Back in 2012, it looked like AVB was going to take over the Pro AV landscape. With its precision timing, deterministic behavior, and elegant integration with Ethernet, AVB (and later Milan) was poised to be the open standard that unified the industry. At InfoComm that year, the Avnu Alliance announced that over 40 AV equipment platform providers were supporting the standard, with 15 of them participating in a live interoperability event. If that sounds familiar, it should.
It was a moment of genuine optimism and yet, the broader Pro AV revolution never quite arrived. Despite real technical success in live sound, AVB’s video ambitions quietly faded. Milan wisely narrowed its focus and found success in a clearly defined space. But that left the larger AV market still waiting.
Now, five years after IPMX was introduced, many are asking: where do we stand?
Is this another chapter in the same story? Or is the IPMX path shaping up to be something different?
To answer that, it helps to look at IPMX through the lens of the Gartner Hype Cycle, which is a framework that maps how new technologies evolve, from early excitement through disillusionment to widespread adoption.
Let’s walk through it together and explore the story, progress, and future of IPMX and what it could mean for Pro AV. Where did it begin? What’s been accomplished? And where is next?
Phase 1: The Innovation Trigger — A Broader Vision for AV
Every Hype Cycle begins with a breakthrough, which is when a new idea promises to reshape an industry. For both broadcast and Pro AV, that breakthrough was the shift to COTS infrastructure and IP-based media transport.
In broadcast, the transition began with ST 2022 and soon evolved into ST 2110: a flexible, essence-based architecture that, when paired with NMOS, enabled synchronized, professional-grade control and media transport over standard IP networks. While ST 2110 was designed as a general-purpose standard, its development and early deployment focused squarely on the needs of broadcast.
In Pro AV, the shift was more fragmented. Some efforts, like AVB and later Milan, were openly standardized but struggled to gain traction due to limited switch support. Others, such as SDVoE, NDI, and Dante AV, focused on building vendor-driven ecosystems. Meanwhile, vendor-specific platforms like Crestron NVX and AMX SVSI gained loyal followings, with NVX becoming the most widely adopted AV-over-IP solution for several years in a row. Each of these technologies was technically strong. Some achieved real adoption. But none became the shared foundation the industry could build upon and the fragmentation was smothering the benefits AV-over-IP.
By 2018, AIMS had begun efforts to introduce ST 2110 to Pro AV. After helping shepherd the standard into mainstream use in broadcast, the goal was to bring the same open, interoperable
approach to an industry that seemed in need of it. But it quickly became clear that a bundle of standards wasn’t enough. The market needed something more unified, more accessible, and easier to understand.
Phase 2: Peak of Inflated Expectations — The Promise and the Pressure
IPMX was launched just as the world was on the brink of massive disruption. In early 2020, with the pandemic looming, the AV industry was introduced to a new initiative that promised to bring clarity, openness, and long-term stability to a fragmented market.
The goal of IPMX was bold: to create an open, multi-vendor, interoperable AV-over-IP ecosystem that could flex to meet the full range of Pro AV needs from high-end installations to software-based workflows, and from individual content creators to global enterprise networks. It would build on the proven foundation of ST 2110, in part because it worked, but also because it offered a unifying framework in a world where nearly everyone was now creating and distributing content.
From the outset, awareness was essential. Unlike proprietary technologies developed quietly in R&D labs, open standards need visible momentum to thrive. AIMS and its member companies embraced the spotlight, taking every opportunity to promote the IPMX roadmap and to bring new participants into the effort. Evangelism was the fuel that would build momentum.
And it worked. Within VSF, AMWA, the EBU, and across the Pro AV press, excitement around IPMX spread quickly. It represented a serious, coordinated industry effort to close long-standing gaps: simplified timing requirements, support for HDCP, EDID, USB, and asynchronous workflows. The ambition was clear, and for many, it was exactly what the market had been waiting for.
By 2022, IPMX was no longer just an idea. It was showing up in real demonstrations and companies were publicly joining the effort. Enthusiasm had turned into expectation.
Phase 3: The Trough of Disillusionment — Impatience and Realignment
By 2023, the questions started to shift:
When will I see real products?
When will it be finished?
The hype was reaching its peak. And with it came the pressure.
Trade publications, hallway conversations, and panel discussions all began to reflect a common undercurrent: We love the idea, but when can we actually use it? Is this going to be another AVB?
It was a fair question. The Pro AV industry had seen this pattern before: bold initiatives, big promises, and then…stall-outs.
Meanwhile, the world kept changing. Remote and hybrid workflows accelerated. Infrastructure investments shifted. Integrators needed solutions they could deploy today. IPMX had captured mindshare, but now it needed to show real, tangible progress.
This was Phase 3 of the Hype Cycle: the inevitable trough between vision and adoption. And the scrutiny clarified something essential. If we wanted IPMX to succeed, we had to deliver value and prove that it could work in the real world.
Phase 4: The Slope of Enlightenment — Building on Proven Success
That progress is rapidly accelerating. We’ll be introducing our training materials to the Pro AV community later this year. Test plans are going through the editing process and we’re preparing for the test to certify the first IPMX products.
Phase 4 of the Hype Cycle happens when a technology succeeds completely in some market segment.
Today, ST 2110, AES67, and NMOS are powering thousands of channels and live events every single day. They’re the backbone of modern sports production, live news, and large-scale event coverage. New systems in the broadcast world are now routinely built on ST 2110 and NMOS. What was a cutting-edge experiment is now just how things are done. The industry trusts it because it works and scales.
That’s what makes IPMX different from every other AV-over-IP initiative before it. It’s not a bet on something that seems promising – it’s the next step in the evolution of that success story.
And now, as more companies support the IPMX initiative, implement the profiles, and prepare compliant products, we can begin to see what Phase 5 looks like, with IPMX-ready products from several vendors already in the market.
Phase 5: The Plateau Ahead — One Foundation for All of AV
This is the destination. The Plateau of Productivity happens when a technology moves beyond its early proving grounds and becomes the standard approach across markets, workflows, and applications.
That’s where we’re headed.
ST 2110 has already reached this milestone in broadcast. It’s how that industry does media transport. At AIMS, AMWA, VSF, the EBU, and SMPTE, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved with ST 2110 and NMOS. We worked together to bring them to life and make them successful for that market.
With IPMX, we’re aiming for ubiquity by extending that success into Pro AV, education, live events, medical imaging, content producers, and beyond.
Simply put, we want IPMX to become the way people do video and audio over IP networks.
The Road Ahead
So where do we stand today?
- We’ve published the TR-10 suite of foundational documents.
- We’ve completed three IPMX testing events, with a fourth on the horizon that will certify the first official IPMX products.
- We’ve defined the structure of IPMX, including profiles, capabilities, and product guidelines.
- The documents that define IPMX, govern implementation and trademark usage are in draft and active review. Drafts will be published within the next month.
- A professionally produced training program created by Patrick Killianey is in development.
By the time we get to ISE, you’ll be hearing a lot more about IPMX – especially at the IP Showcase at IBC 2025 on September 14th, 2025 – and we hope you’ll be as excited as we are.
Of course, that could sound like more hype and although you’ve heard it before, we’re hard at work to make sure IPMX has a successful launch. Because if we get this right, we’ll have a shared, open foundation for AV-over-IP that spans from small content creators to broadcast to the boardroom, and far beyond.
That just might be worth all the hype.
Andrew Starks
Andrew Starks, AIMS Board Member and Marketing Work Group Chair and Director of Product Management at Macnica America's Inc.
Andrew Starks is Director of Product Marketing at Macnica Americas and serves on the board of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), where he also chairs the Marketing Working Group. He has worked in media technology for over 20 years, focusing on IP-based transport and interoperability. At AIMS, he contributes to the development and promotion of IPMX and related standards. He regularly participates in industry events and working groups related to the transition to IP in broadcast and Pro AV.
