October opened with a bang as more acquisitions stole the Pro AV spotlight.
First, Ross Video announced its acquisition of ioversal, creators of Vertex, an immersive experiences platform. The move marks Ross Video’s expansion into experiential technologies, strengthening its end-to-end live production ecosystem. You can get all the details in our coverage by clicking here.
Later that same day, Avidex announced the acquisition of CCS New England, one of the region’s premier systems integrators serving the greater New England region. The acquisition is part of Avidex’s strategic growth plan, aimed at expanding its reach in key U.S. markets to better serve enterprise, healthcare, education, and government clients. We had the exclusive inside scoop, so get all the information by clicking here.
Now, buckle up. There are a bevy of people movers and partnerships to in which we have to get get you caught up.
People News
Pedro Andres Sanchez Joins Fivestone Studios as Executive Creative Director
Fivestone Studios welcomed Pedro Andres Sanchez to its team as executive creative director.
A creative leader with nearly two decades of experience, Andres Sanchez is widely recognized for blending design, technology, and storytelling to create immersive and interactive experiences. He has directed major permanent experiential projects for brands including T-Mobile, Verizon, IBM, Harley-Davidson, and McDonald’s. Most recently as GVP, group creative director for Razorfish, he led the Physical x Digital team in crafting large-scale immersive retail experiences and interactive brand activations. Prior to that, as creative director at Leviathan (now Envoy Chicago), he oversaw multidisciplinary teams delivering immersive experiences for branded environments, executive briefing centers, and public spaces.
Kokusai Denki Amplifies Sales Team with Adam Daniul
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America has appointed industry veteran Adam Daniul to its sales team. Daniul takes on the role of Southeast regional manager, initially covering the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
He joins KOKUSAI DENKI direct from FOR-A Corporation. His 12 years of experience at FOR-A, including nearly four years as VP sales and more than five years serving the Southeast, has also kept him well-versed in regional business trends, some of which share parallels across verticals.
Daniul is leveraging his strong industry relationships across the region and brand knowledge to develop new business, drive sales, and serve existing customers across KOKUSAI DENKI’s customer base. Those customers include both end users and the company’s regional channel partner network, including integrators, dealers and rental houses. Daniul’s depth of experience also includes several years with a distribution firm and a manufacturer’s representative which, along with his time at FOR-A, have prepared him with a broad industry of how the channel business operates and thrives.
Nemal Welcomes Adeline Ferro as Director of Business Development
Adeline Ferro, MBA, has joined Nemal Electronics as its new director of business development. She is leading Nemal’s expanding efforts in healthcare technology, focusing on OR connectivity solutions built with Neutrik’s Hybrid Med connectors. She also serves as a link between Nemal's sales representatives throughout the Americas and its engineering team, ensuring the delivery of custom solutions tailored to clients' needs.
With over 25 years of experience in broadcast and Pro AV—including leadership roles at Viacom—Ferro brings deep industry knowledge and a customer-first mindset to Nemal.
PPDS Welcomes ‘Edutech Expert’ Emily Pirtle
PPDS appointed "AV expert," Emily Pirtle, in a move further strengthening its sales team in North America. In her newly created role of regional sales manager for TOLA, encompassing Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas, Pirtle is focused on four key growth markets representing over 3.5 million small businesses and opportunities.
With an accomplished career spanning over 20 years, she brings a diverse set of skills and knowledge to the PPDS North America team, with specialist expertise and leadership experience in sales, account management, client relations, strategic planning, and business development. Her primary responsibilities include developing and managing relationships with integrators, resellers, and customers, identifying new sales opportunities and leads, and collaborating with partners.
She will also work with national and international teams to develop and implement new strategies to further increase and expand brand recognition and drive product awareness of PPDS' evolving portfolio of award winning Philips Professional Displays, and complementary hardware and software solutions, to a wider audience.
ProjX360 Appoints Kristina Marshall as Onboarding Director
ProjX360 hired Kristina Marshall as onboarding director. Marshall leads initiatives to help new clients learn ProjX360 and adopt proven workflows that streamline operations from sales through service.
Marshall brings over a decade of experience spanning both integration and SaaS solutions for the AV industry. She served at Portal.io from 2017 through 2025, where she worked closely with dealers and manufacturers to simplify quoting and procurement processes. Prior to that, she worked as a system designer and project manager at Kiwi Audio Visual (2013–2017), overseeing design, documentation, and job execution from pre-wire through project completion.
Company News
AC Americas Announces U.S Distribution Partnership with Innosonix
AC Americas announced its exclusive partnership with German audio innovator Innosonix for distribution across the United States. Innosonix is known for its advanced DSP-driven Class D amplifiers, offering up to 32 channels in a single rack unit. Its technology is designed for demanding applications in immersive audio, themed entertainment, and architectural installations—where precision, scalability, and reliability are paramount.
This strategic alliance marks a significant expansion of AC Americas’ audio portfolio, bringing Innosonix’s multi-channel amplifier technology to the U.S. market for the first time under an exclusive agreement.
Humly Partners With Avitor for Irish Distribution
Humly announced a new partnership with Irish AV distributor Avitor that will introduce the workplace solutions to businesses and campuses throughout Ireland. This collaboration marks Humly’s official entry into the Irish market.
Avitor, a value-added distributor in the AV and collaboration space, has selected Humly as a key addition to its brand portfolio for all-in-one professional space booking and management. The partnership reflects the increasing demand from organizations for smart, user-friendly workplace tools to book rooms, desks, and parking spaces, manage visitor journeys, and more — across one ecosystem featuring Humly’s hardware and/or software solutions.
Listen Technologies Partners with Akoio
Listen Technologies has partnered with Akoio, a company dedicated to hearing wellness through accessibility and lifelong sound health for both organizations and individuals, to expand education and access to inclusive audio experiences. The collaboration will highlight how innovative assistive listening technologies like Auracast broadcast audio are helping more people hear clearly in public and private spaces.
Akoio helps organizations adopt impactful solutions that meet the everyday needs of their employees. Together, they will ensure organizations are inspired to act and equipped with the strategies and tools to create environments where people can thrive. Listen Technologies and Akoio will focus on education, awareness, and strategic implementations to demonstrate the human and business impacts of access to clear audio.
Midwich Partners with Lightware Visual Engineering
Midwich announced a new U.S. distribution partnership with Lightware Visual Engineering. Through this partnership, Midwich will bring Lightware’s portfolio, including its Taurus UCX platform, advanced matrix switchers, AV over IP technologies, and USB-C connectivity solutions to integrators, resellers, and end users across the United States. Midwich customers will also benefit from dedicated sales support, training, and technical expertise to help them design and deploy Lightware solutions in a wide range of environments.
POPE Professional joins RAVENNA partner community
Lawo, developer of the RAVENNA audio-over-IP technology, welcomes Indian Pro AV company POPE Professional Acoustics Ltd as the latest partner to the thriving RAVENNA community.
POPE Professiona is known for its innovative range of audio solutions including loudspeakers, subwoofers, line arrays, amplifiers and digital signal processors. The company also offers comprehensive manufacturing, audio system design, installation and support, and has contributed to numerous high-profile projects across the country.
SMPTE 2025 Media Technology Summit Plans Unveiled
SMPTE, the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced plans for this year’s Media Technology Summit. SMPTE’s annual conference focusing on media innovations, solutions, and technologies is taking place Oct. 13-16 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, CA.
This year’s Summit will feature multiple technical conference tracks. Highlights include a Live Broadcast Symposium with sessions from the EBU, Marvel Studios, and AWS, as well as a Global AI Standards Forum with presentations from Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and others. SMPTE is also expanding its Solutions Hub, where attendees can explore three Interactive Zones: Acquisition & Live Capture, Processing & Post Production, and Delivery & Consumer Display. Each zone will spotlight the latest workflows and technologies that are shaping the future of media.
This news comes on the heels of SMPTE being recognized with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for its ST 2067 family of standards, which defines the Interoperable Master Format (IMF). SMPTE, along with Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), and University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center (USC-ETC), will be honored at the upcoming 76th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards. The ceremony is set to take place on December 4, 2025, at Prince George’s Ballroom in New York City.
