Microsoft’s MDEP Expansion Turns Displays Into IT Endpoints

Microsoft’s booth partners had a simple pitch at InfoComm 2026. Avocor and IAdea showed how a digital signage display could behave like a managed IT endpoint. An IAdea OPS module turns an Avocor display into a managed device. IT can secure it the same way it secures a laptop. Dana Corey, senior vice president and global general manager at Avocor, called the module just the first step. “We need it to be thin, because we want to be thin,” Corey said, according to AV Magazine, describing where the hardware is headed next.

That demo points to a bigger shift already underway. Microsoft’s Device Ecosystem Platform, or MDEP, started as an operating system for meeting room hardware. It is now expanding into digital signage, lobby displays, and eventually other IoT devices. For manufacturers and integrators, that means the line between an AV display and a managed IT device keeps getting thinner. Three guests joined a recent AVWeek round table to react to that shift.

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From meeting rooms to lobby signage

MDEP began as an answer to a specific problem. Enterprise IT wanted the same visibility into Teams Rooms hardware that it already had over laptops and phones. Microsoft built MDEP to deliver that, and manufacturers gradually adopted it across collaboration devices. The platform’s reach has since grown well beyond the meeting room. Microsoft and IAdea unveiled the first MDEP-based digital signage solution earlier this year. Additional display partners have joined since. The Avocor and IAdea demonstration at InfoComm extends that push into lobby signage, kiosks, and other always-on displays. Eventually, Microsoft expects the same security and management model to cover an even wider range of connected devices.

MDEP is not the only way to solve this problem. Google’s Android already runs on a large share of enterprise displays. LG and Samsung both operate their own management platforms, too. What sets MDEP apart is its direct tie to Microsoft Intune. Many enterprise IT departments already run that identity infrastructure. For an IT department already standardized on Microsoft 365, that integration removes a step most competing platforms still require.

AV and IT stop being separate worlds

Kelly Teal sees MDEP as confirmation of a trend she has watched build for years. AV and IT stopped operating as separate worlds a while ago, she said. The more devices an organization deploys, the more its IT department wants them managed like every other endpoint.

Teal is not convinced the operating system itself is the exciting part. The simplification it offers to IT teams is what matters most, in her view. If a department can manage displays with tools it already knows, that argument holds real weight for a decision-maker.

Most customers care less about the platform running underneath a display and more about whether it works, Teal added. A display that turns on reliably and stays secure matters more to most buyers than what operating system powers it. Her open question is whether MDEP simplifies deployment or becomes one more platform everyone has to learn.

Meeting the platform where IT already lives

Cara Shannon described a similar calculation from the manufacturer’s side. Crestron sells devices built on MDEP alongside devices that are not, she said, and both categories matter to different customers.

“The idea is to ensure that the teams deploying, managing and supporting spaces are able to do that easily, and with a platform that they’re used to and familiar with,” Shannon said.

That framing puts the decision back on the customer’s existing IT environment rather than any single vendor’s roadmap. An organization already standardized on Microsoft tools gains an obvious advantage from MDEP support, in Shannon’s view. One that is not still benefits from having the option available.

Who is really driving this decision

Brock McGinnis was the most direct of the three guests about where the pressure for MDEP support actually originates. It is not coming from AV teams, he said.

“We are not the dog that wags the tail,” McGinnis said. “IT is the dog that wags the tail.”

Enterprise IT wants single-pane visibility into every networked device, McGinnis said. Manufacturers will keep adding MDEP support to stay relevant. He credited Microsoft with finding a path around Android’s licensing model that competitors have struggled to replicate. He was careful to separate that observation from an endorsement. Whether McGinnis proposes MDEP support to a client depends on that client’s own IT priorities, not on brand preference.

Buying into a single vendor’s platform is rarely free, McGinnis added. Manufacturers now pay Microsoft for MDEP licensing, and that cost likely gets passed along the supply chain eventually. It is a familiar pattern in enterprise software. A platform reduces friction on one side of a deal while adding a new recurring cost on the other. Buyers should ask what MDEP licensing adds to the sticker price. That question matters as much as the feature list.

Why this matters for the room

None of the three guests dismissed MDEP outright. Each raised the same underlying question in a different way. Does this platform reduce the complexity IT teams already manage? Or does it just relocate that complexity under a new logo?

The answer will depend on execution, not marketing copy. Manufacturers are already lining up behind MDEP. Avocor and IAdea join a growing list of hardware and software partners Microsoft has recruited this year. For IT and AV teams evaluating a purchase, the practical questions are the ones Teal raised. Does the display turn on every morning? Does it stay secure without extra effort? Does adopting MDEP actually reduce the number of tools a support team has to learn, or add one more?

Those questions, more than any spec sheet, will decide MDEP’s fate. It will become standard infrastructure or just another platform competing for a support team’s attention.