Solutions Over Hardware: Lightware at InfoComm 2026

At InfoComm 2026, Lightware Americas demonstrated a strategic shift, moving beyond traditional hardware manufacturing to address the evolving complexities of the modern conference room. According to Roger Takacs, executive vice president of Sales for Lightware Americas, the company’s presence at this year’s show was defined by a singular philosophy: the distinction between selling a box and delivering a solution.

"We are a solution-focused company. We don't make products to make a product because somebody else has a product. We make a product as a solution," Takacs explained during an interview with AV Technology’s Cindy Davis. This perspective served as the foundation for the three distinct product stories Lightware highlighted throughout the show: USB-C for every budget, deep platform collaboration, and the rise of what Lightware has dubbed “UC over IP.”

USB-C for Every Budget

The first major narrative centered on democratizing the USB-C experience. Since introducing its flagship Taurus line five years ago, Lightware has seen the market embrace its high-end, feature-rich solutions. However, listening to integrator feedback, the company realized not every room required the full suite of Taurus capabilities.

"The market has come back to us and said, ‘We love your product. The Taurus UCX family are absolutely the best products on the market. However, it does more than what I need it to do," Takacs noted.

In response, Lightware showcased six categories of USB-C solutions designed to provide specific functionality at varying price points. This range spans from simple USB-C-to-HDMI cables to the full-featured USB-C powerhouse Taurus UCX. By stripping away complex control systems where they aren't needed, Lightware has created lower-cost options that still deliver the reliability and "auto-switching" intelligence integrators and end users demand. Crucially, this approach helps integrators lower their total cost of ownership by reducing the support calls typically associated with over-engineered systems.

UC Collaboration, Deep Integration

The second pillar of Lightware’s InfoComm showcase was its deep integration with major Unified Communications (UC) platforms, specifically Google Meet, Cisco, and Microsoft Teams. Lightware’s booth emphasized that for users deeply invested in these ecosystems, the hardware must be an invisible, reliable enabler of the meeting experience.

Lightware’s Google Meet certification stands out as a prime example. Unlike generic hardware that treats the meeting room peripherals as static devices, Lightware’s solution monitors call status in real time. "If you're using Google Meet for everything you do, then you should be using Google Rooms," Takacs said, highlighting that the technology is smart enough to handle video routing and screen sharing based on whether a meeting is active.

The benefit here is twofold: for the user, it eliminates the anxiety of technology failure. For IT teams, the native integration ensures that when a user plugs in a laptop, the system doesn’t trigger error alerts. The Google backend understands the switch is intentional, maintaining a seamless workflow that keeps the meeting running without interruption.

The New Horizon: UC over IP

The company’s third area of focus at InfoComm was the evolution of AV over IP into UC over IP, a term coined by Lightware. Beyond simply moving video around a network—what Takacs calls "traditional" AV over IP—Lightware is building full-scale collaboration environments.

Whether utilizing its 1G GVN or 10G SDVoE-based TPN solutions, the goal remains the same: integrating cameras, microphones, keyboards, and mice into a unified, networked workflow. A standout highlight was the new 1G GVN transmitter with USB-C input, as well as Dante variants that bring Dante-enabled audio directly to the desktop, allowing integrators to bypass the need for separate DSPs for simple microphone setups.

The 10G TPN series further demonstrated this with a "combine-divide" room setup. Through the new Management and Monitoring Unit (MMU) device, Lightware showed how rooms can be dynamically reconfigured with a single button press. When rooms are combined, resources like cameras and peripherals become globally available; when divided, they isolate immediately. "This is the easiest demo I've ever set up because of this new MMU," Takacs shared of the setup for this year’s InfoComm booth, emphasizing how these tools are designed to make the integrator’s life significantly easier while providing a premium experience for the end user.

The Difference is the Experience

When asked to summarize what sets Lightware apart amidst a crowded marketplace, Takacs returned to that user experience. He argued that the true value lies in consistency across the entire ecosystem. Whether a client is in a small huddle room with a basic switcher or a massive boardroom with 10G AV over IP, the behavior of the system—how it charges the laptop, how it handles video, and how it detects call status—remains uniform.

“The differentiator is that it doesn't matter what type of room you're using. Whether you have a box with local cables connected to it and your table is up against the wall, or your table is in the middle of the room, and you have to extend to that display, or you have multiple displays and multiple input locations, it’s all the same,” Takacs said. “We provide the same type of experience so that it doesn't matter to the end user—when they go and plug in, which room they're in, they're all going to work the same way.”

In an industry often cluttered with proprietary boxes and fragmented systems, Lightware’s commitment to "future-ready" solutions and cohesive design is clear. They aren't just selling products; they are engineering solutions that work the same way, every time.