InfoComm 2025 is inching closer, but the Pro AV wheel hasn't stopped turning. This past week there were more new hires, promotions, and partnerships... and yes, more acquisitions.
Sound Devices announced the acquisition of JH Audio, a U.S.-based in-ear monitoring developer and manufacturer. The deal brings the two pro audio technology brands under the Audiotonix group portfolio, which also includes Allen & Heath, Calrec, DiGiCo, DiGiGrid, Fourier Audio, Harrison, KLANG:technologies, Slate Digital, Solid State Logic, and sonible. You can read our full coverage from the Thursday announcement here.
AVPro Global Holdings has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Remote Technologies Incorporated (RTI), known for its intelligent home and business control and automation solutions. With the move, AVPro is adding to a collection of companies that already includes AVPro Edge, AudioControl Pro, Bullet Train, ThenAudio, and Murideo. We covered it in full with more detail here.
In come sadder news last week, the Pro AV industry mourns the loss of Sho Sato, founder of Hosa Technology at 81. He was born on November 27, 1943, in Yokohama, Japan, and per Hosa Technology, he embodied the spirit of determination and innovation. At the age of 25, he moved to the United States with no more than a dream and a few dollars in his pocket. In 1984, with nothing but a borrowed desk and telephone, he founded Hosa Technology. Sato’s journey from humble beginnings to pioneering entrepreneur is a testament to his relentless work ethic, vision, and belief in providing value through quality and service. His legacy continues through the company he built and the people he inspired. In recent years, he proudly passed the torch to his daughter, Mayumi Allison, who now leads Hosa with the same mission her father held dear: To create reliable connectivity solutions with unparalleled service, passion, and care.
[Products, Sessions, Insights: InfoComm 2025 on AV Network]
People News
Matt Mangini Joins Advanced Systems Group’s Expanding Audio Team
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has appointed Matt Mangini as account manager within its rapidly expanding Audio team. Mangini comes to ASG with 20 years experience in audio technology bringing his extensive experience in audio production for film, TV, and music. As an account manager, Mangini will maintain, grow and build new relationships with clients, vendors and the audio community in the LA and surrounding areas.
Mangini describes himself as a “technologist when it comes to the intersection between technology and art.” Even before the start of his professional career, Mangini was immersed in technology. Having grown up in the Hollywood post sound community, Mangini brings an invaluable knowledge of both the technology and the community.
Tim Godby Named to Lead Brightline Lighting Industry Education Initiative
Brightline Lighting has appointed industry veteran Tim Godby as the company’s product ambassador. In this role, Godby is responsible for educating Brightline integrators, reps, and customers about existing and new lighting products and systems. Godby comes to Brightline from Bolin Technology, a manufacturer of PTZ cameras, where he was the product marketing manager.
Godby has over 30 years of AV management experience in pro audio, video, and lighting within the broadcast, corporate, house of worship, and education markets. He also brings over 11 years of marketing experience to his new role. While at Bolin, Godby produced and starred in an extensive series of well received videos highlighting the latest technology and customer application stories.
Extron Announces Key Leadership Promotions in North America
Extron has promoted two longtime team members into strategic leadership roles supporting continued growth and customer engagement across North America. Michael Bax has been named director of national sales and Mike Griffin has been appointed business development director, U.S. and Canada.
In their expanded roles, both leaders oversee critical teams that serve Extron's most important market segments and customers, including Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, and AV professionals across the United States and Canada.
Griffin began his career at Extron in 1999 and rejoined the company in 2010 after holding several leadership roles in business development with another industry leader. He now leads a team focused on supporting key corporate, federal, and government end users with design assistance, technical support, and training.
Bax, who started in customer support in 2007, has risen through the ranks, holding numerous positions in account and sales management. He is now responsible for leading the teams that support Extron's vital reseller and consultant customers.
HARMAN Appoints Sebastien Laffoux to Lead Martin Professional Sales Across North America
HARMAN Professional Solutions has appointed Sebastien Laffoux as director of lighting sales for North America. In this role, Laffoux drives strategic growth and leads the sales organization for HARMAN’s portfolio of professional lighting solutions, with a focus on expanding market share across the live entertainment, install, and architectural sectors.
Laffoux brings more than 15 years of senior leadership experience in the professional lighting and entertainment technology space. Prior to joining HARMAN, he served as VP of sales at ARRI, where he oversaw B2B and SMB sales operations across North and South America. Now, he leads the North America lighting sales team in identifying new growth opportunities and reinforcing HARMAN’s presence with key partners and clients in production, touring, architectural lighting, and integration channels. He will collaborate closely with product management, marketing, and regional teams to deliver tailored solutions that meet evolving customer needs.
SoundPro Expands Sales Team
SoundPro has promoted Doug Kliever, a 25-year industry veteran, to director of sales. A former audio engineer and salesperson, Kliever has been instrumental in driving SoundPro’s growth through an ever-evolving market.
To further strengthen customer support, SoundPro has added five new account managers, each bringing deep industry knowledge and a passion for solving complex audio, video, and lighting challenges. Martin Vire has 30-plus years in Pro AVL sales and specializes in contractor/integrator and house-of-worship markets; Davion Elliott is a live sound and recording expert; Abraham Velasquez is a AV/lighting pro with extensive house-of-worship experience; Austin Bell is a former educational rep; and Darius Jones brings a rich blend of experience from church music direction to AV installation and live production.
Supporting this expanded team is Tiffany Stalker, the newly appointed director of marketing and sales Enablement. With over 15 years of industry experience, she is enhancing outreach and creating new opportunities through stronger partner collaboration and digital tools.
Company News
Bluesound Professional announces Fit Radio integration
Bluesound Professional announced the first of a series of new business music service integrations—this one being with the workout music provider, Fit Radio that features a wide range of motivational workout music curated by real DJs from Miami, Las Vegas, and around the globe.
This integration allows all of Fit Radio’s workout-focused playlists to be securely accessed through the powerful BluOS app. They can also be saved to presets and scheduled, as well as being available through Bluesound Professional’s range of third-party control drivers.
This integration broadens the appeal of Bluesound Professional solutions to gyms and fitness centers, allowing commercially licensed fitness playlists to be available via all Bluesound Professional networked music streaming players as well as their innovative, patented range of networked PoE streaming loudspeaker solutions.
New Bose Professional Global Headquarters Opens
Bose Professional has opened its new global headquarters, museum, and Experience Center in Hopkinton, MA. The 50,200-square-foot (4,665 m2) facility was designed by OTJ Architecture and built by J. Calnan & Associates Construction with acoustic consulting by Acentech. The building honors the now-independent brand’s past, puts the power and clarity of the company’s present on full-display, and ensures the company’s future leadership with extensive labs, testing facilities, and office spaces.
At the heart of Bose Professional’s new headquarters is the company’s corporate museum, a curated space that pays tribute to the products and solutions that have defined the legacy of the brand. The museum features a collection of vintage and current loudspeakers, electronics, software, and portable systems from the company’s history.
Just steps away from the museum, Bose Professional's current line-up of hardware and software solutions proudly comes to life in the Experience Center, a 5,600-square-foot immersive environment built to host trainings and demonstrate the power, precision and ease of use that define the brand. With a focus on maintaining the company’s legacy of innovation, the new headquarters features a full suite of custom-built labs and spaces dedicated to mechanical and electrical engineering, testing, measurement, quality assurance, and fabrication, including the Klippel Lab, an acoustically isolated test chamber specifically designed for detailed acoustic measurement and testing.
Miri Technologies Provides Free Internet Access at Evacuation Center During Maryland Flood
Miri Technologies unexpectedly deployed its own technology to support residents in a small community in Western Maryland during the devastating flooding in May.
Miri co-founder and CTO Ryan Brenneman is a former resident of one of the affected counties, and had travelled to the area to support video productions at graduations at a local technical school. When he learned that the nearby town of Westernport was without broadband internet connectivity because of the flooding, he immediately wanted to help.
Brenneman set up a free community internet access point in the parking lot of the Bruce Outreach Center Church, which was being used as an evacuation shelter and as a gathering spot for local residents. Leveraging built-in Speedify bonding technology, a Miri X510 router combined primary internet connectivity from a Starlink satellite connection with secondary cellular connections from AT&T, Verizon, and UScellular to enable fast, reliable internet access even with traditional infrastructure unavailable.
The result provided a valuable communication pipeline for community members without their own mobile data access. It also offered benefits even for residents who had cellular data connectivity available, as they could transfer video and other material without being bound by speed or data transfer limits on their personal plans.
TAG Video Systems and swXtch.io Unveil Advanced Cloud-Based Media Monitoring Solution
TAG Video Systems and swXtch.io announced that they are collaborating to provide advanced cloud-based media monitoring for broadcasters and content creators.
By integrating swXtch.io’s unique cloud capabilities, TAG’s software-based multiviewer can monitor any IP stream, including 2110 and JPEG XS, with on-premises-level performance. This brings high-accuracy stream monitoring to workflows, simultaneously reducing costs and lowering latency while delivering real-time insights into stream health and quality.
Pro AV around the Globe
Biamp has appointed Van Domburg Partners as its new distributor in the Benelux region. This partnership will provide localized inventory, sales expertise, training, and customer support across Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Van Domburg Partners, a member of the Midwich Group, is headquartered in the Netherlands. With a proven track record of delivering value-added distribution services, Van Domburg will represent the full Biamp portfolio of professional AV solutions, including conferencing, sound reinforcement, control, and voice communication technologies, and more.
Boling Technology has appointed Audio & Television (PAT) as its exclusive distributor for Bolin Technology in Australia and New Zealand, further strengthening PAT’s portfolio of broadcast and AV manufacturers. Professional Audio & Television, with offices in Australia and New Zealand, has a strong engineering focus and partnerships with manufacturers such as LAWO, ARISTA, Riedel, CyanView, and Dell Technologies, PAT designs and delivers complete, integrated systems across the media and entertainment landscape.
Intersonic AB and Intersonic Oy has become an official distributor of Boom videoconferencing equipment across Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, in a major expansion of its collaboration capabilities. Intersonic, a distributor of lighting, audio technology and video since 1997, has been supplying professional products for installation, stage, studio and broadcast.
Vizrt announced a new distribution partnership with Prase, the Italian value-added distributor and part of the Midwich Group. By completing the certification process of Vizrt's live production portfolio, Prase provides broadcast, live production, and system integrator professionals with innovative solutions, including the all-in-one production switcher TriCaster, PTZ cameras, and IP-based lecture capture solution Viz CaptureCast. The combination of Vizrt's powerful solutions and Prase's regional expertise is ideal to develop and meet the needs of the content creator market in Italy and beyond.
