September opened with a flurry of Pro AV moves. There were a lot of new people in new places, partnerships, and road shows announced. As always, let's start with a couple of acquisitions.
Just weeks after announcing the completion of the 26North Partners acquisition of AVI-SPL, the company has now acquired CCS Presentation Systems Southwest (CCS Southwest), an audiovisual design and systems integration firm headquartered in Mesa, AZ. CCS has a 34-year history of serving customers in the Arizona market with a focus on continuously optimizing communications and collaboration solutions for the modern workplace and campus. While CCS has capabilities and locations across the United States, AVI-SPL has only acquired CCS Southwest, the operating entity serving Arizona. Read the full details in our coverage here.
Following the sale of CCS Southwest and the retirement of founder John Godbout, the CCS Presentation Systems headquarters is moving to Houston, TX, and will be led by the new owners of the CCS brand, Ben and Elizabeth Pickrel.
One day later, Ross Video made headlines, acquiring LAMA, a developer of audio production software known for its innovative live mixing solutions. You can find out what you need to know in our coverage here.
Now, on with the show.
People Movers
People News
AVIXA Welcomes José Aragón as Chief Financial Officer
AVIXA appointed José Aragón as the chief financial officer. In this role, he will lead the association’s financial growth strategy.
Aragón most recently held the position of VP of finance, networks, and studios at A+E Global Media, a multinational media company. During his tenure, he led several transformative initiatives, including serving as a key finance partner for the company's digital growth strategy. Prior to his role at A+E Global Media, Aragón was the VP of finance for Sony Pictures Entertainment, TV Production. He has also held executive finance positions at Univision and NBCUniversal.
Christie Appoints Jim Hallas as VP, Product Management
Christie has appointed Jim Hallas as VP, product management. Hallas will lead the company’s display product strategy and display product lines while aligning customers’ needs with the company’s innovation and capabilities to support the company’s long-term strategic vision to maintain its position as a trusted partner worldwide.
Most recently, Hallas served as business and engineering manager for the DLP Cinema, Pro AV, and Industrial Group at TI, where his team pioneered the HEP pixel technology and holds five patents for various technology innovations.
DMF Lighting Appoints Charlie Derk as Senior Director of Product Strategy
DMF Lighting has appointed Charlie Derk as senior director of product strategy. In this new role, Derk will lead DMF’s product roadmap and innovation strategy, driving the continued development of lighting solutions designed to elevate performance, aesthetics.
With more than 25 years of experience in the luxury residential and architectural lighting industries, Derk brings a blend of engineering expertise, market insight, and customer-driven innovation. He has held leadership positions at Legrand (where he was most recently VP of strategy for Legrand’s Building Control Systems division), Crestron Electronics, Doherty Design Group, and Lutron Electronics, where he was instrumental in shaping product portfolios and introducing advanced lighting control and automated shading solutions.
Telos Alliance Welcomes Jeff Williams as Director of Western US Sales
Telos Alliance welcomed Jeff Williams to the position of director of Western U.S. sales. Williams brings four decades of radio and broadcast experience, plus a family legacy in broadcast and pro audio, to support customers across the Western United States.
Williams began his career in broadcasting at age 16, working with Shotgun Tom Kelly, and followed with roles at San Diego’s KFMB, Boston’s WRKO, and leadership positions with Gannett, Jacor, Clear Channel, and Knight Broadcasting. Since 2015, he has been general manager and owner of Yellowtec USA.
Dante Partners
Dante Is Everywhere
There were several partnerships made with Audinate's Dante platform last week. Here is a quick rundown of who is now Dante-enabled.
AVer's Pro AV cameras will come with Dante Ready licensing. Dante Ready is a licensing program that allows manufacturers to ship their Pro AV products with Dante installed but not activated, so that Dante functionality, such as a channel of Dante AV-H video, can be activated on site whenever it’s needed, offering flexibility and scalability for AV over IP systems. With this integration, AVer’s professional AV cameras offer customers the ability to access Dante AV-H, which is a powerful technology that delivers smooth, high-quality, low-latency video over standard networks. Users simply enter a license key to unlock the functionality, with no hardware change required.
The Freedman Group, parent company of renowned professional audio brands RØDE, Mackie, and newly acquired Lectrosonics, has announced a new partnership with fellow Sydney-based technology leader Audinate. The agreement will see the integration of Audinate’s powerful Dante platform integrated into a suite of next-generation products across The Freedman Group’s portfolio, unlocking advanced networking capabilities for creators and professionals worldwide.
Grass Valley announced a new partnership with Audinate that brings native Dante audio integration into AMPP. With this update, production teams can manage Dante audio streams directly within AMPP without additional hardware. The integration supports up to 128x128 bidirectional channels with latency as low as 1ms, making it easier to scale professional IP audio across cloud, on-prem, or hybrid workflows. The move also introduces a flexible licensing model for Dante I/O, available hourly or monthly, giving broadcasters and event producers a cost-effective way to deploy professional audio networking for anything from short-term projects to enterprise-scale operations.
New Partnerships
Partnerships
Gotham Audio Custom Cables and Cable Stock Now Available in North and South America
Gotham Audio is now available throughout North and South America distributed by Audio Collective Group. Built for professional recording studios, live performance venues, broadcast facilities, post-production houses, and high-end home audio, Gotham Audio offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of premium cabling in the industry—spanning microphone, instrument, studio, digital audio, speaker, video, hybrid, and custom solutions.
Known for Swiss engineering and built upon Reussen Shielding Technology, Gotham cables are built for noise rejection, clarity, and signal transmission in every commercial and residential install.
PlayBox Neo U.S. Partners with AI-Media
PlayBox Neo has partnered with AI-Media to integrate advanced automated captioning, translation, and voice translation solutions directly into the PlayBox Neo broadcast playout ecosystem. Broadcasters, government organizations, universities, and corporate AV facilities now have access to cost-effective, broadcast-quality captioning and multi-lingual voice services, which expands their audience reach while staying compliant with accessibility regulations. They can easily deploy professional-grade captions and multilingual translation at broadcast quality without incurring additional staffing or infrastructure costs.
Through the U.S.-based partnership, PlayBox Neo customers gain access to AI-Media’s ALTA 2110 IP broadcast encoder and LEXI Text, an automated captioning solution that delivers same-language and translated captions with broadcast-grade accuracy and ultra-low latency. The solution also includes LEXI Recorded for pre-recorded content, enabling captions to be produced in less than half the program’s runtime. To ensure high accuracy, AI-Media applies its customized Topic Models, which recognize speakers’ names, industry terminology, and brand-specific language.
In addition to captioning, AI-Media’s new LEXI Voice adds real-time translated voice output. With LEXI Voice, PlayBox Neo customers can provide multilingual viewing experiences across both live and on-demand content. These solutions integrate seamlessly with all PlayBox Neo products, making them accessible to every organization using PlayBox Neo technology.
Pro AV Around the Globe
Pro AV Around the Globe
HARMAN Professional Solutions announced the appointment of Freevox as the distributor of its AMX video and control solutions in France. This new agreement builds on Freevox’s existing role distributing HARMAN Professional’s audio brands, including JBL Professional, BSS, Crown, Soundcraft, Lexicon, and dbx.
PPDS announced a new strategic distribution partnership with FVC, expanding its reach and strengthening its presence across the Middle East and parts of North Africa. Under this new agreement, FVC will represent and distribute the full PPDS portfolio of Philips Professional Displays, including the latest digital signage, direct view LED displays, and professional TVs, delivering world class AV solutions to customers across a wide range of verticals.
New Locations
New Digs
AV Stumpfl celebrated the opening of its new production hall at its headquarters in Wallern an der Trattnach, Austria, together with its entire team during this year’s summer family festival. The new facility adds 23,680 square feet (2,200 square meters) of production space, effectively doubling the company’s production capacity. Last year, AV Stumpfl invested in new equipment for a second production line and welcomed 20 new team members. Until now, this team was spread across various parts of the company building, which proved inefficient. With the new production hall, workflows can now be organized much more effectively.
USSI Global opened a new repair and logistics complex in Suntree, FL. The new facility is allowing the company to expand beyond its warranty business and add broadcast headend and production equipment to its catalog of repair services. Located about 15 miles north of the company’s Melbourne headquarters, the new repair complex is allowing USSI Global to consolidate three logistics centers into one. Anthony Morelli, president and CEO, USSI Global, said the company is already seeing improved operational efficiencies.
Road Shows
Hit the Road, Pro AV Style
JBL Professional launched its 2025 Installed Audio Roadshow, a coast-to-coast tour showcasing the brand’s most trusted commercial audio solutions in real-world environments. From September through November 2025, the roadshow will make 30 stops nationwide, offering AV integrators, consultants, system designers, and facility managers an opportunity to experience JBL sound in the region where they work with their customers. The JBL Installed Audio Roadshow will kick off in Los Angeles and visit major markets including San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Miami, among many others.
The JBL Installed Audio Roadshow delivers application-specific demonstrations that highlight clarity, coverage, and control across hospitality venues, retail spaces, schools, houses of worship, and entertainment environments. Each stop will feature the latest solutions, along with insights into system design best practices, guided walkthroughs, hands-on product exploration, and networking with industry professionals.
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Sennheiser announced the remaining dates for its 2025 Connect & Collaborate Roadshow, including events this fall and early winter. Following a spring and summer of successful stops, Sennheiser will continue its North American tour with visits to Washington, D.C. on September 9, Toronto, Ontario on September 16, and New York City on October 21.
The roadshow is designed for end users, distributors, consultants, integrators, and resellers, providing hands-on training for designing and deploying business communications solutions in meeting spaces and lecture halls. The events will feature live demonstrations of Sennheiser’s TeamConnect (TC) family of products, such as the TC Bars and the TC Ceiling Medium microphone with beamforming technology and TruVoiceLift. Sennheiser technical experts will be on hand to offer practical advice, while partners including Q-SYS, NETGEAR, Lightware, Planar, and Audinate will participate in select locations to highlight seamless integration. Attendees may also earn up to 5.5 AVIXA CTS RU credits by engaging in qualifying sessions.
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Sony Electronics’ Professional Display Solutions group is once again embarking on an interactive technology road show across North America from September 2025 through March 2026. Attendees to the AV Tech Expo will be immersed in the company’s range of Pro AV offerings, including professional BRAVIA displays, the direct view Crystal LED display, AI-enabled PTZ cameras, and device provisioning and management solutions. They will also get a first-hand glimpse at upcoming technology, before it comes to market. Additionally, the company’s knowledgeable product experts will be available to answer questions and demonstrate the latest innovations for a number of professional verticals and applications.
You can catch the show here:
- New York, NY | Sept. 24-25, 2025
- Boston, MA | Oct. 21, 2025
- Los Angeles, CA | Oct. 28 & 29, 2025
- Fort Lauderdale, FL| Nov. 12, 2025
- Chicagoland Area, IL | Jan. 14, 2026
- Plano, TX | Jan. 21, 2026
- Toronto, ON | Feb. 2026
- San Diego, CA | Mar. 2026
Welcome to the Alliance
Join the Club
Stage Precision has joined the OpenAV Cloud. The OpenAV Cloud fosters interoperability through open APIs and shared protocols, ensuring that AV systems, tools and platforms can communicate seamlessly across brands, disciplines and geographies. By becoming part of the OpenAV Cloud community, Stage Precision is reinforcing its long-standing mission of delivering customers true freedom of choice, flexibility and system integration without lock-in.
Telos Alliance, Jünger Audio, and TVU Networks unveiled a new collaboration to integrate Telos Alliance’s portfolio of cloud‑enabled audio solutions directly into TVU Networks’ MediaMesh platform, delivering next‑generation audio capabilities for broadcasters and content creators worldwide. In today’s ever-evolving broadcast landscape, audience expectations are rising, and cloud production is quickly becoming the new standard. With the integration of the Telos Alliance and Jünger Audio audio-handling tools with MediaMesh, TVU Network’s clients will gain the direct ability to automate complex audio workflows, ensure consistent, high‑quality audio, and leverage AI to ease manual workloads.
Hitomi Broadcast joined the Grass Valley Alliance, delivering native MatchBox Software solutions for the AMPP ecosystem. This strategic partnership addresses one of broadcasters' primary concerns about migrating to software-based production: maintaining precise timing and synchronization throughout complex virtualized workflows.
The integration brings Hitomi's trusted timing measurement capabilities directly into AMPP environments through MatchBox Software Analyser, MatchBox Probe, and MatchBox Renderer applications. MatchBox Software solutions operate entirely within AMPP's virtualized infrastructure, enabling engineers to position timing measurement probes throughout their broadcast chain without signal conversion or external routing. This provides true end-to-end visibility, allowing broadcasters to monitor timing at multiple points from a centralized web interface whilst maintaining the same millisecond-accurate measurements that broadcast professionals rely on worldwide.
