Behind the Rack
Behind the Rack is the AV industry podcast where Pro AV, broadcast, and live production come to life. Hosted by Hugo Chevrette, Franco Caruso, and Vincent Simoneau, each episode dives into the latest audio, video, and broadcast technology trends, while sharing real-world experiences from integrators, tech specialists, and industry leaders.
From new product launches and system integration tips to AV industry trends, audio solutions, and video workflows, the hosts keep the conversations casual, practical, and easy to follow. Expect honest insights, a few rants, and plenty of useful takeaways that go beyond what you’ll find in spec sheets or trade show booths.
Whether you’re an AV integrator, dealer, broadcast engineer, or just passionate about pro audio and video technology, Behind the Rack helps you stay connected, learn something new, and see what’s really happening behind the rack.
Behind the Rack
Ep.5 - The AV Industry Outlook for 2026: Key Trends in Pro AV, Integration, and Broadcast
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AV Industry Outlook 2026: Pro AV, Systems Integration & Broadcast Trends
In this episode, we look ahead to 2026 and the future of the AV industry, breaking down the biggest Pro AV, systems integration, and broadcast trends shaping what comes next. From AI-driven orchestration and self-healing AV systems to AV over IP standards, immersive LED design, and next-generation collaboration spaces, we explore how integrators and end users can deliver bigger experiences with fewer headaches.
We discuss practical strategies for staying flexible, scalable, and resilient as pricing volatility, supply chain challenges, and multi-vendor environments continue to reshape Pro AV and broadcast workflows.
Topics covered include:
• Wireless audio, lighting, and emerging wireless power trends
• NFC and e-ink tools for faster AV setup and troubleshooting
• Lower-cost LED walls, transparent and curved panels, and projection mapping
• Object-based audio, beamforming, and presenter tracking
• Pricing instability, tariffs, and short-quote strategies
• Multi-vendor Plan A/B/C design and diversified sourcing
• Microsoft Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms bundles, including 21:9 collaboration displays
• AV over IP standards and choices: ST 2110, IPMX, and NDI
• Broadcast orchestration with MXL and cloud-based workflows
• Agentic AI for pre-production, auto-switching, translation, and system repair
• Reliability, service models, and the push toward self-healing AV systems
Whether you’re an AV integrator, consultant, IT leader, or broadcast professional, this episode offers a clear outlook on what’s coming in Pro AV in 2026 and how to prepare for it.
Leave a comment and let us know which AV trends you think will have the biggest impact next.
Opening And 2026 Outlook
SPEAKER_02Being able to self-heal, self-repair, self-analysis, uh, that's also something we're gonna see in 26.
SPEAKER_04When I'm clocking out from work and I get home, I don't want to spend three hours behind my switch and reconfiguring my whole network while my two kids are like yelling because they the Netflix is not working and my wife is getting frustrated because she's not into tech. Uh I I just want to self-heal the system while I'm having supper. Give me all the self-healing possible. Yeah, exactly. How are people able to take the experience to another level?
SPEAKER_05And I don't know if you guys are Swifties or not, but did you watch the Aerator? Did you watch okay well? Just from a nerdy A V standpoint, apparently it was nice.
SPEAKER_04From AV to AI, the outlook for 2026 looks bright. In this episode, we're gonna talk about all the new stuff that's coming out for 2026. So grab your headphones, pull up a chair, and join us for some modest, sometimes nerdy, always fun conversations all happening behind the rack. Gentlemen, happy new year.
SPEAKER_02Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year.
Manufacturing Trends And Wireless Power
SPEAKER_04It was a great end of year, 2025, and uh getting ready for this episode. I realized that there's a lot of cool stuff coming down the pipeline 2026. There's a lot of stuff that was kind of sleeping, I find, in 2025, and I'm seeing a lot more emerging stuff that's being more readily accessible, I find, or going to be more readily accessible, lower cost, even though there's tariffs looming and all that stuff, but lower cost stuff. Um so I think really, really cool. What about you guys?
NFC Tools For Faster Lighting Setup
SPEAKER_05What are you guys hearing? I think from um I'll talk a little bit about the manufacturing standpoint. I think there's a lot of trends, uh, like you said, that were kind of happening in 2025 that were mentioned, some wants, and I think they'll actually be delivered in 2026. That's what I feel. Um, but from a manufacturing standpoint, you know, we're starting to see a lot more, I hate to say it, but wireless. You know, everything from wireless sound to wireless lighting control. Uh, we're seeing uh advancements in battery technology as well. So now we're talking about wireless power too. Um, so I think we're gonna start seeing a nice uh uh combination between wireless uh protocols, like I said, between lighting, sound, but now even power just coming all together. People want smaller items, but more efficient products as well. So it's gonna be an interesting year for 2026. How do we pack more into smaller products that'll be able to deliver uh even more power, even more uh results? So I think it's gonna be really interesting to see what happens in 2026.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Like we've seen device with RFID on them, like the CDJ 3000X. I was just thinking about that with the wireless, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Also, that uh some lighting came out with some RFID where you can Yeah, so ADJ, one of our brands that we distribute here uh on their Protege series, have uh NFC on board now. So from a pre-production standpoint, uh standpoint, and even from a production standpoint, uh before you would send out all your lights out to a show or a gig uh and everyone would change their modes or DMX address on them, come back to the shop, you know, do a factory reset. Uh for pre-pro, it's really important to know what channel your your lights are on, right? Well, now without even powering it on, because there's a power reserve in the lights, you can just tap the new EDJ app to the light and it'll tell you what DMX mode it's on and what channel it's on. So you're actually able to change all of this uh pre-production, but also for troubleshooting, right? Instead of going back on top, checking everything, lowering the rig uh through NFC now, you can easily troubleshoot uh without even going through the DMX board anymore. So it's gonna be really interesting to see what happens in in 2026.
SPEAKER_04Aaron Powell Are you seeing that across all the spectrum of the series or certain more on the high-end stuff?
AI Systems That Orchestrate Together
SPEAKER_05Or is it even more on the consumer, prosumer type of No, I I mean I would say it's becoming uh readily available to everybody now. Uh, you know, I think when it first came out, you would see NFC or these types of technologies for the higher end stuff, you know, testing it out, you know, troubleshooting it a little bit more. But now that it's available to the to the masses, I think that's it's really cool, right? The cost is coming down, they could put it into more products, and it's just helping everybody uh get their gig set up even quicker and more efficient. So nice. Um really excited to see how that's gonna be implemented into future products as well. Uh, can't wait to get my hands on it.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. On the uh a little bit on on what Franco was saying, we've seen also some cameras in 25 came out with uh e-ink displays on them, like the bird dogs. That's right, yeah. So even if the cameras turned off, as you know, e-ink display dot I believe they don't really take uh energy. Yeah, yeah, because I think it's literally like printed in the display. So we've seen some cameras that came out, even the camera turned off. You can see what's our default IP address. Uh so yeah, more of this also, I believe in 26. But uh my take on 26, as you know, I'm very I'm a big fan of AI. I'm experimenting a lot with it. Uh during the during the holiday, I was basically programming my own GPTs and stuff. So uh, but anyways, uh we'll we will see more of this, I think, in 26. Um, we will go from uh basically autonomous independent system to AI system that speaks together and orchestrate themselves against each other. So instead of having one camera that's doing AI tracking, you might see three cameras orchestrated together doing AI tracking together and also mixing their feeds. So more communication, more communication. Uh, as you know, also um AI is very, very predominant in in audio DSP. So we'll see more of this, all of these different components speaking together. That that's what I see coming for 26.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm hearing a lot of uh AI, I think is getting more and more prelivent in in all of the industries within AV. Um, and I definitely want to talk about that because that's a whole that's a whole like section where it's really interesting. And again, on the way here, I was just listening to a podcast as well. And um, I want to touch on that, uh, like especially that communication between all and how um AI. I was actually reading on how uh the development of AGI or you know how to get there and what advancements are happening between now and AGI and how we can help even the AV industry. So we'll get to that after.
SPEAKER_02Maybe, maybe let's just quickly explain what's AGI. It's uh yeah, artificial general intelligence.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
Market Growth, Tariffs, And Resilience
SPEAKER_04Um, but you know, quickly when I was looking up um kind of the outlook of 2026, obviously I pulled up some some stats that I want to share with you. Um, especially uh Vixa had some interesting stats, which is um the trend analysis projects about global revenues climbing around 332 billion uh for 2025, and uh will approximately progress towards 402 billion by 2030. So not crazy amount of growth. They're saying like about 3.9%, um, which in my opinion shows that the industry is even with everything that's going on with the geopolitical stuff and the tariffs and the economical stuff, I think um the industry is still quite resilient. You know, I don't know what you think, uh from on the brand brand standpoint.
SPEAKER_05But yeah, you know, I I think we're in a really interesting time, and you know, I'm not gonna talk about AI this entire episode. I think that's an episode in its own. Um but just like how we saw AI concepts come to life in 2025, and now we'll see them actually being implemented and perfected in 2026. I think we're gonna start seeing that same type of mindset for other aspects of the industry. So when we're talking about prices, when we're talking about product availability, 2025 was a difficult year, let's be very honest, in terms of sourcing the product, costing the product, yeah, tariffs, tariffs, tariffs in its own was a was uh was a fun, fun time for all of us in the different business for the manufacturing side as well, and even for the end user, because at the end of the a at the end of the day, the end user is is paying the price that we've established, and that, you know, like we've spoken about the supply chain and all that. But now that we've been able to, like I said, kind of uh uh come up with those concepts in 2025, you know, just like how how do we deal with tariffs? How do we deal with price increases? How do we deal with product availability, manufacturing delays? We had to kind of go through all these things in 2025. I feel like now we're at a point where we're ready to tackle it head on for 2026. Uh so we have a bit more experience dealing with the unknown, if that makes any sense, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So even as an integrator, too, like it's like, how do you how do you price a project?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just because you know absolutely. Like, I mean, pricing stability again is an episode on its own. But as a distributor, that's gonna be really important for our dealers and for the end users as well. Uh, and what we're seeing is we have to give really short timelines, unfortunately. You know, how long are the quotes good for financing terms? Because things can change at a single tweet. Let's be honest.
Pricing Stability And Flexible Quoting
SPEAKER_02And right, and you know, I think integrators uh need to be agile in the way they are providing quotes or responding to RFPs because they need to put some how can I put it some protection. Absolutely. They need to advise the customer that the price might change. It's all a in how can they put that in the their quote to make sure they're still being profitable and that the customer or the end user um get what he wants. And I think that quoting a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C is like having um having different sources, yeah, uh not quoting on a single product or a single vendor, but quoting more on a solution that could be provided by different vendors is the way to protect you in 26. It will be the way to protect you in 26.
SPEAKER_05I think the key term for 2026 is going to be flexibility. Yes. Flexibility will be very difficult, but that's where a role of a really good distributor comes in, is to ensure that the pricing is as stable as possible. And how do you do that? Well, from a brand management standpoint, it's negotiating with the suppliers, making sure you bring in the right amount of quantity at the right amount of price so that the right singular cost can then be stable throughout the year for as or for as long as possible to the dealers or the end users. So that to me personally is one of my goals is how do we make things as stable as possible for 2026? And should there be any changes, are you ready to be flexible?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and adaptable. Well, hopefully, yeah, and I hope and hopefully the industry is adaptable or adapting. You know what I mean? I I'm hoping that end users. I know a little while back when I was at the other distributor, it's like the certain period where copper was in a shortage or whatever, and you can see that some people just didn't understand, or in the end, end users didn't understand. So hopefully everybody understands that everybody should be adaptable. I mean, I would understand if I'm building something and wood is skyrocketing. I'm not gonna start getting upset at the refill. Well, it's just it is what it is, right?
SPEAKER_05So you know, and going back to what I was saying before in terms of you know things constantly changing and and flexibility, um, we're we're just gonna have to be ready. Everyone's gonna have to be ready. And I feel like we're we're at a time where we have products that are able to do more than what they were able to do five years ago. So you've got that flexibility because now products are capable of doing more than just one thing. So now to your point, you've got substitutes available, you've got plan B's available, plan C's available by using different products and different combinations, and not just this is my set design or my set plan A. Because there's so many products now that are capable of doing so many things, obviously at various levels of productivity or efficiency, you can do a lot now. There's a lot of different combinations compared to five, ten years ago. That's right. So, yes, there will be some instability, we're gonna have to be flexible, but we're lucky that with the technic technological advancements, we've got the tools to be flexible now.
Sourcing Strategy And Reliability
SPEAKER_02And to your point, I mean, also sourcing is an important so you you need to think about sourcing in different countries of origin, yeah. You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. I mean, yeah, uh, you know, South Asia products manufactured in Southern Asia, Asia are affected with different tariff structure, yeah. That's true too.
SPEAKER_04So it's private pricing, so have a plan A, plan B, plan C, and not only your solution on based on price, but also sourcing because that that's huge.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and that's where also you know uh product reliability is really important because all of a sudden now, if there's a manufacturing delay or sourcing delay or product delay, uh you need to make sure that what you have in stock is reliable. Yeah, and if it goes down, do you have a plan B in terms of service and repair? Yeah, that can quickly be done in time to get your your rig back in service.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I think uh without putting too much of a in, but I think that's why I think SFM also got into the whole plus thing, just uh that whole support system just to make sure that with everything that's changing in the world and stuff like that, especially like you said, if a vendor lose or whatever, um there's a support system in place for dealers where they can at least dealers or end users that can rely on the distributor that can provide services and/or repair, yeah.
SPEAKER_05That goes to stability, stability, stability and flexibility, yeah.
Immersive Live Events And LED Walls
SPEAKER_04Stability, flexibility. I came over that on the spot by the way. I didn't have it written in my iPad. Um let's jump in a little bit into the categories because I think there's uh some cool stuff. There's a lot of stuff coming out. Uh a lot of stuff coming out in each of the categories, but let's let's go category by category. Um specifically, let's start with ProLive. I think I think it's I'm hearing I know I went to Infocom two years ago, and they were talking about immersive experiences, and more and more uh immersive everybody's talking about an immersive experience, and there's different varieties or aspects to getting to that immersive experience. Yeah, but um projection mapping, um 3D object objects larger displays, yeah, larger displays and less expensive, larger displays. Yeah, so I'm hearing that larger displays, especially on the LED video walls, are are going down in price, so a lot more corp corporate uh are looking into that, which I think is but L C D will still remain lower than LED and still being larger and larger, also, yeah.
Projection Mapping Goes Mainstream
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I was just at uh LDI in Vegas, and uh the LED panel technologies come a really long way, and what's really interesting is just when you think they can't do more with it, they are. Um from all the brands, you know. I'm not just advocating for the brands that we carry here at SFM, but it's nice to see that the LED panel industry in general are really pushing the limits. Uh, you're doing larger displays, you're doing a lot smaller pitch, small, a lot smaller pitch, transparent displays now that's cool, are becoming really, really important. Foldable, foldable, you're doing curves. Uh so these modular designs now uh is allowing any creative director, lighting designer to come up with some really incredible designs. And I want to touch on the projection mapping because um quick little side note side story. I was on my social media and there was an ad that came up for uh an application that showed a kid projection mapping in the living room with an iPad and a projector. I know this has nothing to do with Pro and Live, but just to say back in the day, you know, projection mapping, that was like, oh my god, you needed a whole rig, server, really server, uh high-quality projector. And this kid was using a hundred dollar projector, video mapping his sofa and just recreating a scene from like his favorite video game on the sofa. Minecraft kind of thing. Yeah, so many ideas from like yeah, but it's so cool, right? Like using an iPad and uh and an affordable projector, yeah, just to say, like, we're talking about this like three years ago, projection mapping, wow, you know, server-based and whatever. Now you can use an iPad and a projector to do it. So it's it's really cool to see how far we've come, how easy it's become as well. I'm not discrediting you know video designers and all that, yeah. But the advantage on technology in such little time uh is really, really impressive to see. So, projection mapping, like I said before, wireless technology in general, right? From power sound to lighting, we're starting to see a lot more NFC in pro and live. Um, I'd like to see uh some really cool AI integrations with even pre-production, right? I think that's something that everyone knows is really important in Pro and Live, but it's just kind of talked about and everyone just sees the end result. But pre-production is such an important aspect, the planning, the organization. How do we save on labor costs, right? How is AI able to help us with that? Whether it's just cable calculations or whatever it may be, I think that's something that I'd like to see more of in 2026, is even just AI software-based applications or design. Yeah, to help with design and organization to get to your final product. I think that's something that I'd love to learn more about in 2026 as a personal goal. But um yeah, lots of cool things happening in all those spaces. I mean, even Bluetooth, let's talk about a little bit about wireless sound. Uh, if you would have asked me five years ago, you know, even from a mobile DJ standpoint, would you rely on Bluetooth audio for your main rig or a cocktail rig, a single speaker rig, I would have told you no. Like I was the guy carrying an RCA to one eighth inch uh cable everywhere I went because I'm like, I'm not trusting Bluetooth. Yeah, whether it's for a 50 person wedding or a thousand five hundred person corporate event, I was not using Bluetooth. Now the Bluetooth technology, I don't even know what number we're at now. I think we're five point I think five point three. And now I I I think I read we're at six point oh or something. Uh Bluetooth has come a really long way in terms of latency, quality as well, and distance. Um and now we're seeing a lot of the the portable products uh that are able to do true wireless stereo with Bluetooth, right? So now you're running a single uh XLR, let's say to one speaker as your input, and then creating a stereo pair just through Bluetooth. So now you're reducing cable count, you're reducing failure points. Um so it's really impressive to see what they're able to do. And even on the lighting side, I mean, we've got some lighting fixtures that can last up to 20 hours on a single battery charge. You know, there's no event that lasts 21 hours, let's be honest. But before, when it was seven, yeah, maybe a range, maybe you know, if a lighting fixture was able to last six or seven hours, you know, you were stressing a little bit between pre-production, the actual event, and teardown. You're like, you're calculating, okay, my lights might go out soon. Maybe one unit has more cycles than the other, and the battery's not as efficient. So, like you're starting to stress. But now the 20-hour battery uh capacity, yeah. I mean, that just opens up, you know, so many possibilities. Again, you're reducing cables, you're reducing labor hours. So it's really interesting to see what's happening in terms of wireless in general in Pro Live.
Bluetooth Audio And Battery Breakthroughs
SPEAKER_02Back on immersive, uh, as a trend for 26. Uh, we see uh, as I mentioned, larger display. Uh, I believe that hybrid events are gonna become the norm, and maybe even large corporate events uh will be designed for remote and hybrid uh an hybrid mindset. So yeah, so you will be able to attend in person, but it's gonna be I wouldn't say as good, but the people remote will have a very good experience, and this is where we're going with more immersive, uh large as I mentioned, larger display. Yeah, I believe that 21-9 formats are gonna become the norm in high-end installs because you can put more on the display, you can uh basically arrange the data that you're showing uh differently. Uh so yeah, more on immersive immersive sound is now the norm. Yeah. Uh actually I want to talk to you guys about because I know you guys both DJ.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But uh because you have your production in the smaller productions, do you guys see immersive or three 3D object-based audio going into, let's say, a wedding where it's like it's funny how you're like, I wouldn't see myself having like a one line array or type of speaker for like a small venue. I wouldn't say, you know, but having 3D object-based audio, you'd have to have at least four, yeah, at least four speakers, right?
SPEAKER_02With elevation, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Speaker elevation, proper placement, yeah. But I'm not saying it's impossible. I think a goal for a DJ or a mobile DJ or a mobile production company is to get in and out as quickly as possible. Um, now it doesn't mean that 3D audio will never become a thing, but because of all the different rooms that we have to be in, it's something that's very difficult. But again, with technological advancement, maybe it will be easier. With wireless speakers now, in terms of battery and audio, now I don't have to worry about getting an XLR around the room and placing a speaker there. And oh, I don't have okay, I have audio, but I don't have power there. But now with maybe a wireless speaker, both power and sound, maybe 3D audio will become a thing or an immersive audio experience will become a thing for smaller productions. Yeah, might have to add it to my roster now. And you got me going.
SPEAKER_04It's just because we're always talking about experience.
Object‑Based Audio And Small Venues
SPEAKER_05Maybe you could charge an extra for that. I'm charging extra. I'll I'll give it two percent.
SPEAKER_02On the on the DJ side of things, I don't think it's gonna be be a thing for 26. Uh, but for permanent install museums, uh um something that's permanent or semi-permanent, I think that uh they are there are some productions already starting to design uh and uh deliver uh immersive experiences. Um those immersive experiences are more um custom. This is not like a format like Sony 360 or Dolby Atmos. That's right. But we see some elevation. Uh there are some amazing softwares like SPAT uh that can help you design something in immersive audio format. So we will see more of this.
SPEAKER_04Um I believe like a stereo and then putting it or a multi-track and then putting it into multi-track, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. That's that's really cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and yes, there are some uh up-mixing uh some plugins to upmix something from stereo to immersive, but multi-track is yeah, yeah. Multitrack is much better because you can take an let's say a one track of your mix and transform it into an object and have it flying over flying over your head like in different directions. So that's impressive. But we will see more of this uh with the shore guys who are who did design a immersive microphone to capture like 5.1 on a single microphone. So we will see more of this happening in 26, I believe, also.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think like the beam forming, yeah, AI capture in general. Um, I think we're gonna see a lot more improvements. I mean, we've seen it in 2025, it's already a thing, but I think we'll see it being perfected uh in 2026. I think it'll be very interesting, interesting.
Tours, The Sphere, And Replicable Scale
SPEAKER_04Even um going back when I went to Infocom, I went to a a demonstration and uh it was the presenter who was walking around and the the the the his audio, his voice would follow in all the speakers. And I have to admit, I it was the first time for me listening to that, and I was super impressed, and yeah, it made a huge difference. So he would uh you know flip-flop back from like a call it a stereo type of feed versus a specific object-based like you know, like follow, like um what do you call that again?
SPEAKER_02They too they do that tracking, like a they do that with a tracker basically, so they have it they put a tracker on that and and the audio can re this is super cool, and it makes such a difference.
SPEAKER_04Like it you're you're ten times more attentive, I find, than I I literally was getting drowned out uh uh when he started the presentation. Um, and not that it wasn't interesting, but it was totally interesting. But just the audio is it's just I don't I don't know. I I can't even explain or articulate how I was just getting drowned out by the stereo imaging when it came into object-based, it was like so impressive. And I and I wonder how they're gonna Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's funny because like you know, especially your home theater background, I mean surround sound has been something that's been around forever. Why haven't we seen it applied to pro and live at a you know object trackable basis type of thing? Kind of makes sense, right? Going from like left, center, right? It works in movies, let's do it in pro and live, right? So yeah, no, that makes perfect sense.
SPEAKER_02For someone that that basically, as you meant were mentioning, if you're trying to get in and out as fast as possible, there's less room for experimental slash creative. Yeah, uh, so this is why we don't see that truly adapted for uh uh corporate events, but for places uh which are like which this the system is permanent, you can you can mess uh not mess around, but you can play around with this, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, so that that I think that that's a lot of cool stuff um in the live. And I always especially being at a concert, I went to the Brian Adams concert uh this year, and um You mean 2025? 2025, Jesus. I'm still stuck in 2025.
SPEAKER_06So on the beach as a yeah, so that's right.
21:9 Rooms And Hybrid Collaboration
SPEAKER_04Um at the Brian Adams concert, and I haven't been to a concert um, admittedly, in a while, so it was new to me. Yeah, but just having those they gave out those bracelets and then those like those type of LED bracelets, and then they're doing all kinds of weird type of stuff. Fix my Montreal Company, actually. Very cool, yeah. And and I'm always wondering like how or how is the pro live event, whether it's uh uh a concert or even like a wedding, how are people able to take the experience to another level? And really that always blows my mind.
SPEAKER_05I don't know if you guys are Swifties or not, but did you watch The Erator? Did you watch the Eras Tour? Okay, well, just from a nerdy A V standpoint, apparently it was nice. Watch the Eras Tour on Disney Plus, and now she just released uh and I'm I'm not a Swiftie. I don't just want to put that out there.
SPEAKER_02I suspect you have Swissties and Ramsey.
SPEAKER_05A little bit more after I watched the documentary, but she just released, I think it's a six-part documentary on like the production side and behind the scenes of the Aeros Tour. Um, it's funny because my wife and daughter were you know watching it from one perspective, and I was there like, how many LED panels is that? Yeah, um really impressive. You see, that would be really, really impressive.
SPEAKER_02I would probably watch that just for the A V aspect because apparently that was the one of the biggest tours ever in history in terms of production and in terms of uh uh money, cost yeah, revenue as well. Revenue absolutely so yeah, I would I would be in and is it on Disney Plus also?
Bundled MTR And Zoom Room Solutions
SPEAKER_05It's on Disney Plus, yeah. Yeah, uh, but just to say, like from a pro in live, you watch that tour, and the way they were able to incorporate every single ecosystem is just absolutely incredible. Yeah, from automation, staging, lighting, uh I mean, obviously, audio is kind of hard to get off a 65-inch screen with no external audio. Don't hate me for that. My wife doesn't want to see speakers, but um yeah, it's really impressive to see the lighting and how they're able to do this in 150 plus cities is just absolutely incredible.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Going back, I remember when U2 in '97 came up with the Pop Mart Tour with the Arch. I don't know if you guys remember that. Yeah, you guys don't remember that. It was the biggest, actually, it was the biggest LED wall in the Guinness Book of Records. Was it really? Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, and it was like big ball LED. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like insane. But uh yeah, and that really blew my mind. And then when the U2 did the 360 tour, I'm a YouTube fan. I don't know if you guys noticed. I was at the Hippodrome. Yeah, yeah, I was there, yeah. The two days, even that was something spectacular.
SPEAKER_05Even that, what like they were calling it the claw. What were they calling it? Yeah, the claw, exactly. Yeah, you look at what we're able to do today.
SPEAKER_04It's and one thing I always admired from them, and I think even Pink Floyd, they always try to elevate that type of experience at a concert.
SPEAKER_05And uh well, look at what's happening at the sphere now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean you look at spheres, yeah.
SPEAKER_05The various types of events happening at the sphere, yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's absolutely not to downplay the sphere because the sphere is really cool, especially with the exp like the external yeah, exactly. External, internal, immersive.
SPEAKER_05I mean, you've got everything in there.
Upgrading Home Setups And Tracking
SPEAKER_04Everything everything. But going back to what Hugo was saying is uh uh replicating that in different cities and different venues, where I remember going back to Popmart in 1997, they couldn't fit everything, I think, in the Olympic Stadium when they did it, so they had to make mods, and same thing with the uh hippodrome in Montreal when you two with the 360 tour, they couldn't find a venue to fit all that the claw and stuff. So they ended up renting out the the Hippodrome, which was just on another level. So it's uh it's one thing coming up with the sphere, which is incredible, and I still have yet to experience it myself. But having something like you said that can be replicated and get everybody try to get the same experience in many, many cities worldwide is on a I wouldn't even want to think about the logistics and stuff like that. It's just insane. Moving to system integration now, we'll continue in that experience and the hybrid collaboration you were talking about 21-9.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's really cool. Yep. So I would have never thought of it. I mean, again, I I don't have that much experience in that world, but it makes a lot of sense why going 21-9 versus 69 is just so much more efficient for that type of of uh of event or purpose, I should say.
AV Over IP: ST 2110, IPMX, NDI
SPEAKER_02And and I also believe, yeah, 21.9 is gonna be in a format for IN conference rooms, but we will see more and more of those, what they call MTR, a Microsoft Teams room and a Zoom room. Uh now there's a lot of manufacturers that that are coming out with products that are um approved by by Microsoft and approved by Zoom. Yeah, um, so we see we will see more and more of those uh and at uh always a better uh price point. So Shore came out with uh with an uh a couple of MTR bundles. Um we have a vendor called D10 also that's a uh Korean manufacturer, I believe, or Chinese manufacturer, uh that have very nice product for a very, very appealing price. So we will see more of those rooms, like uh you know, single skew, uh one skew with everything in it. Um easier for for uh for integrator. So instead of having to order like six or seven different things, and oh, I forgot to add that bracket, so everything comes bundled now in a single SKU. Uh so we will see more of those in 2026. Um, yeah, as I mentioned, Microsoft Teams room uh 21 uh by nine format, and pretty much everything's gonna go hybrid.
SPEAKER_05So easier to install, more affordable, more reliable, easier to troubleshoot. Yep, okay. Flexible and stable, stability, flexibility.
SPEAKER_04When you were saying 21. Are you talking about dedicated panels that are 21.
SPEAKER_02There are some manufacturers that that are designing 21.9 panels, uh, but they're LEDs. Uh but yes, uh actually some vendors bundling solutions with two displays side by side to make a 21-9. Right. Uh as I was mentioning D10 before, they have a bundle with two displays and a bar in the middle with the camera and the speaker. Uh they are also making a bundle that you can build your own, so you can buy your displays and put uh the bar in the middle and have the cameras on the on the side. So we will see more of those. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's pretty that's pretty cool. I have a question, and I could be completely wrong, but just because you guys have more experience in this space than I do. But you know, we're talking about the advancement in uh in system-specific MTR rooms or Zoom-enabled rooms. Um, are we seeing any of these advancements, even on like the remote office side of things? Like, example in my office, uh, which is also, you know, obviously a hybrid space during COVID, it was kind of like a loft area. There's a TV and whatever. And I'm always thinking, like, man, I've got my three monitors in front of me with a not so great webcam. The lighting sucks. Um, but I've got this beautiful 65-inch TV not far. Like, are people starting to bring cameras and like these experiences at home for the remote offices, or is it still really based in permanent rooms? That's a great question.
Broadcast Workflows And MXL
SPEAKER_02I I didn't read anything while doing my research about like improving the far end the foreign. I mean, yes, the far-end experience is gonna improve because the the cameras are getting better, the microphones are getting much better. Yeah, so you as a fore-end user, like as you being the hybrid member of my meeting in my uh conference room, right? You're gonna get a better experience. But they didn't talk much from my research, they didn't talk much about like improving your setup, but as you guys know, I mean the the cameras are getting the USB cameras are getting much better. Yeah, um, just as an example of one of the products we sell, Bird Dog did uh release a very, very, I would say affordable webcam that's also an NDI cam that can run on batteries. It's called the Macy Live, and it has a bracket, you can buy the bracket to put it on your monitor, and it it makes, I mean, I think the one of the best webcam I've ever seen. Uh, and all of this for less than I would say sub 750, 100, so sub seven sub seven hundred fifty dollars for a camera that you can use for podcasting, but you can also use it as a as a webcam. Uh, there are other manufacturers also that that uh design very affordable webcam that will improve your video quality.
SPEAKER_05I hope that's something to see in 2026. Like we're talking about trends and whatever. Yeah, like I know a couple TV manufacturers tried to do the the camera thing, or even I think Facebook and Meta tried to like come out with a video bar. But it's so funny, like we FaceTime even like my grandparents or my parents, and like I'm there with my daughter, my wife huddled around my little six-inch iPhone, you know, trying to get in a FaceTime call. But it'd be so cool if we can start utilizing our displays in the house to do more of those things, you know.
Agentic AI For AV Tasks
SPEAKER_04So yeah, the only thing that I've uh and you're right, and I think a lot of there's a lot more focus um in the corporate corporate space. Corporate space. Um, everything is focused on that. I've seen a small camera. One thing that that I I'd like to see more of is like I've seen like this small, small camera like the size of a button where you actually put it in the center of your screen so it doesn't take up real estate on your screen. But when you're looking at your screen, it actually looks like you're looking at the camera, which that I think is the my biggest pet peeve when I'm in a meeting. I I want to see the screen, but when I'm looking, others are doing the same thing, and it it it it I think it's off-putting. I feel like it's a little off-putting it or it doesn't seem um truistic to natural natural like to a conversation. But uh, I can say in 2021, uh a buddy of mine who's into AI and VR and stuff like that, he's got a company uh specializing in VR. And I know when Meta came up with uh having meetings in VR, I've tried it, and that was pretty incredible. Really? And that's where because at home, you you're gonna get stuck in that environment. And when you're working from home, I I I can see you can get stuck in that environment where you may have kids, you may have a partner or whatever that's that's in the house, so you can't blare the the the speakers or you generally speaking, they got headphones on and stuff like that, right? But when you're in a VR experience, you can look around, you can move around, you can share documents, it's it's that's on another level. I don't think that actually worked panned out with meta. I think they I don't know, I think they abandoned the project.
SPEAKER_02I think or they have uh a solution or a product called Horizon that's part of the request uh VR headset. So I could meet with you guys in VR, but we would be um uh we uh how do we would be our avatars.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it would be an avatar, yeah. But the avatar lips move and all that stuff. And that was really impressive.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but we need to admit, I mean I don't want to dive too much in this, but the VR thing didn't really it didn't take off. Didn't take off, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's still it's still there. It's still there. But in terms of incorporating VR into the corporate space, yeah, I know. Yeah, no. The the only thing that uh the 360 degree stuff is is still working out is like the experiences. So like if you're on Google Maps and you want to go into a space and stuff like that, even a home, you're you want to buy a home and stuff like that. 360 visits. Yeah, the 360, I think that's there. Yep. And eventually that that's easy to integrate after into VR, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05You just put on the headset and but I think we see some advancements there. Like I know Apple now actually, and I'm gonna go back on what I said. Apple does have some sort of integration when you FaceTime. Yep. So if you've got an Apple TV, I think if you place your iPhone near the screen or near the Apple TV box. Yeah, exactly. But but not only that, you can use your your TV. Yeah, that's cool. Using the Apple TV in the mirror thing, it'll automatically use the camera.
SPEAKER_02Works for Zoom also.
SPEAKER_05Really?
Live Translation, Transcription, And Editing
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool. Zoom has integrated that. I just wish it was easier. I wish it was more, you know, people adapted it a little bit more. You can install Zoom on your Apple TV and do that and use your iPhone as a camera. So, but talking about tracking, uh you know, portable device now have AI tracking. I'm I'm just thinking about the the iPads and the new iPhone. Yeah, uh, so you can basically put the the iPhone or the iPad on the table and move around a little bit and the camera's following you. Yeah, that's so we will see more of this in 26. I believe some other vendors. I I'm not super um uh I don't know a lot about uh the uh the uh Google uh ecosystem, but I believe there are some uh some phones that that are also doing AI tracking. Yeah, yeah. Very cool.
SPEAKER_04I know we um I know we talk a lot about and there's a lot of there's been a lot of focus, I find. I mean, since since 2018, even before that, I find that um we've been talking about AV over IP like forever. But more and more now, I think we're finally getting somewhere where I think people the pricing is slowly coming down, um, and it's getting more affordable. And I think people are starting to understand. Um, I think they're starting to get educated because they know that if you have to go into AV over IP and you're still an analog AV guy, you kind of have to learn networking. So I think that networking is the was the kind of the breaking point where you kind of have to get into you kind of have to learn networking if you want to expand and and evolve into the AV space. But uh AV over IP, there's a lot of cool things coming up. IPMX, yeah.
Auto Switching And Real‑Time Scene Analysis
Self‑Healing Systems And Support
SPEAKER_02Maybe none of how can I put it cool stuff coming up, maybe not that much, but everybody adopting it now, yeah with different IP over sorry, AV over IP formats. But if you're not already in AV over IP as a as a distribute distributor or or as an integrator, I mean you should get in it like right away because uh the 2026 is gonna be about convergence. Uh these different AV over IP formats are gonna get more and more in incorporated in the workflows. Um and basically the conversions between the IT department of a corporation and the AV department of a corporation is gonna more and more merge together. So, yes, you're right. The AV guys are gonna need to get chops in in networking. We already see that. Uh, most of the AV guys these days have have credentials, uh they not credentials, but they have trainings in certifications. Certifications, yeah. That's the word I was looking for. Uh so yes, uh, and and there are three um predominant formats that we're gonna hear a lot in 2026. Uh, the first one being uh ST2110, that's more of a broadcast AV format. Uh that's basically a non-compress uh transmit method for metadata, audio, and video uh that needs 10 gig infrastructure, but for broadcaster, they can afford it, and most of them already are building their in front 10 gig and have the bandwidth. Yeah, there's another one called IPMX. We briefly talked about it earlier before the podcast. This one is basically uh derived from ST2110. Let me just pull out my notes. Uh it is derived from uh uh 2110. They're both open, right? They're both open. Both of these, uh both of these uh um uh AV format are open. Uh the IPMX is uh basically described as uh internet protocol media experience. It's an emerging standard uh developed by AIMS Alliance. It's built on 2110, but it trims down uh some complexity and it also offers some kind of um uh basically you can start to uh uh you you can compress, uh you can have compression in this format. It's a low latency, uh very, very low latency AV over IP format, but also requires 10 gig. Um they both need 10 gig. They both need 10 gig. Wow. Um where uh where you don't need 10 gig is the NDI, which will probably remain the norm for hybrid events, uh corporate production, uh rentals. Um uh but this one as as you know, uh has a little bit more latency, but it's super flexible also, and it can run on one giga, one giga um uh infrastructure. So that makes it a little bit more flexible. It has auto discovery. So if you if you have an NDI network and you plug a new camera, it's already gonna be recognized. You can just uh select it. I'm not saying that that ST2110 and IPMX are not easy to deploy, but NDI is well known for being easy to deploy. So we will hear more of this. And if basically what shigning a navy over IP stack these days or a navy over IP uh network, you should consider these three formats, in my opinion. You should be able to bring in one or the other format depending on which vertical you're working in. Uh, but you should consider those three formats.
Jobs, Supervision, And The AI Balance
SPEAKER_05I think it would be really cool to explore those three formats. Uh to be very honest, I don't know much about them. Like a comparison? Yeah, just a comparison in terms of why you would choose one over the other, uh, what situations you would choose, uh IPMX. I think you said IPMX, yeah. IPMX over over another one. NDI I know a little bit about just because it's a a bit more predominant in the the Pro and Live space, but I think that would be really cool. Maybe our viewers can chime in and let us know if they'd be interested in that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we could have I I was planning on doing a podcast on on those different types of formats. But in short, uh S ST2110 uh is adopted by most of the manufacturers in the broadcast. Okay. Um IPMX is let's let's say high-end uh AV over IP, low latency 4K. Always permanent install though. No, no, I mean you could use it in in in Pro A V also. Um and NDI is uh has been there for more than 10 years. Um yes, you can do 4K, uh, but higher latency, more compressed. Um even within the i6? Even within the i6, yeah. Um, but you can run it on one gig. Cool. That's that's a key differentiator. That's huge. Yep, that's huge. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Um lots of things to look forward to. Lots of things to look forward to, and um, I know I want to get into broadcast a bit, uh, and we touched on it with uh ST uh 2110. Um and I think we can dive back into these three categories just talking about AI and how AI is gonna affect those. Uh, before I do, is there anything else you want to touch on into the broadcast space? Uh um besides the workflows, because I had workflows which that'll get into the next category.
Closing Thoughts And Viewer Requests
SPEAKER_02So workflows, let me just uh give me one sec. Uh there's a new, I wouldn't say format emerging, but uh a new um uh a new language or yeah, basically a new format. It's called the uh media exchange layer, the MXL. Um it's basically uh a collaborative open source initiative between EBU, AM, WA, Grass Valley, Lavo, Pebble, so some manufacturer, but also some broadcasters like CBC. And basically uh it's it's uh the orchest, it's an orchestration layer that's uh basically gonna enable through cloud applications to uh collaborate and um how can I put it and basically communicate and share the same media so it has uh it doesn't need to be decoded or encoded, and it has a memory layer that basically uh um stores all the metadata and everything that could take time to decode and encode. So it's a super low latency uh format that's that's gonna be enable um media exchange between different manufacturers, different platforms. So that's something on the rise right now. Uh it's called MXL. Um I'm not gonna dive too much in this. We could have a different we could have a podcast talking about this, but uh you should be aware that that's gonna be part of the conversations in the broadcast world in 2026. That's yeah, I have no idea what you're saying, so that means we need to talk about this.
SPEAKER_04Um, I know in broadcasts, um, so AI is gonna be dipping into a lot of these categories in our in our it's already coming creeping into our private and personal world. Day to day day-to-day stuff, yeah. Um but um I know a AI is coming up in a lot of our spaces, and the thing I was listening to in the car uh recently is uh the the race to AGI or uh artificial general intelligence uh is there, but what's gonna happen probably sooner than later is a little bit what you were saying before, where AI we're realize what what the AI community is realizing is that AI is a lot more powerful when it's doing a like a one one thing or or specializing in one thing versus trying to know everything. And that's the trend I'm seeing in AV, where it's AI used for tracking or workflows or designing in pre-production, that's all it's doing.
SPEAKER_02They called it the agentification, so you build an agent that specializes in one thing that uses the same back, I would say, backbone as uh a large language model, but you tailor it to do a single task, or yeah, not a single task, but a a group of tasks specific to a certain workflow. So you'll see more and more of this. Uh and what's what's nice about this is you don't really need to be a programmer to program your own agent. Uh I have my fair share of experience with this. So um basically you can program an agent, even with Chat GPT, if you have the paid version, to do a specific thing. It can connect to an API, it can scrape the web to find a specific uh topic you're you're you're looking for. Or so basically you will see, I believe you will see more agents in 2026 um uh for specific tasks.
SPEAKER_04Um and that that that and to to to add to that, it's where that agent and there's softwares that are coming out that are specific for that. So I'll give you an example. I think Rick Biotto, uh, who's that podcaster who does the music reviews and stuff like that, um he was actually talking about how there's AI music AIs that are gonna revolutionize the industry because why they're specifically just focusing on AI music creation versus everything. Yeah. And um there's other systems where it's like it's uh a video creation, AI video creation, and that AI is pulling from all the AI video creation uh systems. Like, you know, it's it's pulling the best out of all of those AI systems, so it's really focused in terms of one specific thing versus a GPT, like a Chat GPT or a Gemini or whatever, where it's very, very vast. And I and I'm seeing that trend in AV where it's like, you know, just in broadcasts, I'm I'm seeing that there's like gonna be real like in the AV workflow, uh, and the sorry, in the in the workflow of like you know, editing and stuff like that, there's real-time edits um and systems transcriptions, translations, real time, yeah, which is incredible.
SPEAKER_02That that is one thing we didn't touch. I mean, with the prevalence of AI, uh, it means that now you can repurpose your content for different languages in real time, you know. So you can broadcast one thing in English or in Portuguese or whichever language you want, but the the AI is getting much better at a live transcription. Uh, so you you basically suddenly are able to I wouldn't say repurpose, but have your content in one language being available for for the masses for for people who are not speaking natively the language you're broadcasting in. Yeah, so we will and it's already there, though. It was there in 25, it was even there in 24. Uh so yeah, so that's that's softwares like Pro Tools or uh Added Media Composer or Premiere, um not sure about Resolve, but you can basically just transcribe everything on the fly in different language. So and you can do when you're trying to let's say you recorded 40 hours of of uh of video, you can search uh your your clips by just by words.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's actually for everybody who's listening to this podcast, uh this podcast uh is uh on the auto dub for YouTube, so we can actually listen to our voices in Italian, Spanish, German, and it's our voice tone. It's it's us, but in a different language, and I was having fun with it. So anybody who is not native in English and want to listen to our podcast, they can listen to it in I think it's like 10 or 12 languages, and it actually sounds like us speaking in a different language on the YouTube side, taking care of processing and transcription. It's a new YouTube thing that with the AI, uh with the with what you know.
SPEAKER_02I would love to hear myself speaking in French when I'm speaking in English, even in native French.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we should mess with the AI a little bit. Start talking Italian today, start talking French.
SPEAKER_04Multi uh multi- uh multi-language. Um yeah, so even in the pro live, uh, you know, like we always talk about uh actually we we talk about uh auto mix in the pro live, but it can also be in in conference conference uh conference uh rooms as well. But auto mixing video now where the AI is you know doing the auto mixing, I think that's that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02Um I know Seb is behind the uh the the mixer today, but you know, it's cool to have we did try automix on the first and works for a website, so that's why we have a dedicated uh audio engineer for that podcast.
SPEAKER_05We won't replace you, Seb. Don't worry. We won't replace you.
SPEAKER_04But uh, you know, auto camera um mixing and switching, uh real-time scene analysis, I think is uh is a cool point. This is coming, yeah. This is coming. Yeah. Um and um self-healing systems in the system side. Yes.
SPEAKER_02So I know we had a bit of a conversation before the podcast about that, but that that's I don't know how it's gonna work, but that's I mean AI is not gonna re it will probably it could replace people, but I think having someone being able to take care of like 10 systems instead of just one system because he's helped by AI, having uh AV system being able to self-heal, self-repair, self-analysis. Uh that's also something we're gonna see in 26. Yeah, uh, maybe not uh fully deployed a product and solutions, but it's gonna we're gonna start seeing people experimenting with this and some manufacturer implementing it uh in their in their stack. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I need self-healing for my network. I was just gonna, I was just gonna say that always mess it up. Poor Vince. I'm always texting him like Vince, is this normal? How do I fix this? What do I do?
SPEAKER_02I'm not gonna give him a he already has my my my phone number, but he I'm happy he's contacting you and not me.
SPEAKER_05You guys are my my auto healers right now. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02By the way, feel free to contact me if you have questions. That's gonna be a pleasure.
SPEAKER_04I ended up spending like three hours just reconfiguring my entire network here, heat mapping each of my floors, trying to relocate my stuff, and that's exactly it. I mean, um, I think there's a time and place for speaking to somebody, uh like a human being. And I and me of all people who's into tech, I still can appreciate how much of uh value that is. Uh, however, in the day-to-day, when I am clocking out from work and I get home, I don't want to spend three hours behind my switch and reconfiguring my whole network while my two kids are like yelling because they the Netflix is not working and my wife is getting frustrated because she's not into tech. Uh, I I just want to self-heal the system while I'm having supper. Give me all the self-healing possible. Yeah, exactly. I'll take it. So I find that I think that can that would be really cool. I I would appreciate I would appreciate that. Um I obviously am for keeping jobs and stuff like that, but the day-to-day stuff, like on the major, major, um, major stuff, yeah, I I wouldn't mind talking to somebody and kind of having somebody in and investigating. That's why we text each other. Yeah. But um otherwise self-healing, I think, would be would be cool.
SPEAKER_05And I think you said something really important is uh, you know, personally, this is my personal opinion. I think AI should not replace people because obviously for humankind, we need everyone needs jobs and and all that. But AI needs to be regulated so that it can assist people. And that's the most important part, right? Making people more efficient, teaching them possibly, you know. But it's there to assist and make things better, not to replace. That's my personal opinion.
SPEAKER_04On that note, I also heard uh through something I listened to. To that um self-driving taxis. Again, that that's that's a company that uh the companies are focusing their AI on that, so again, they're getting very good because they only do that, right? I saw it in Vegas, yeah. Yeah, a month ago.
SPEAKER_02California, yeah, Delhi.
SPEAKER_04So so what's interesting about that is you have 10 taxis and you need one guy to monitor the 10 taxis, right? So that that works out. And yeah, it does lose you you actually end up losing 10 jobs. Nine guys. Nine guys. Um, but if it gets really, really popular and a lot of people adopt it because the price goes down and stuff like that, then you no longer have ten taxis, you have a hundred taxis, a thousand taxis, and now you need a hundred people to monitor those thousand taxis. So it depends on I think we're gonna see a resurgence and hopefully we don't get to that super intelligence AI. I'm one of those guys where I'm like, you know what, I I that kind of scares me. But I'd love to see to your point that assistance where a human still kind of has to monitor uh technologically and business-wise to make sure everything is running smooth, but I still see uh an avenue where we just have to get into studying more AI, and I think there's gonna be more jobs into just monitoring the AI infrastructure and or steering it, programming it. Exactly, exactly, and tweaking it and stuff like that. So um yeah, I think that's uh I think it's uh yeah, I didn't want to bore everybody uh too long, but uh I think those are the cool topics.
SPEAKER_05I think lots of things to look forward to, like I said before. Yeah in 2026. We've already got a little preview of it in 2025, but I think 2026 we're gonna start seeing who the the key players are in each specific target and what they're trying to attain. And to your point, I think we've seen that when AI is used in a specific format, you know, whether it's using agents or just really focused on one task, we're gonna start seeing the real benefits of it. Um and that combined with, like I said before, manufacturing advancements, technological advancements, we're in for uh for quite the treat for 2026.
SPEAKER_04And I know we said this on our first podcast, but what an amazing time it is to be in the uh into the technological space. I mean, uh just when we started, there was like nothing. Like computers were not even close to uh it's it's it's a wild time to be in the AV space. Now we have 12-year-olds projection mapping their couch. That is something I'm definitely gonna try. You know, floor is lava, yeah, type of floor is lava. Yeah, yeah. That is the kids would lose it.
SPEAKER_02And and you know, Dolby Atmos headphones. Oh yeah. So yeah.
SPEAKER_05One of the again, side note, one of the videos I saw was this this guy video mapping his living room, and so he had two sconces on the wall, and there was a couch in the middle. And he video mapped like a hand picking up uh a source, like a light over the couch, and it would go right over the sconce. And as soon as he dropped the light, the sconce would light up. That's so through like Apple Home Kit or whatever automation, he was able to combine both the video mapping and the light control. Yeah. Your wives are gonna hate me after this podcast.
SPEAKER_04It's like, oh, you're putting a projector in the living room? Yeah, uh, what's the size of the screen? Oh, it's not for a screen. The wise facing the opposite wall of the screen. What's going on here? It's for the experience, it's just a show when when friends come over. Blinding our wives with a projection. Yeah, seriously. You know, cool.
SPEAKER_05Awesome. Thanks for a great chat, boys. Yeah, happy new year. Happy New Year's to a great start of 2026. Yeah. And uh let's see what this year has in store for us.
SPEAKER_04We got a lot of cool videos coming up next. Yes. Uh next video we uh admittedly recorded in the December of 2025. Very cool topic with uh Sure, which is experiential audio. There you go. Yep. So very, very, very fun.
SPEAKER_05And if anything the viewers want to see or talk about, let us know. Drop a comment, yeah, and we'll uh we'll be sure to cover it.
SPEAKER_04That's right. And 99, I actually was looking at our stats, and uh 99% of the people that view our videos aren't even even subscribed, which is which is weird. Which is which is quite weird. That's not right. It's not right. So if you if you like if you like what you heard, subscribe. We got a lot more stuff coming down the pipeline. Yep. And uh and hit that like that, it definitely helps the algorithm uh boost. And uh, like like Franco said, leave uh any comments or ideas in the comments and yeah, and let us think.
SPEAKER_02Uh let us know what you think is coming down the the line in what you think.
SPEAKER_04Something cool. What have you seen? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We don't want to bore you, but if you guys think of anything, uh let us know. Something we'll maybe talk about in the next podcast. With that said, see you on the next one. Behind the rap.
