remain constrained.

Scalability is another key advantage. New rooms and devices can be onboarded quickly, configurations can be standardized, and updates can be deployed broadly with minimal disruption. This reduces deployment friction and shortens the time between design and usability.

Cloud also enables better data-driven decisions. Usage analytics, system health metrics, and performance trends give organizations insight into how spaces are actually being used—informing future investments and helping justify budgets with real data. Platforms like ViewSonic’s myViewBoard Manager, for example, reflect this shift by enabling centralized, cloud-based device management and remote control across distributed display environments.

However, moving AV into the cloud is not without considerations. Security and compliance must be addressed up front. AV devices are now part of the broader IT ecosystem, requiring alignment with network policies, authentication standards, and data governance practices. Organizations in regulated industries may face additional scrutiny around where data is stored and how it is transmitted.

There is also a dependency on network reliability. Cloud-managed systems assume consistent connectivity, and outages—whether local or upstream—can impact control, monitoring, or functionality.

Ultimately, cloud in AV is less about convenience and more about operational maturity. Organizations that approach it strategically—balancing scalability with security—will be better positioned to manage growing AV ecosystems with confidence.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Petro Shimonishi, Director of New Business Development at Panasonic Projector & Display Americas

The AV industry is undergoing a meaningful transformation, shifting from isolated, hardware-centric systems to open, cloud-connected ecosystems. This evolution is less about moving AV to the cloud and more about extending its capabilities through connectivity, interoperability, and intelligent management.

A defining trend is the move toward open, platform-agnostic systems. As organizations deploy increasingly complex technology stacks, seamless communication across devices is now essential. Historically, proprietary protocols made multi-vendor deployments difficult to manage, which is why industry collaboration is critical. Efforts like the OpenAV Cloud Association are helping drive standardization across device telemetry, cloud-to-cloud communication, security models, and open APIs.

At Panasonic Projector & Display Americas, we’ve embraced this shift as a founding member of the OpenAV Cloud Association and by introducing web-based APIs across our projector and display portfolio. These APIs enable third-party integration and allow external applications to monitor and control devices over IP networks. Through our partnership with XYTE, users gain real-time visibility and remote management.

The benefits of cloud-connected ecosystems are clear: improved system visibility, faster troubleshooting, reduced downtime, and more scalable deployments.

However, there are important considerations. Security and data protection remain top priorities, as connected devices introduce new potential attack surfaces. This is why cloud solutions must incorporate secure communication protocols and rigorous standards such as SOC2 compliance—supported by Panasonic’s ongoing firmware updates and XYTE’s secure cloud infrastructure. Reliability is another concern. That’s why it’s important that Panasonic solutions continue to operate locally, even if the network goes down. Meanwhile, avoiding proprietary lock-in provides long-term flexibility, while clear data policies and total cost visibility support smarter long-term decisions.

Ultimately, cloud-enabled AV should help organizations work smarter and respond faster while staying secure and flexible.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Toine Leerentveld, Director of Product Management, Cloud and Control Services at Crestron

Most conversations about AV in the cloud still focus on what moves where. The more useful question is, what changes about the relationship between vendor, integrator, and customer once the control layer becomes software?

Start with deployment: Cloud-managed AV should reduce the number of people who need to be in the room, literally and figuratively. Crestron built the XiO Cloud platform around that idea, letting one technician provision and monitor a global room footprint from a single dashboard, and turning most truck rolls into remote sessions. The measure of success is not the dashboard itself, but how much faster a new site comes online compared to five years ago.

The control layer is where the bigger shift happens. Crestron Virtual Control (VC-4) can run in a customer's private cloud or existing virtualized environment, scaling from a single room license to enterprise deployments at the customer's pace rather than the vendor's. Growth and upgrades stop being hardware events. That changes the procurement cycle, the refresh cycle, and, eventually, the org chart on the customer side.

Security gets glossed over in this conversation more than it should. Microphones, cameras, and room sensors tied to cloud services create a different threat model than legacy AV. Crestron treats security as a development discipline, with encrypted communications, role-based access, and a real vulnerability response program. The vendors who do the same will pull away from the ones who treat it as a press release.

The last shift is feedback velocity. Software updates ship in weeks, whereas hardware revisions took years, which means a customer request can become a feature inside the same budget cycle. The vendors who actually use that speed will define the next decade of this category.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Adam Sowers, Senior Manager, Business Development at Sony Electronics

Like most areas of modern business and everyday life, AV has shifted to the cloud. As organizations move away from on-prem hardware, AV-as-a-Service (AVaaS) has become a practical, forward-looking model—one that delivers value today while remaining flexible for what’s next.

The benefits are clear. Cloud-based AV improves efficiency, accessibility, and consistency while centralizing visibility and control. Teams gain real-time insight into device health and usage, issues can be identified before they become outages, and the need for on-site maintenance is reduced. Additionally, collaboration becomes more reliable and repeatable across locations.

At the platform level, different solutions serve different roles. Sony’s Device Management Platform (DMP) is purpose-built to manage Sony’s displays, offering device-specific monitoring, control, analytics, and software management that are tightly aligned with Sony hardware. In parallel, Xyte provides an open, hardware-agnostic cloud platform designed to manage devices from multiple manufacturers through a single pane of glass. That openness is especially valuable for organizations and integrators supporting mixed AV environments.

Together, these cloud platforms integrate with content providers to enable seamless digital signage, while cloud collaboration tools support consistent meeting experiences that promote meeting equity. Subscription-based models further simplify budgeting and improve cost predictability.

As with any cloud strategy, success starts with a reliable network, well-defined security and compliance requirements, and alignment with vendors that prioritize interoperability over lock-in.

This is why Sony, Xyte, and other AV manufacturers and technology providers support OpenAV Cloud—an industry initiative focused on driving collaboration, standards, and interoperability for the long-term benefit of integrators and end users.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Joe Andrulis, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Biamp

The audiovisual industry has reached a pivotal moment. Comprehensive, cloud-based software solutions now deliver what organizations have long sought: a unified platform for managing AV environments throughout their complete lifecycle from anywhere in the world. From initial design concepts through deployment, real-time monitoring, continuous optimization, and daily use, modern cloud-based management platforms provide AV and IT teams with integrated tools at every critical stage. This end-to-end approach reinforces organizations' commitment to connecting people through extraordinary audiovisual experiences across their global operations.

These maturing, cloud-based desktop applications, such as Biamp Workplace, are transforming how AV installers work on-site and remotely, relieving common pressures during installation and commissioning. Built-in intelligent tools enable automated device discovery, streamlined firmware management, and intuitive device configuration. Perhaps most revolutionary is that AI agents are now assisting technicians in configuring devices properly, dramatically reducing setup time and eliminating guesswork during large-scale deployments.

What makes these AV management solutions truly versatile is operational flexibility. Whether teams work fully on premises, remotely, or in hybrid scenarios, the same powerful capabilities remain accessible. Platforms that can support offline or hybrid workflows can also help maintain continuity and momentum regardless of network conditions, supporting productive, consistent workflows. This adaptability means faster commissioning cycles and greater confidence in deployment outcomes, especially for environments that must continue to operate regardless of network conditions.

Ultimately, the holy grail of AV management is within reach: providing organizations with unprecedented control over their entire AV infrastructure at every stage. Whether operating in the cloud, on-premise, or through hybrid architectures, today's comprehensive platforms enable seamless oversight from initial design and deployment through ongoing optimization and support to product end of life—delivering the visibility, efficiency, and reliability that modern audiovisual environments demand.

AVT Question: Please share insights and trends on AV/IT in the cloud, including the benefits and cautions.

Thought Leader: Mohammad Al-Taraireh, Director of Product Management at Shure

As enterprises standardize collaboration spaces across campuses, regions, and hybrid work environments, AV is no longer a one-time room build; it’s becoming a managed service. The shift to cloud-connected AV reflects a broader reality: IT teams are being asked to deliver consistent experiences at scale while keeping systems secure, supportable, and measurable over time.

The biggest benefit of cloud-based AV is not only remote access, but, most importantly, operational control. When devices are connected through a cloud management layer, organizations gain centralized visibility into what’s deployed, what’s healthy, and what needs attention. That makes it possible to apply a fleet mindset: consistent configurations across room types, faster rollout of standardized templates, and proactive monitoring that identifies issues before they disrupt meetings. In practical terms, cloud management reduces truck rolls; shortens time-to-resolution; and helps maintain a predictable user experience, whether a space is a huddle room or a large, divisible conference room.

Interoperability remains essential, especially as Microsoft Teams and Zoom become the standard interface for daily work. Cloud-connected AV can support repeatable designs that align audio performance to certified room environments, helping reduce inconsistency and rework across varied spaces.

However, cloud connectivity raises important precautions. Organizations should evaluate security and governance first, including role-based administration; authentication alignment with IT identity practices; and clear policies for device onboarding, updates, and access control. Network readiness also matters. Segmenting AV endpoints, confirming bandwidth and quality-of-service, and planning for lifecycle management are key to ensuring reliability.

Ultimately, cloud-based AV enables scale without sacrificing control and turns room technology into an enterprise system that can be monitored, governed, and continuously improved.

For decades, innovation in the AV and collaboration industry has largely followed a familiar path.

Manufacturers build products. Consultants and integrators assemble those products into systems. End users compare and evaluate the proposed solutions, and eventually deploy what the market has made available.

Over time, that model has arguably become even more linear. As enterprise collaboration scaled, the industry moved further toward standardization, repeatability, and solutions designed for the “average user” and the “typical” room. That shift had good reasons behind it.

Standardization helped the industry scale. But it also made it easier to forget how differently real people and real organizations actually work.

More and more, the opportunity to contribute innovation value moved away from the many and into the hands of the largest and most resourced players, where scale and efficiency were greatest. And I’d propose that it is both a problem and an opportunity as we move further into an AI age of change and uncertainty.

I have never sat in the chair of an end-user technology manager, but I have spent much of my career pushing back against the status quo in how our industry operates and builds business models that serve more than the transaction itself. From that vantage point, I believe one thing very strongly in this moment: the end user community has more power to shape the future of collaboration than it exercises today.

The entire industry is hungry for direction. Manufacturers are trying to understand where AI-enabled value will actually land. Integrators are trying to determine how their role evolves. Consultants are trying to rethink what guidance looks like when best practice itself is changing. Everyone is trying to see around the corner of transformative shifts that may only be 12 to 24 months away in a legacy that operates on five-plus-year lifecycles.

Of course, that makes the role of a collaboration technology leader incredibly difficult. As the future of work, collaboration, and workplace experience becomes more intelligent, adaptive, and critical to organizational success, collaboration technology leaders cannot simply wait for the supply chain to bring them tomorrow’s answers.

They need help, but more importantly, they also need to help shape the answers. In this unprecedented environment, particularly where AI is shifting many elements of best practice back from ‘standardization’ and toward hyper-personalization, customer clarity can become a true force for innovation.

But my argument for deeper end-user engagement and leadership goes beyond specific problem-solving. Across the end-user community, there are organizations whose entire market position is built on the foundation of their capacity for transformative innovation. They have world-class research and development capabilities, defined digital transformation teams, data scientists, formal AI programs, innovation infrastructure, and cultures built around a mandate to fail fast, learn quickly, and move forward with intent.

And yet, too often, that innovation muscle is applied outward to the products, services, and markets the organization serves, while rarely being applied with the same intent to the internal operational ecosystems that power the organization. And as we well know, that very much applies to their collaboration infrastructure. Not only do we spend too little time fully understanding the needs and workflows of these collaboration power users to serve them, but we also fail to leverage the opportunity to learn from the innovation capabilities and best practices they maintain.

That matters because we, as the collaborative enablement industry, need those skills. From vendor to integrator to technology manager, innovation is not deeply embedded in our DNA. If we are going to remain relevant in the AI era, we need to learn, understand, and apply innovation far more deliberately.

Deliberate Innovation

So, I ask you to imagine an enterprise collaboration leader proactively convening three groups.

A combination of internal modern workplace stakeholders: real estate, HR, IT, AI, security, procurement, learning, workplace strategy, and others, with organizational context, technical imagination, and human workforce insight.

The most progressive external partners from across the supply chain: mainstream vendors with scale, emerging vendors with agility, integrators with delivery knowledge, consultants with strategic perspective, and service partners with operational understanding.

A selection of the organization’s own innovation leaders, both as catalysts for innovation itself and as users with lived experience of what is broken, missing, or possible in their own collaboration workflows.

Not for a one-off workshop. But as contributors to an ongoing strategy, structure, and process of ideation, experimentation, validation, and iteration. A group that could explore critical questions, such as whether AI has created new opportunities to:

>> Allow collaboration spaces to adapt more intelligently to equip different meeting types?

>> Offer utilization data, employee experience signals, and business workflows that could be interpreted together to build entirely new operational models?

>> Enable support models that become predictive and proactive rather than reactive?

>> Reduce many of the frictions and effort we currently face before, during, and after people come together?

This is where the process of innovation becomes less like procurement and more like chemistry. The point is to create an environment to “play” with different technology and human ingredients. To discover catalytic combinations that, when brought together, might release transformational new energy into the collaboration process.

Of course, just as in chemistry, not every combination will create a useful reaction. Most will fail—that’s the nature of innovative explorations. But occasionally, that experimentation will create something far more valuable than the sum of its parts. It may even become the foundation for a whole new line of exploration and opportunity that serves every participant well beyond the original initiative.

The Broader Collaboration Ecosystem

The challenge, of course, is that this is not an insignificant undertaking.

There are models that point in this direction. Microsoft’s Hive is one well-known example. So, there is precedent and business case. But examples like this remain too rare across the broader collaboration ecosystem.

In my recent conversations across the end user community, very few reject the value or need for this kind of approach. Their hesitation is rarely because the concept lacks merit. More so, it is because of everything that would need to change internally to make it viable.

Undoubtedly, this type of innovation model requires the supply chain to evolve. But frankly, we all know most manufacturers, integrators, and consultants would jump at the opportunity to support a serious initiative like this with their best customers if a true win-win partnership is on the table.

The AV and UC supply chain has for years sought to offer more service-centric models, risk-sharing models, managed lifecycle approaches, and outcome-based relationships. We know AI now makes many of those models far more viable than ever. Some past efforts absolutely fell short because the offerings were immature. But many also struggled because customers were simply not ready or equipped to buy, fund, govern, or evaluate them differently.

That is why I would argue the first work starts with the internal foundations on the customer side. Procurement approaches. Capital planning models. Security review processes. Real estate strategies. Support expectations. Sustainability priorities. Risk tolerances. Departmental silos.

So, if we believe that collaboration powers innovation and innovation creates competitive advantage, in a world where the rate of change in markets has never been faster, and amid all the other priorities the AI era is creating, is enhanced innovation capability seen at senior executive level as a distraction, or as an imperative?

That matters because that executive sponsorship is where the silos driving the lack of confidence in the models I describe can be overcome.

It’s here that the leadership opportunity begins! Building consensus, finding advocates, identifying the internal and external thought leadership to create momentum, connecting collaboration enablement to the bigger organizational priorities already on the table.

None of that is easy. But what is new is that there may never have been a stronger story to tell, or a moment of greater willingness across organizations to listen to progressive ideas for change. This is a moment of leadership opportunity and strategic relevance that many in this industry have been seeking for their entire careers.

So the practical challenge I put to the end user community is this: in moments of uncertainty, the party that controls demand has more power to lead than it often recognizes. You have an opportunity to build a plan, articulate a vision, and start designing the conditions and initial steps required to drive the experimental collaborations that will underpin the future of your career, of this industry, and of your organization.

I do not pretend there is a single recipe or destination for this shift. Each organization will have different risk profiles, cultures, governance models, and collaboration patterns. But the message is clear.

For leaders within organizations where innovation, change, and human collaboration are central to future success - do not wait for the market to define your future. Let’s find the ways to invite the right people into the room, bring the real challenges and opportunities to the table, and create the conditions for better answers to emerge.

In the AI era, the most valuable end user collaboration leaders may not be those who simply buy the best technology, but those who become the best collaborators in shaping what that technology, and the human and digital innovation ecosystem around it, need to become.

For an industry still learning how to innovate, let alone at the speed of AI, that kind of customer leadership may be exactly the catalyst we collectively need.

First, I would like to define the workplace. It is wherever you work. That could be in a corporate environment, a home office, a classroom, an auditorium, a sports venue, a museum, a government office, a transportation facility, a control room, a healthcare environment, hospitality, on the road, or in the field—you name it.

Hopefully, your environment is controlled with the optimal acoustics for speech intelligibility (near and far) and has the ideal lighting so the images on displays are clear. Yes, I know that’s a bold statement, but this is our industry, and if we want our collaboration spaces to enable positive outcomes and enhance productivity, it’s something to continuously work towards.

There’s no doubt that collaboration in the workplace has dramatically changed in the past few years. But this is no longer a conversation about the percentage of employees who are hybrid or remote, or how many days they work in the “office.” Remote participants could be vendors or invited speakers. Collaboration also means sharing content so everyone in the room can clearly view it on the displays, hear all participants, and share ideas.

Collaboration and The AI Factor

Artificial intelligence is a massive topic. It’s akin to talking about the impact of the World Wide Web in the late '80s and '90s, only bigger and more unknown.

At AV Technology, we’re going to home in on the potential and ever-evolving impact AI can have on collaboration in the workplace. My goal is to share ideas, inspire, educate, and sometimes challenge conventional thinking.

We’re launching the AV Technology Thought Leader Series on Collaboration and AI with Byron Tarry. He is the founder and chief transformation officer of NΞXXT, which helps individuals and organizations build collaboration-centric transformation that is measurable, responsible, and built to last. Tarry has more than 30 years in the AV and collaboration technologies realm, including nearly a decade as CEO of global AV integrator GPA. He brings a rare combination of strategic perspective and hands-on understanding of what makes innovation and change stick at scale. He will regularly contribute thought leadership articles for us. And, having spent some time with him, I am sure he will get you thinking outside the box.

Tarry is a frequent speaker on AI and collaboration and will be presenting The SPRINT at InfoComm, a hands-on innovation experience designed to help the AV and collaboration industry learn how to turn AI opportunities into practical outcomes. We connected at Integrated Systems Europe, where he presented on the topic of AI. I invited him to deliver our keynote at the AV/IT Summit in New York City on Aug. 5, The AI Moment for the Collaborative Workplace.

We’re thrilled to welcome Tarry into our circle of trusted contributors.

NOW AVAILABLE! AV Technology Manager’s Guide to AV in The Cloud

24 AV/IT Thought Leaders' insights and trends on AV in the cloud. What are the benefits? Are there any cautions?

AV/IT Team: A historic Louisiana casino recently replaced its fragmented legacy systems with a unified AV-over-IP infrastructure, resulting in scalable audio control, video distribution, and digital signage across a $144 million redevelopment.

6 Case Studies Put Cloud to the Test: AV Distribution That’s Above Par | The NFL Draft: Built from Scratch and Broadcast Live | Youth Worship Gathering Gets Pro Studio Production | Supplying Cloud-Based Spaceport Communications | Optimizing Logistics with Video Wall Solutions | Transforming Campus-Wide Classroom Management

24 Products That are Scalable and Flexible: Check out the products that help you manage an entire lifecycle, distribute and present content, simplify configuration and deployment, monitor system health, anticipate issues, and so much more.

Read The Guide Here!

There’s nothing better than a successful deployment of new AV when everything is running smoothly. New auto-framing audio and video conferencing hardware and software connect in-person and remote participants, and a control system automatically initiates a meeting and starts the presentation on display. Participants collaborate, sharing content and video that is seamlessly switched to different displays. It’s AV/IT nirvana.

Until it’s not. We asked AV/IT industry thought leaders about how their company’s products and solutions help ensure interoperability and connectivity not only on the day of deployment, but also on Day 2 and beyond. Below are some excerpts.

For the full interviews, check out the sidebar on the right.

Omer Brookstein, CEO and co-founder at Xyte, said, “The real goal isn’t simply to connect devices. It’s to make AV easier to manage, easier to support, and easier to improve over time. Open cloud connectivity helps organizations monitor mixed fleets more consistently, move data between systems, automate routine tasks, and adopt new tools without rebuilding everything around a single vendor’s stack.”

“We focus heavily on open standards and network-based solutions, said Emma Eagle, manager of Marketing at Hall Research. “When AV technology works the same way other IT systems do, it becomes easier to deploy, manage, and scale across an entire organization—from small meeting rooms to large conference spaces.

“Established customer deployments may require upgrades to maintain long-term interoperability, as the protocols themselves are often evolving,“ Amy Zhou, director of Sales at Magewell, added. “For example, the popular NDI connectivity technology has changed over the years; it’s now on version 6.3 overall, and media formats within it have gone from NDI High Bandwidth to NDI HX, NDI HX2, and NDI HX3. This makes the upgradability of our products crucial for continued interoperability and compatibility.”

Joel Mulpeter, senior director of Product Marketing at Crestron, said, “Our products always need to work with the network—not against it. When we get deployed in a facility, the network exists, and we’re part of that ecosystem, so we ensure that we’re good citizens on that network.”

“By combining manufacturer-agnostic interoperability, robust management, and scalable design, Audinate’s solutions help ensure connectivity that works without friction, every day, at any scale,” said Jim Kidwell, principal product marketing manager at Audinate.“

“At ViewSonic, we approach product development with the full ecosystem in mind,” said Shane Roma, technical product manager of dvLED and Commercial Displays at ViewSonic. “A unified API structure reduces programming complexity, accelerates deployment, and minimizes support calls across diverse installations.”

Effi Goldstein, President of the HDBaseT Alliance, added, “Our commitment to an open, vendor-agnostic standard empowers businesses with exceptional flexibility. Organizations can mix and match products across multiple brands without risking compatibility issues, supporting business continuity, easier maintenance, and long-term investment protection.

“Sennheiser’s commitment to interoperability—across Dante, open APIs, alliance partnerships, and secure cloud management—helps organizations build AV ecosystems that are connected, scalable, and ready for whatever comes next,” said Jakub Kolacz, manager of Product Management Software at Sennheiser.”

Adam Sowers, senior manager of Business Development at Sony Electronics, added, “As a founding member of Open AV Cloud, we help to drive best practices around open ecosystems and interoperability for IP-based integrations, control, and monitoring that work across environments.”

“By prioritizing interoperability at every level, Shure empowers IT teams to deliver collaboration environments that are consistent, intuitive, and scalable wherever work happens,” added Justin Ramirez, senior director of Software Sales at Shure.

Introducing the Jabra PanaCast U30. This USB videobar was designed for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) collaboration in small meeting spaces and huddle rooms for up to six people. Combining intelligent video technology, professional audio performance, and simplified deployment in a compact device, it delivers a simple and affordable way to equip more small rooms for high-quality hybrid meetings.

[Jabra Answers the Call for Hybrid Work]

Many organizations want to support video collaboration in every meeting space, but equipping smaller rooms can be difficult due to cost and complexity. As a result, many rooms still lack the technology needed for effective hybrid meetings.

“Small meeting spaces are where many of the most important conversations happen,” said Holger Reisinger, SVP, Jabra Video Business Unit. “As teams look to support hybrid work, there’s a growing need to make more of these spaces meeting-ready. With the Jabra PanaCast U30, we’re delivering intelligent video and professional audio in a compact, easy-to-deploy solution that makes it easier to equip more small rooms for video meetings.”

A Simple BYOD Experience

The system is designed for a better BYOD experience that allows users to walk into a room, connect their own device with a single USB-C cable and start the meeting using their preferred platform, including Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Before they even connect, the room display shows built-in wallpapers with clear on-screen instructions, guiding users so meetings can begin without delay and reducing support requests. In an upcoming release, customers will be able to create and upload their own custom wallpaper to the systems home screen through Jabra Plus.

Wide Coverage and Intelligent Video for Small Rooms

Video performance is optimized for small spaces through a wide 120-degree field of view (FoV), ensuring participants around the table are fully in view, even in more compact room layouts. Features such as Intelligent Zoom, Virtual Director and Dynamic Composition automatically follow the conversation in the room, adjusting the view as people speak to keep participants clearly in frame.

Combined with a built-in speaker and six microphones, the system delivers full-duplex, room-filling Jabra audio so conversations feel natural and fluid, with every voice clearly heard both in the room and on the call.

Simplified Use and Deployment

Rolling out video collaboration across multiple small meeting spaces requires solutions that are fast to install and easy to support. Multiple mounting options, including wall, VESA and table stand, allow the system to adapt to different room layouts and requirements. The packaging allows key components to be accessed and configured without removing the device from the box, while integrated cable routing and on-device guidance help ensure clean, repeatable setups across rooms.

Ongoing management is equally simple. With Jabra Plus, IT teams can monitor device health, deploy updates and manage multiple rooms from a single interface. The PanaCast U30 can be managed over the network or directly via USB, giving IT teams flexible control depending on their environment. For settings that require offline control, firmware updates can also be performed locally, supporting security-conscious organizations without adding operational complexity.

Einstein was clearly ahead of his time on many fronts, but even he may not have fully understood the future relevance of this quote to today’s realities: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

In an AI-driven world, where knowledge is abundant and instantly accessible, the differentiator shifts to how it is used, how ideas are formed, challenged, and ultimately turned into something real.

At a business level, I’d propose that the activation of imagination shows up as innovation. Innovation is the engine of change, the mechanism through which organizations adapt, differentiate, and compete. Whether the goal is growth, efficiency, resilience, or market leadership, the path almost always runs through the ability to turn ideas into outcomes.

That has always been true. What is changing is the speed - and the expectation. For years, innovation has been constrained, not by a lack of ideas, but by the ability to pursue them. Time, cost, risk, and structure meant only a small subset of ideas could be explored, typically by small “expert” groups tasked with doing so on behalf of the organization. AI is removing much of that constraint. It is compressing the distance between idea and implementation, accelerating experimentation and iteration, and expanding who can participate. What was once limited is becoming abundant.

However, despite how we often describe it, innovation has never really been a solo act. While initial ideas may originate with individuals, they are refined, validated, and scaled through interaction, through the exchange of diverse perspectives, the testing of assumptions, and the realities of execution. If innovation at its core is not an individual capability, then as it becomes more distributed, more continuous, and more central to competitiveness, the quality of the collaboration behind it becomes a defining factor in whether organizations succeed or fail.

And this is why the role of the collaboration industry needs to be reconsidered.

Moving Beyond Tactical

Historically, we have defined our value in terms of enabling communication. We build the rooms, deploy the platforms, and integrate the systems that allow people to connect, and we have done that well. (Indeed, so much so, it has become increasingly tactical and commoditised). But in an environment where innovation is central to performance, and collaboration is central to innovation, that definition is no longer sufficient.

We know that simply bringing people together does not guarantee better thinking. It does not ensure better decisions, faster learning, or more effective outcomes. We see that every day in the variability of meeting quality across organizations. Those outcomes require something more deliberate. Historically, delivering that has been difficult, but AI is now providing the most intelligent, collaborative, and adaptive foundation for change that we have ever had. We are at the dawn of an opportunity to build environments, physical, digital, and increasingly intelligent, that do not just host interaction but can actively contribute to and improve it.

The Dawn of Opportunity

To be clear, AI is expanding what is possible, but it is also exposing a gap. While most organizations have invested heavily in collaboration technology, they are still not equipped to consistently turn an abundance of ideas into outcomes at speed. If organizations need to build innovation as a core, distributed capability, that requires more than technology. It requires the ability to enable effective, repeatable, collaborative innovation across the business.

That is both the challenge and the opportunity in front of the industry. It is the shift from delivering collaborative environments that are passive… to enabling systems that are actively supportive. Systems that can potentially help guide discussions, structure decision-making, surface relevant insight, and help teams move more efficiently from conversation to action. Systems that embed best practices of collaboration and innovation rather than leaving “good” to chance.

While collaboration will always extend beyond innovation, in an era where innovation becomes THE primary driver of value, helping organizations improve how they innovate, how they move from idea to decision to execution, creates impact that is not just incremental, but compounding. The result? Not just efficiency, but meaningful differentiation. Real competitive advantage. And ultimately, sustained economic impact.

And that is where our relevance as an industry should expand. Not because collaboration is new, but because its role is fundamentally changing. If we recognize and act on this opportunity, it shifts the industry’s model, from one defined by transactional delivery and competitive pricing, toward one aligned with accountability for outcomes and participation in value creation.

But to achieve this vision, there is a parallel truth we need to confront. The model through which our industry has historically innovated is not built for this moment. Innovation has largely originated at the vendor level, been delivered as features through the supply chain, and presented to customers as capabilities to adopt. That linear model struggles when the real challenge is not access to tools, but how those tools are applied, integrated, and evolved within complex, real-world environments.

So, if collaboration becomes the infrastructure of innovation, then the way we innovate as an industry must reflect that. It must become more collaborative. And that means moving beyond a model where innovation is created for customers, toward one where it is created with them. Where end user organizations play a more active role in shaping solutions. Where integrators extend beyond deployment into orchestration and continuous refinement. And where vendors enable more open, adaptable platforms that support this shared process.

In other words, the industry must embrace the same collaborative innovation discipline that our customers are now being forced to develop. Because the connection is direct. The more effectively we build this capability within our own ecosystem, the more proficient, credible, and valuable we will become in helping organizations do the same. The opportunity is immense. But it will not be realized through incremental change, or by any one part of the industry acting alone. It will be defined by how effectively we come together to build what comes next.

AI is Compressing the Very Premise of Time

We know there is a natural tendency to overestimate the impact of technological change in the short term and underestimate it in the long term. In our industry, that often leads to inertia, a tendency to wait and see. But in this moment, even that framing feels unstable. The pace of AI is compressing the very premise of time. In the CAPEX-driven cycles we are used to, what once felt like a normal horizon now feels like an eternity. Now is not the time to wait.

While certainly there are many in that camp, I also believe that for many across the industry, the “why” behind the need for transformation ahead is not the real challenge. Amid infinite commentary and rhetoric around AI-driven change, the harder questions, the pressure to act is far more practical. It’s about “where to begin”:

• What actually needs to change, across both technology and human capability, to move beyond the constraints of the past?
• Who will lead the necessary shifts in mindset, in how we define value, and in how we build the operational capabilities required across vendors, integrators, and customer organizations?
• How do we fund and scale new skillsets, new models of experimentation, and new business approaches that move us from project-based delivery, bound to the speed of the physical, toward continuous, outcome-driven services that evolve at the speed of digital?
• And perhaps most critically, when do these shifts move beyond early adopters and begin to scale?

This article is the first of a series intended to explore those questions in practical terms, what the gaps actually are, where capability needs to be built, and how the industry can move from delivering collaboration… to enabling innovation at scale.

Like the organizations we serve, we need structured environments to explore ideas for industry transformation. We need real investment in experimentation. We need more collaborative and diverse partnerships, within and beyond the industry. And so hopefully this series can play some part, be some form of catalyst to that.

Because if innovation is the engine of competitiveness, and collaboration is the engine of innovation, then the conclusion is hard to avoid. We are closer to the center of value creation than ever before. The question is whether we are ready to take the steps to operate there.

It’s clear that in 2026, manufacturers are elevating their workplace collaboration hardware and software solutions to focus on ease of use, ease of deployment, management and monitoring, flexibility, and the end-user experience. This statement might appear to be “more of the same,” but look closer, we’ve entered a new era with AI changing the game.

Twenty-five AV/IT thought leaders shared their insights on workplace trends and predictions. Below is a snapshot from a few. Check out the sidebar for the complete 22 interviews.

“The strategic shift is not just toward new devices but toward architectures—modular, wireless, and platform-agnostic approaches that accommodate both Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and fixed-room setups,” said Oliver Van Camp, product director, Meeting Experience at Barco. “When meeting rooms adapt to people instead of the other way around, collaboration becomes natural, inclusive, and sustainable in a hybrid world.

Steve Wingo, manager of Technical Applications Engineering at Sennheiser, added, “Looking ahead, workplace innovation will be defined not just by flexible spaces, but by connected ecosystems. The organizations that thrive will be those that invest in collaborative technologies designed to grow with them—secure, scalable, easy to manage solutions that make communication and control effortless and effective from anywhere.”

Ken Eagle, Chief Executive Officer at Hall Research, said, “We believe the future workplace is defined by balance—between remote and in-person participation, between flexibility and consistency, and between powerful capabilities and ease of use. Organizations that get this right will create environments where people want to engage, collaborate, and do their best work.

Workspaces are becoming more flexible. John Kruse, senior field solutions architect at ViewSonic, added, “Single-purpose rooms are giving way to environments that support team meetings, training sessions, and larger gatherings throughout the day.”

Artificial intelligence is no longer just the buzz. Joel Mulpeter, senior director of product marketing at Crestron, said, “Interconnected intelligence is driving the next wave of practical AI applications in AV. Unlike generic AI implementations, these systems leverage domain-specific insights about spatial acoustics, visual optimization, and human interaction patterns.”

Jason Metcalfe, business manager, Crystal LED at Sony Electronics, added, “Just as advancements in AI are supporting new business operations, collaborative AV technologies support productive teamwork and unlock a brand’s potential.”

Petro Shimonishi, director of new business development at Panasonic Projector & Display Americas, cited two trends that are dominating corporate space re-designs. “Demand for immersive, highly visual meeting environments and the need for flexible spaces that can easily convert from a presentation room to a roundtable meeting space.”

“Culturally, organizations will move toward collaboration norms that prioritize participation, clarity, and faster decision-making,” added Tyler Troutman, senior manager of Collaboration Ecosystem and Engagement at Shure. “From a space planning perspective, meeting environments will be designed to support hybrid-first experiences, where in-room and remote participants are equally seen, heard, and understood.”

Jennifer Cheh, senior vice president of Display Marketing and Product Management at Sharp Imaging & Information Company of America, said, “Overall, successful workplace AV/IT strategies in 2026 will prioritize experience over hardware. Organizations that invest in AI-ready infrastructure, usability, and security will be best positioned to support productivity, collaboration, and employee well-being in an evolving workplace.”

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Firat Ozkan, Co-Founder, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Mount-It! PRO

One emerging workplace trend often overlooked is physical adaptability. As organizations redesign offices for hybrid work, flexibility is no longer optional; it’s a structural concern.

As collaborative spaces evolve, technology must support constant reconfiguration. Meeting rooms shift purposes, displays move locations, and environments evolve faster than traditional fixtures were designed to handle. Mounting infrastructure is becoming a silent enabler of agility.

We expect to see increased emphasis on modular hardware that allows spaces to transform without reconstruction. Adjustable mounts, mobile installations, and ergonomic positioning will support healthier and more dynamic work environments.

There’s also a growing awareness of the physical relationship between people and technology. Screen height, viewing angles, and accessibility aren’t minor details; they influence fatigue, posture, and engagement. Ergonomics is becoming part of workplace strategy—not just facility planning.

Technology shouldn’t lock a space into a single purpose; it should empower teams to adapt to their environment as quickly as their work evolves.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Jeff Vandehoef, Co-Owner at CableEZ

We see the trend shifting from technology adoption to less technology friction. The modern office isn’t short on tools; it’s short on simplicity.

One of the most overlooked trends is operational ergonomics, or how technology physically integrates into the workspace. Employees are returning to offices that must compete with the comfort and efficiency of home setups. If cables are messy, connectivity is unreliable, or desks require troubleshooting just to start a meeting, then adoption drops fast.

The next phase of workplace design is about removing micro-friction. Clean cable management, intuitive connections, and durable physical infrastructure may sound small, but these details shape the daily experience. When systems feel seamless, employees engage more confidently with shared technology.

We also expect to see sustainability influence infrastructure decisions. Reusable, serviceable, and modular connectivity solutions are gaining attention as organizations rethink waste and technology lifecycle costs.

Technology that disappears into the environment allows people to focus on collaboration—not cables. Sometimes the most powerful innovation is simply making things easier to use.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Natalie Appleton, Vice President of Korbyt Workplace at Korbyt

2026 will not be defined by a single workplace trend, but by a broader shift toward intelligent efficiency across every aspect of the workplace. Organizations—especially those in banking, legal, and enterprise environments—are moving beyond feature-driven purchasing decisions and demanding measurable outcomes. This means that workplace platforms must now improve operational productivity, reduce day-to-day burden on IT and facilities teams, and deliver clear ROI at scale. As hardware commoditizes, differentiation has shifted decisively toward software intelligence, analytics, and integrated services that create operational clarity instead of fragmentation.

We will continue to see accelerated consolidation around cohesive workplace platforms that unify room booking, digital content, and device management into streamlined operational models. The most successful systems will be ambient, operating inside tools employees already use, like Outlook, Teams, and mobile devices, rather than forcing adoption of siloed solutions. AI will move from a headline feature to an embedded operational layer, reducing booking friction, enabling predictive workflows, surfacing actionable occupancy data, and shifting teams from reactive troubleshooting to proactive oversight.

Physical spaces will continue evolving into adaptive environments powered by real-time booking data and actionable analytics. But the real differentiator will not be the technology itself; it will be how intentionally organizations align that technology with culture, governance, and operational discipline. Ultimately, the goal is to make work more predictable, inclusive, and focused, allowing teams to spend less time managing systems and more time driving collaboration and performance.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Holger Reisinger, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Video Business Unit at Jabra

2026 will mark a shift from “return to office” to “rethink the office.” With most RTO strategies already in motion, enterprises are now reassessing whether their meeting spaces—and the collaboration technology that powers them—truly reflect how people work today.

Video collaboration is front and center in how we work, communicate, and drive productivity. Hybrid meetings are standard, which means every room must deliver consistent, equitable experiences for remote and in-room participants. Yet, many spaces remain under-equipped to facilitate this collaboration. In 2026, we’ll see organizations rework their meeting spaces around three priorities: inclusivity, simplicity, and scale.

First, organizations need to create meeting experiences that feel balanced and inclusive from every seat in the room. Intelligent audio, multi-camera layouts, and intelligent features help to give every participant a front-row meeting experience, regardless of where they join from. Second, IT teams need true plug-and-play solutions that are easy to deploy and simple for users to walk in and use. And, they need simple device management at scale to reduce support time, ensure consistent experiences, and keep collaboration tools running smoothly. Finally, organizations need solutions that can grow as business needs change.

Companies that invest in simple, scalable meeting room technology—solutions that can be customized across spaces and evolve as workstyles change—will be positioned to drive more natural, intuitive, and productive collaboration experiences in the year ahead.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Chris Teguh, Product Manager at Epson America

Today’s workplaces need intuitive, accessible tools that support global collaboration and inclusive meetings where everyone can participate. With corporate offices now supporting on-site, hybrid, and remote employees, it’s essential that workplace technology supports collaboration, regardless of employee location.

Interoperability is also critical. Employees expect to use their preferred platforms without sacrificing performance. When companies achieve seamless integration across their tech ecosystems, workplaces are better positioned to scale efficiently and adapt smoothly as the environment evolves.

There’s a growing need for display solutions that can adapt to any room size, deliver clear viewing for everyone, and integrate seamlessly with the surrounding technology. With ultra-wide, immersive visuals, projection uniquely adapts to diverse environments while ensuring consistent, inclusive viewing. In addition, today’s projectors are more compact, versatile, and feature-rich, delivering vibrant, detailed images for presentations and virtual meetings. There are also mobile options like the Mobi mobile projector cart that add more placement flexibility. Wireless display tools such as Miracast and Apple Airplay make it easy to share content from compatible devices, while Epson Projector Management Software provides centralized monitoring and management of multiple projectors, helping streamline setup, maintenance, and day-to-day administration

In 2026, large displays will continue to grow in popularity within workplaces as meetings, training, and planning sessions benefit from life-size visuals and versatile aspect ratios. When designing communal spaces in today’s workplaces, projection technology can also transform almost any wall into an engaging environment that fosters creativity and draws employees in.

I also expect to see more versatile display solutions integrated into the workplace that are both easy to use and adaptable. Versatile projection technology will help workplaces collaborate effectively, train more efficiently, and support employee engagement regardless of location.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Mark Corbin, President at Vanco International

Many people hear the term “workplace” and automatically think “office,” but that’s a narrow point of view. Around half of American workers are frontline employees, meaning that instead of sitting at a desk, they perform in-person, customer-facing, or operational work. These tasks cannot be offshored or replaced by AI. Solutions designed to both support the needs and acknowledge the realities of frontline work will deliver ROI for years to come.

Frontline work is often very fast-paced—across verticals ranging from retail and hospitality to education and healthcare. No one has time to navigate complex menus or preconfigure a room prior to a meeting or event; simplicity, reliability, and user friendliness are paramount.

That’s doubly true given that frontline workers experience far higher turnover rates than white-collar employees. You can’t assume a stable user base; AV systems must be totally self-explanatory. That starts with clear system labeling, uniform control interfaces, and standardized rack designs that reduce troubleshooting complexity, but also includes smart audio presets, remote monitoring, and user-friendly tools that don’t require retraining every time the team changes.

In 2026, I expect to see more workplace AV designed to prioritize the needs of frontline workers. These systems will be consistent, reliable, and simple enough for seamless adoption. By delivering digital signage, video distribution, and audio systems that frontline workers can understand and operate on day one, you can help businesses succeed at exactly the point where they interface with their own customers.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Dana Corey, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Avocor

Today’s AV displays have progressed dramatically, emerging as essential, interactive communication systems rather than the passive screens they once were. As architecture and IT converge, organizations now require display solutions that exceed standard specifications and perform reliably across a wide range of environments, including corporate offices and retail spaces.

With many workplaces shifting toward hybrid models and retail spaces competing for in-person engagement, display hardware is being redefined to deliver higher performance, durability, and flexibility. The focus is no longer solely on delivering visual content but on enabling strategic business signage that strengthens brand presence, supports operational efficiency, and ensures consistent, high-quality information delivery across increasingly connected spaces.

Visual impact is the cornerstone of effective signage. Avocor recognizes that different signage environments require different compute needs. Our product range has been designed to address changing requirements around performance, sustainability, and visual integration in professional environments. Whether engaging employees, informing travelers, or captivating shoppers, we are empowering organizations to communicate in ways that truly transform their environments.

Digital signage is evolving from static displays into dynamic, intelligent platforms that do far more than just broadcast content. In a crowded marketplace, impact comes from relevance and engagement, and today’s signage is becoming context-aware and deeply integrated into broader digital ecosystems. The challenge for the future isn’t saturation; it’s differentiation. We’re committed to shaping this future, creating signage solutions that empower connection, creativity, and growth—and this is where innovation in hardware, software, and user experience is making all the difference.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Zec Voislav, Product Development Director at WyreStorm Technologies

In 2026, collaboration is less about getting people onto a call and more about removing the small frictions that waste time and attention. Culture is shifting toward outcomes and inclusion. Teams want meetings that feel equally natural for in-room and remote participants, and spaces that support quick transitions from a two-person huddle to a customer presentation without technical resets.

That expectation is reshaping space planning. Offices are investing in fewer generic rooms and more purpose-built environments: focus pods for 1:1s, flexible project rooms with reconfigurable layouts, and larger spaces designed for hybrid town halls. The common thread is consistency. People want the same experience in every room, with familiar connection options, predictable camera behavior, and dependable audio quality, because uncertainty is what makes participation drop.

Technology is catching up with that reality in three big ways. First, AI is moving from novelty to utility. Meeting summaries, action capture, live translation, and intelligent framing are becoming baseline features, which raises the bar for clean audio and reliable multi-camera video. Second, infrastructure is consolidating. USB-C continues to standardize the table, while AV over IP becomes the backbone for scaling video across rooms and buildings, supported by centralized monitoring, analytics, and remote device management to keep spaces healthy without constant site visits. Third, control is becoming more open and adaptable. Low-code, visual automation, and API-driven integration are replacing rigid programming cycles, making it easier to evolve workflows as teams and needs change.

The workplaces that win in 2026 will treat collaboration like a product: designed, measured, and continuously improved so people can focus on the work—not the room.

Jasper Engines, an Indiana-based leader in remanufacturing automotive components, regularly hosts extensive facility tours for clients and internal teams. These eight-hour tours take place in a bustling manufacturing plant environment filled with CNC machines, routers, and other loud equipment, creating significant audio interference.

Jasper Engines’ previous tour communication system was severely outdated, leading to frequent disruptions and frustrating experiences for everyone. Impressed by a responsive customer service and educational approach, Jasper Engines’ team, including Shayne Guinn, inside sales and group leader, and Andrea Ingle, inside sales administrator, selected Tripp Communications Systems (TCS) to provide a modern, reliable, user-friendly solution that could withstand the demands of a busy tour schedule.

The upgrade was a dramatic success, transforming the quality and efficiency of the company’s tours.

The Challenge of Outdated Tech

Jasper Engines’ previous communication system presented several critical challenges that undermined the effectiveness of its plant tours.

Durability was a primary concern. The old clip-on units were fragile, shattering if dropped and often needing repairs. Poor battery life was also a constant disruption. Guides were occasionally forced to interrupt their presentations mid-way through to replace disposable AA batteries.

Additionally, on the plant floor, the RF-based system was susceptible to constant audio interference. A complex channel system required meticulous coordination to prevent crosstalk between groups, creating a cumbersome experience for the guides.

“If we did a corporate and a commercial tour with the old equipment, we had to make sure that one guide was on channel three, for example, and everyone would be on channel five,” Ingle said. “If not—if you were too close in that building—you would pick up the other guide’s information. And that’s not anything that we have to worry about anymore.”

Modern Solution, Immediate Impact

TCS proposed the ListenTALK two-way communication system by Ampetronic | Listen Technologies to directly address every challenge Jasper Engines faced. It provided a suite of cutting-edge features that immediately improved the tour experience.

The first major benefit was all-day battery life; headsets could now last for the entire eight-hour tour. Disruptive mid-tour battery changes were suddenly all but eliminated, and the team at Jasper Engines enjoyed a renewed professional flow to their presentations.

With near-bulletproof durability, the new headsets were built to withstand even the toughest manufacturing environments, marking a dramatic improvement over the fragile legacy audio equipment.

“The old units would fall off and shatter,” Guinn recalled. “With the new ones, we’ve dropped them several times, and they keep working. Ted told us they were basically bulletproof—and he wasn’t kidding!”

The ListenTALK headsets provided crystal-clear, fully encrypted audio, eliminating the crosstalk from other tour groups and interference from machinery. Intuitive, user-friendly features like simple, tap-to-connect pairing and the elimination of channel management also made the system easy to use, empowering more associates to lead tours confidently.

[Exclusive Interview with Listen Technologies’ President and CEO]

The newfound efficiency reduced preparation time while accommodating larger tour groups. The system also introduced other capabilities that enhanced the tour experience, such as the ability to designate sub-leaders within a group.

“We’ve never had that before,” Guinn said. It’s great to have that option to add in different sub-leaders so everybody can get a chance to talk to the group.”

From very early on in the research phase, TCS stood out to Guinn, who spearheaded the project. He noted that it was the only company that responded personally to educate him on the ListenTALK technology and its benefits.

That same high level of customer service continued post-purchase, with prompt support and proactive check-ins. The feedback from tour attendees and the company’s outside sales representatives was also overwhelmingly positive. The clarity and reliability of the new Ampetronic | Listen Technologies system significantly improved visitor satisfaction, leaving a lasting, professional impression.

“One customer said they actually took a tour of GM and that our equipment was better than what they used,” Ingle said. “We have gotten tremendous feedback about this new system that I’m really happy with.”

The transition to Tripp Communications and ListenTALK not only solved Jasper Engines’ immediate technical problems but also elevated the quality, efficiency, and professionalism of their highly valued plant tours.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Jennifer Cheh, Senior Vice President of Display Marketing and Product Management at Sharp Imaging & Information Company of America

In 2026, workplace technologies will deliver intelligent, network-based systems that support hybrid work and data-driven decision-making. Rather than operating as isolated tools, AV and IT will function as integrated platforms where artificial intelligence, cloud management, and analytics are standard components.

AI will play a central role in workplace technology. AV systems will use AI to automatically manage camera framing, audio levels, lighting, transcription, and summarize meetings, reducing friction for users and improving equity between in-person and remote participants. AI-driven analytics will also enable IT teams to monitor performance, predict maintenance needs, and optimize space utilization based on real usage data.

The traditional divide between AV and IT will continue to disappear as AV-over-IP, cloud-native control, and open ecosystems become the norm. AV systems will be treated like any other networked IT service, requiring strong cybersecurity, governance, and seamless interoperability with collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Hybrid work will remain the dominant model, even as office attendance patterns vary. As a result, offices will increasingly be designed as collaboration hubs rather than individual workspaces. Technology will adapt dynamically to how rooms are used, supporting more engaging and inclusive meetings through intelligent displays, spatial audio, and smart cameras.

Overall, successful workplace AV/IT strategies in 2026 will prioritize experience over hardware. Organizations that invest in AI-ready infrastructure, usability, and security will be best positioned to support productivity, collaboration, and employee well-being in an evolving workplace.

Sharp is focused on delivering the best customer experience with our high-quality display technology and solutions portfolio, while also offering an agnostic, modular, future-proof approach in order to simplify deployment and maximize content impact.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Chris Merrill, Director of Product Management and Engineering at Panasonic Connect

“How do we make our communication and content look like we’ve hired a full broadcast crew—without having to hire a full broadcast crew?” At Panasonic, we hear this question regularly from customers who understand that production quality sends a powerful message about their brand and the importance of their content to an often easily distracted audience.

Audiovisual technology is evolving to meet this challenge head-on. With efficiency at its core, audiovisual solutions must be fully integrated systems that improve how people work. It’s critical that organizations stay equipped with interoperable technology that reduces technical barriers and makes it easier for teams to connect and communicate across locations.

AI-driven capabilities are accelerating this shift. Auto-tracking adjusts shots based on who is speaking, eliminating the need for manual camera control and allowing hybrid participants to feel more connected to the conversation. Emerging facial recognition capabilities support more personalized, consistent experiences by recalling preferred camera layouts or room configurations.

In audio systems, AI-powered noise suppression and echo cancellation filter distractions in real time, while voice leveling keeps speech clear, even in crowded environments. Audio can also trigger camera switching to help follow the live action narrative, creating a better experience for participants and for future playback.

Switchers play a role by bringing video and audio sources together into a centralized system. While not always AI-driven, they streamline workflows, enable consistent layouts, and simplify content management. In conferences or large meetings, switchers elevate traditional presentations into broadcast-quality experiences.

Together, these advancements allow AV technology to fade into the background, freeing teams to focus on creating high-quality content rather than managing the tools that support it.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Joe da Silva, Vice President of Marketing at Extron

We continue to see growing demand for Bring Your Own Meeting (BYOM) across a wider range of spaces, driven by users who want to collaborate locally while seamlessly including remote participants. Employees expect to use familiar UC platforms such as Teams and Zoom to connect with remote colleagues while gathering in conference rooms, meeting spaces, or classrooms. A critical requirement is the ability to use the room’s camera, microphone, and speakers so local participants can be clearly seen and heard, and remote attendees can fully engage with everyone in the room. At the same time, users want this experience to run from their own laptops without the need to rely on complex or costly room-based systems.

Advances in collaboration switchers have made this model increasingly practical. These solutions allow a single USB-C connection from a laptop to route video and audio to the room display, while also providing access to the room’s camera, microphone, and speakers, and providing power to the local laptop. With one connection, a meeting organizer can present content locally and share high-quality room audio and video through Teams, Zoom, or other UC platforms running on their laptop. BYOM enables users to quickly connect their own devices to room AV systems using a familiar interface, making it easier to collaborate both in person and remotely. As collaboration technologies continue to mature, BYOM is becoming simpler to deploy, more cost-effective to maintain, and easier for users to adopt. As a result, we expect more meeting spaces to be designed to support both traditional UC systems and BYOM.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Samuel Recine, Vice President of Global Strategic Partnerships at Matrox Video

When discussing AV/IT technologies—what they are and how they’re used—it helps to think in cycles. In some cycles, the focus is aspirational: what the technology should accomplish and how it can create value. That value may come through experiential AV and entertainment, improved communications, faster decision-making, or other mission-driven outcomes.

In other cycles, the focus shifts to calibration, or evaluating whether the investment is delivering as intended: Did the technology perform as promised? How easy or difficult was it to install? How much effort did customization require for a specific project or site? How manageable is ongoing maintenance? These calibration cycles create the reality check that informs the next round of planning.

This cycle matters because it shapes future goals and budgets. Consultants, manufacturers, and integrators can now be assessed against actual results—not just expectations. And users play a central role. They deserve systems that meet their needs, but they can also unintentionally create friction: scope creep, misalignment among stakeholders, major late-stage changes to deliverables or budgets, and decisions driven more by taste than process or decision science.

Right now, this cycle is especially important because the AV/IT industry is undergoing a sustained shift toward moving and processing audio, video, I/O, and data over Internet Protocol (IP). This includes reach-based applications, such as conferencing platforms, as well as high-end experiential AV, such as synchronized content systems powering immersive LED wall environments.

One key insight from this cycle is that preserving the flexibility to mix PC/IT equipment, Pro AV signal management and automation, and media production workflows—similar to what HDMI and SDI enable today—requires two things to complete the transition to IP-based workflows: open standards such as IPMX, and new converter technologies that bridge legacy equipment into IPMX-based systems and translate media/protocols from other proprietary AV-over-IP ecosystems.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Irene Kondos, Global Inside Sales and Customer Success Manager at Ampetronic | Listen Technologies

Audio has always played a role in how people experience shared spaces, but I think we are starting to look at it differently. Assistive listening is still very much needed, yet the conversation around it is expanding. We are beginning to recognize that these systems support more than a single group, and that how sound is delivered can shape who feels comfortable, engaged, and included.

For people who are hearing impaired, access to clear, reliable audio makes it possible to fully participate in classrooms, workplaces, houses of worship, cultural spaces, healthcare settings, and public venues. That foundation matters, and it always will. At the same time, there is growing awareness that sound affects far more people than we once acknowledged. In environments where background noise, echo, or competing audio are simply part of the space, listening can become tiring or overwhelming, especially for those with sound sensitivity, sensory overload, or different ways of processing audio.

What excites me about where technology is headed is the flexibility we now have. Traditional assistive listening solutions such as hearing loops, RF, and IR systems continue to play an important role, while newer approaches, including networked audio and broadcast options like Auracast, offer additional ways to deliver sound directly to personal devices.

Across education, transportation, corporate environments, museums, healthcare, and large venues, this shift gives people more control over their own experience. It also allows designers and AV teams to support a broader range of needs without treating accessibility as an afterthought.

We are widening the lens of inclusivity. When we design audio with intention and empathy, we create spaces where more people can listen, process, and participate in ways that respect their individual needs.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Joel Mulpeter, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Crestron

Traditional AV cloud deployments focused primarily on device management and remote monitoring—essentially digitizing existing workflows. Today's evolution centers on contextual awareness, where endpoints understand not just their operational status but also their role within the broader spatial ecosystem. This shift from device-centric to workflow-centric intelligence represents the next frontier.

The convergence of real-time data analytics with machine learning is enabling unprecedented automation. Cloud platforms now correlate multiple data streams—occupancy sensors, audio levels, network performance, and user preferences—to create predictive models that enhance both user experience and operational efficiency.

This interconnected intelligence is driving the next wave of practical AI applications in AV. Unlike generic AI implementations, these systems leverage domain-specific insights about spatial acoustics, visual optimization, and human interaction patterns. The result is AI that doesn't just respond to commands but anticipates needs, resolves issues before they impact users, and continuously learns from each interaction.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Tyler Troutman, Senior Manager of Collaboration Ecosystem and Engagement at Shure

As hybrid work stabilizes, organizations are entering a new phase defined by shifts in collaboration culture, space planning, and technology priorities. In the coming year, success will be measured less by office attendance or tool adoption and more by the quality of collaboration outcomes.

Recent research conducted by IDC and sponsored by Shure reveals that collaboration—not just technology—is the true driver of return on investment (ROI). Collaboration is no longer a supporting act; it’s the engine of competitive advantage. Enter “collaboration quotient”: a research-backed metric redefining workplace intelligence and setting a new standard for thriving in the AI-powered workplace.

Culturally, organizations will move toward collaboration norms that prioritize participation, clarity, and faster decision-making. From a space planning perspective, meeting environments will be designed to support hybrid-first experiences, where in-room and remote participants are equally seen, heard, and understood.

Technologically, this means a shift from deploying more tools to improving the quality of those collaboration tools and inputs. As AI-powered capabilities like transcription and translation become the standard, clear and natural audio and video will be essential to both human interaction and AI performance.

In 2026, CQ will increasingly serve as a benchmark for workplace effectiveness. Organizations that intentionally design for high CQ will reduce friction, improve engagement, and unlock greater value from their collaboration ecosystems; those that don’t risk continued investment without meaningful impact or outcomes.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Petro Shimonishi, Director of New Business Development at Panasonic Projector & Display Americas

Organizations have started to think differently about collaboration. It’s not just about providing technologies to support lively discussions; rather, the focus has shifted to creating shared experiences.

As organizations navigate more complex workflows and hybrid realities, they’re reimagining corporate spaces to support deeper collaboration and enhance productivity. Two trends are dominating these re-designs: demand for immersive, highly visual meeting environments and the need for flexible spaces that can easily convert from a presentation room to a roundtable meeting space.

Projectors are key to powering this shift. Large-format visuals move teams beyond passive viewing and into more intuitive, immersive experiences that drive creative thinking. When content is presented at scale, with clarity and visual depth, it becomes easier to drive meaningful discussion. Panasonic’s partnership with Igloo Vision exemplifies this approach by powering 360-degree immersive spaces. Imagine stepping into a conference room where every wall comes alive—mountain peaks stretching overhead, terrain unfolding beneath your feet—to create an experience so real it feels like you’ve traveled there. The vivid, life-like quality of these visuals is so impactful that we’re seeing interest from the public sector and defense industries. Our TAA-compliant projectors combined with Igloo’s software can create simulated training environments where teams practice collaboration skills together in risk-free environments.

As offices make the most of their physical space, the ability to deploy high-quality visual experiences without permanent installation has become a strategic advantage. That’s why we partnered with Artome to design the Artome PT-VMZ-AVCART, integrating power, AV, and network connectivity into a single mobile unit so teams can efficiently adapt spaces as needs evolve.

High-performance, flexible projector and display solutions will be key to powering this future of immersive, dynamic collaboration.

AVT Question: Please share insights into the trends and solutions shaping the modern workplace and collaboration spaces.

Thought Leader: Jason Metcalfe, Business Manager, Crystal LED at Sony Electronics

In 2026, our world is changing faster than ever. As we look at the corporate landscape, we see additional businesses adopting next-gen technologies to help deliver their products and solutions and to drive commerce in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Despite the new ways of working, it is abundantly clear that the tools rely on the power of people to function, and we see this evidenced by organizations refining their office experiences and providing new ways for their employees to collaborate with each other.

Just as advancements in AI are supporting new business operations, collaborative AV technologies support productive teamwork and unlock a brand’s potential. Direct-view LED (dvLED) is the latest display technology to support the important work of a number of industries through advanced performance. In visualization labs and infrastructure-monitoring applications, highly accurate image representation through industry-leading contrast and accurate low-black-level and color representation can make all the difference in important decision-making situations. Automobile manufacturers employ large, vehicle-scale systems for design teams to represent their collaborative work and allow for an experience that enhances creativity.

In 2026, we will see dvLED costs continue to decrease and more cost-efficient options, such as Sony’s Crystal LED S Series, come to the forefront, helping to democratize display technology. This allows implementation in applications squarely out of reach just a few short years ago—and with greater power efficiency than other leading display types—making maintenance and operation feasible for organizations of any size.