For years, AV over IP has been one of the most talked-about transitions in the professional AV industry. But if the conversations at ISE 2026 were any indication, the discussion is changing. The question is no longer whether AV should run on the network. The real conversation now is about what happens when AV becomes fully integrated into the IT infrastructure that already runs the organization.
That shift was a recurring theme across the show floor and in vendor briefings, including discussions with AV over IP manufacturer Plexus. Their message echoed a broader industry reality: AV is no longer a guest on the network. It is becoming part of the network itself.
And that change has implications not just for technology vendors, but for the IT and AV decision-makers responsible for designing and maintaining modern collaboration environments.
The End of AV as a “Guest” System
Historically, AV systems often operated as isolated technology stacks. Integrators deployed proprietary signal distribution platforms, control systems ran on separate networks, and IT teams were frequently asked to make exceptions for AV gear that did not behave like traditional network devices.
That model is fading quickly. Increasingly, organizations are consolidating technology oversight under IT departments. In many enterprises, AV now reports into the same teams responsible for networking, cybersecurity, and infrastructure architecture.
The result is a different set of expectations.
“AV is no longer a guest on the network,” Steven Cogels from Plexus noted. “IT teams expect these systems to follow the same rules as everything else running on their infrastructure.”
That means AV devices must support the same security models, interoperability standards, and management practices used across enterprise IT environments. For integrators and manufacturers alike, that shift forces a fundamental rethink of how AV systems are designed.
Why Standards Are Back in the Conversation
As AV systems move deeper into IT infrastructure, the question of interoperability becomes impossible to ignore. For decades, much of the AV industry operated within proprietary ecosystems. Walled gardens was the pretty name we gave them. Vendors built vertically integrated platforms where encoders, decoders, control systems, and software management tools all came from the same manufacturer. The approach simplified deployment but often locked customers into a single vendor’s roadmap.
That model works poorly in an IT-driven environment.
Enterprise IT teams expect infrastructure components to interoperate across vendors. Networking equipment, servers, and storage platforms operate on open standards that allow organizations to mix technologies while maintaining compatibility.
AV over IP is now moving in the same direction.
A major driver behind that transition is IPMX (Internet Protocol Media Experience), a standard developed through the AIMS Alliance that builds on the broadcast industry’s SMPTE ST 2110 standard for transporting professional media over IP networks.
While ST 2110 has been widely adopted in broadcast environments, IPMX adapts that technology for the unique needs of the Pro AV market. That includes support for compressed and uncompressed video, compatibility with existing network infrastructure, and the ability to operate across a wide range of AV deployment scenarios.
At ISE 2026, vendors highlighted a new milestone: the growing number of products that have completed interoperability testing and certification processes within the IPMX ecosystem.
Those milestones may seem incremental, but they represent a meaningful shift for the AV industry. For the first time, vendors are demonstrating real-world interoperability between AV over IP products built by different manufacturers.
Interoperability Moves From Theory to Reality
Standards efforts in AV have historically struggled to gain traction. The industry has seen multiple attempts to create universal interoperability frameworks over the years, many of which stalled before reaching widespread adoption.
The challenge is simple: standards only matter if products actually work together. IPMX appears to be crossing that threshold.
Manufacturers participating in the ecosystem have spent several years testing implementations and validating interoperability through industry plugfests and certification events organized by the AIMS Alliance.
According to vendors involved in those efforts, the certification process now includes dozens of products that have successfully completed interoperability testing.
From a technical standpoint, that means systems built around the standard can exchange video, audio, and control signals across vendor boundaries. From a market standpoint, it represents something just as important: proof that standards-based AV infrastructure can function in real deployments.
For IT leaders accustomed to open networking environments, that development aligns AV technology more closely with the rest of the enterprise technology stack.
A Different Competitive Landscape
One question often raised when standards enter the conversation is how vendors differentiate themselves in an interoperable ecosystem. If multiple manufacturers build products that speak the same protocol, what separates one platform from another?
The answer, according to vendors building IPMX-based systems, lies above the standard itself.
IPMX defines how media moves across the network. It does not dictate how products implement features, management tools, or operational workflows. Manufacturers still compete on performance, feature sets, ease of deployment, system flexibility, and the broader ecosystem surrounding their products.
In practice, that competition may actually accelerate innovation.
When vendors can no longer rely on proprietary lock-in, they must differentiate through better products and faster development cycles. Features, usability, and real-world deployment flexibility become the primary battleground.
For end users and integrators, that dynamic can be beneficial. Standards-based ecosystems create the possibility of mixing components from multiple vendors while still allowing manufacturers to innovate on top of shared protocols.
The Real Driver: IT Governance
The deeper reason behind the rise of standards-based AV may not be the technology itself. It may be the organizational structure driving purchasing decisions. In many enterprises, AV decisions are increasingly made or heavily influenced by IT departments.
That changes how systems are evaluated.
Instead of focusing primarily on AV-specific features, buyers are asking questions about network architecture, security models, monitoring tools, and lifecycle management. Standards-based systems fit naturally into that framework.
For organizations that already manage complex IP infrastructure, adopting AV technologies built on familiar networking principles reduces operational friction. It allows AV systems to integrate into existing monitoring platforms, follow established security policies, and scale using the same infrastructure used by other enterprise services. In other words, AV stops being a special case.
It becomes another application running on the network.
The Road Ahead
None of this means the transition is complete. Proprietary AV over IP platforms remain widespread, and many organizations will continue deploying them for years. The AV industry tends to move incrementally, and the installed base of existing systems ensures that change happens gradually.
But the direction of travel is becoming clearer.
The combination of IT governance, network-native architectures, and emerging interoperability standards is pushing AV toward a more open and flexible future. For IT leaders responsible for collaboration infrastructure, that future looks increasingly familiar.
AV systems are beginning to behave like the rest of the network.
And once that happens, the conversation shifts from whether AV belongs on the network to how effectively it can operate there.
