What's your vision for the future of AV? That's the question we asked Stijn Ooms, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Crestron. Here are his predictions on how software-defined platforms, network-first architecture, and intelligent spaces will reshape the industry by 2027.
IN THIS ARTICLE
In the future, the typical enterprise meeting room will have endpoints: displays, cameras, and microphones that are connected to a software-defined platform that exists primarily in the cloud and at the network edge. The “system” won’t be in the room at all.
Rooms will optimize themselves continuously. A boardroom will recognize whether it’s hosting a formal presentation or a brainstorming session and adjust automatically. A huddle room will know whether two people are having a quick sync or joining a global meeting, and configure itself accordingly. All without real human interaction.
This isn’t science fiction. The technology exists. I’ve spent over two decades building these systems, and what I’m seeing now is the acceleration phase before transformation becomes universal.
In the near future, AI capabilities that seem premium today will be baseline expectations, for instance, automatic speaker framing, adaptive beamforming, real-time transcription, meeting summaries, and spatial audio.
The shift is already visible. Today, the vast majority of AV installations include AV over IP, even in small deployments. Before COVID, this was reserved for massive corporate headquarters. Now it’s the default, because the network solves problems that hardware alone never could: instant scalability, flexibility, remote management, continuous improvement through software updates.
Crestron launched the DM NVX solution in 2017. Since then, we’ve added over 100 features through firmware updates. UAC (USB audio) and UVC (USB video) over IP didn’t exist at launch. Now it’s standard. That’s the fundamental difference: products depreciate from day one; platforms appreciate as new capabilities are deployed remotely.
To give a concrete example, we recently introduced multi-view capability, in which a single decoder receives multiple video sources and displays them in quad view or custom configurations. Six months ago, this required five separate hardware devices: four decoders plus a video wall processor.
Today, one decoder running software does it all: same outcome, but one device to install, one IP address to manage, one configuration point. Across hundreds of rooms, you not only save costs but also suddenly have a manageable solution. In the coming years, dedicated hardware for each AV function will seem as outdated as carrying separate devices for music, photos, and phone calls.
Hybrid work has exposed a persistent challenge: meeting equity. Remote participants remain isolated, missing body language and side conversations, literally on the outside looking in. Solving this becomes a defining competitive advantage for organizations in talent retention.
The solution requires a coordinated platform approach. Spatial audio that creates genuine presence, multi-camera systems that show individual faces rather than wide shots, and intelligent framing that equalizes visual prominence. These features only work effectively when orchestrated together.
This is where software-defined platforms demonstrate their value. A hardware-centric approach would require separate devices for each function. A platform approach coordinates them automatically, adjusting video framing when spatial audio indicates a new speaker, or optimizing camera selection based on meeting type.
This need for coordinated systems across hundreds of rooms creates immediate pressure. AV teams are managing more rooms exponentially without proportional staff increases. Pre-COVID, a team might have worked ten premium spaces. Today, they’re managing hundreds, because even small huddle rooms have complete AV systems. But while the amount of work has grown, those teams haven’t.
This makes cloud-managed, software-defined systems operational necessities. Organizations that haven’t embraced this will face a stark choice: dramatically increase support staff or accept degraded experiences.
For integrators, this means evolving from installers to AV-IT solution partners, developing competencies in networking, cloud platforms, APIs, and data analytics. Not as replacements for traditional AV skills, but as essential complements.
The integrators thriving in 2026 will be those who embraced the network as a foundation, software as intelligence, and platforms as delivery. Those maintaining traditional hardware-centric models will compete primarily on price in commoditized markets.
The foundation is built. The architecture is proven. Now comes the acceleration phase, where transformation moves from early adoption to universal expectation. The AV industry is approaching $400 billion in global value precisely because this technology is becoming essential infrastructure.
Stijn Ooms is Senior Director of Product Strategy at Crestron, where he has been driving innovation in networked AV solutions for over two decades. His work focuses on creating platforms that deliver exceptional user experiences while enabling integrators and IT teams to deploy and manage systems at scale.
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