Henry Goodman, director of product management, Calrec
Last year was about viewers. A not-so-quiet revolution steadily gave people at home more access to more content on more platforms, and it had a big effect on both traditional and OTT broadcasters who are all competing for the same audience. It means that every content provider, at every level, has a commercial responsibility to add more value, and to do so under budget.
Flexible broadcast ecosystems are helping to provide this value and they’re enabling everyone to operate on the same playing field. In 2025 Calrec helped broadcasters to scale their infrastructure requirements across a range of hybrid workflows to satisfy changing production demands.
It’s no coincidence that in 2025 several production companies including Gravity Media and NEP launched new broadcast trucks that play to these strengths; this new breed of remote-friendly truck can either be fully crewed in a traditional manner or be completely remote-controlled. This level of investment from broadcasters is no flash in the pan. It’s a statement of intent.
The impact is huge; it’s not only shaping the way content is produced but how it’s consumed. The desire for more personalised and niche content is not just affecting the streaming and DTC content providers, but the established broadcast community who are expanding their digital-first strategies. Remote and distributed workflows are the enablers for all this extra content and it’s reshaping live production. Scalable, cost-effective equipment is key; when a broadcaster can connect any worksurface to any processing core, wherever it is, it gives them the ability to create more content with minimal additional investment. All these elements, whether they are physical or virtual, on the edge, in a venue, or in a control room, all become nodes on an extended virtual infrastructure, and technologies like Calrec’s True Control 2.0 make it all simple to connect. It’s not so much about the equipment as it is about the resources that are available across the ecosystem, and it is a flexibility that the whole media and entertainment industry is embracing.
In 2026, broadcasters aren’t going to be dialling back the amount of content they are producing or how they are using it to forge deeper connections with their audiences. Open networks that work collaboratively are key to ensure broadcasters are able – and encouraged – to meet these goals. Most broadcasters already have existing relationships with a range of technology vendors across many disciplines, from acquisition through to delivery. These relationships are collaborative, and broadcasters don’t want to turn their backs on trusted partners; they want to keep using best of breed equipment from suppliers who are world leaders and experts in their field. Broadcasters can’t afford to be restricted to technologies that are tied to one ecosystem or environment; this means that it’s paramount that manufacturers develop trusted relationships with manufacturers in other broadcast verticals. We think that 2026 will see the creation of more super-platforms where technologies from manufacturers across the production chain work seamlessly together with no barriers to geography or specification.
There is no doubt that hybrid infrastructures will continue to evolve, but it’s the ability to access remote mix engines in both virtual cloud and physical environments that will supercharge efficiency this year. The adoption of virtual processing resources is still relatively rare in live environments, but there is a growing acceptance of virtual DSP resources as more broadcasters lean into their ability to spin-up cost-efficient processing for one-off productions. It feels like we are where the industry was with remote production five years ago. In 2020, it was already being used to create efficiencies and reduce costs, but it took Covid to tip the balance and for broadcasters to develop real trust in these workflows. Six years on, they are more accustomed to aligning independent audio, video, and data flows as independent streams. This opens the door to the adoption of virtualised DSP resources, which deliver even more capacity and the flexibility to deploy models that can scale dynamically with the needs of every production.
As the next stage of innovation unfolds in pure virtual environments, these software-defined ecosystems will have an even bigger effect on the broadcast landscape, streamlining production and generating even more personalised and engaging content.
Marco Lopez, CTO at Clear-Com
Three trends stood out clearly last year: the mainstreaming of cellular and private 5G for Tier-1 communications, the rapid adoption of virtualised and cloud-managed intercom, and the increased permanence of sustainability as an engineering and procurement driver. As wireless device density continues to rise, customers are looking to cellular to overcome proprietary RF congestion and scale reliably without the traditional coordination burden. At the same time, virtualised intercom, accelerated by tools like Gen-IC Virtual Intercom, proved that real-time, high quality, low latency audio can now live comfortably in the cloud for mission-critical workflows. And across the industry, sustainability is no longer a side initiative; it’s influencing system design, facility operations, and equipment lifecycle planning. These shifts show a collective push toward flexibility, efficiency, and reduced environmental impact.
The impact is clear across production environments. Wireless teams adopting cellular/5G alongside traditional RF are seeing fewer frequency coordination issues, faster deployment times, and more mobility on large, multi-venue sites. Virtualisation is enabling a new generation of remote, leaner, and more sustainable operations, where cloud comms supplement or replace material racks of hardware.
Distributed workflows have allowed broadcasters to tap global talent pools without co-location, improving responsiveness and reducing travel. The increase in volunteer-based operations, with examples including education and House of Worship, has also created demand for more intuitive, software-defined interfaces that can be quickly taught.Lastly, a heightened focus on system longevity and repairability is changing procurement behaviour: organisations now expect platforms they can upgrade, not replace, which has positive sustainability and budget implications.
2026 will be a year of deep integration across technologies. Cellular and private 5G will increasingly be woven into professional comms architectures rather than treated as experimental add-ons. We expect network orchestration tools that intelligently steer traffic traditional RF, IP, and cellular depending on capacity, congestion, and location/coverage area.Virtualised intercom will move from “early adoption” to operational standard, supporting decentralised control rooms and temporary pop-up operations around the world.
On the sustainability side, organisations will be evaluating total lifecycle impact, including power consumption, renewable sourcing, travel reduction, and equipment reuse when selecting solutions. Data-driven management will emerge as well, with analytics that help teams optimise both human and equipment resources deployed around the world for greater system efficiency. Overall, 2026 will be defined by smarter, more modular, and more software-defined communications ecosystems.
Looking ahead, I expect to see the industry move decisively toward fully unified communications architectures that blend wired, wireless, IP, and cloud technologies into a single operational fabric this year. Customers want systems that scale effortlessly, travel light, and integrate cleanly with both modern and legacy infrastructures. Clear-Com’s recent updates to Arcadia Central Station, for example, signal the direction many organisations are heading. We will also see significant momentum behind software-defined wireless, where density, roaming, and coordination challenges are addressed through smarter networked designs rather than solely through hardware deployments. At the same time, cloud-managed and virtualised comms will continue their expansion, helping productions operate with smaller onsite footprints, more distributed resources, and greater responsiveness.
Finally, sustainability considerations will influence system design more directly, from lifecycle-centric platforms to power-efficient devices and hybrid workflows that reduce travel and physical infrastructure. Taken together, these developments point toward a more flexible, resilient, and environmentally conscious era of production communications.
Tobias von Allwörden, manager broadcast & film, Sennheiser
From the audio manufacturer’s perspective, last year’s key industry trends were professional wideband audio transmission, spectrum efficiency, immersive audio and remote production workflows, often with cross-disciplinary collaboration driving progress. Wideband audio transmission was certainly a hot topic, with Spectera being the first product able to show what such technology can do for you: minimal frequency management, fast setup, permanent, full remote control, and a small footprint on location and in transit. It helps fuel spectrum efficiency both through sensible allocation of resources and the accommodation of IEMs, mics and remote control on the same wideband RF carrier.
Of crucial importance with regard to spectrum are organisations such as the APWPT, SOS, Wider Spectrum Group and the North American Spectrum Alliance (NASPA), which help protect spectrum access for programme making and special events (PMSE) users. They have our full support and commitment, as collaboration between different user types from broadcasters and manufacturers to live audio engineers and rentals is key in safeguarding production resources.
For the past few years, immersive audio has consistently been on the ‘hot topics list’. Broadcasters can pride themselves in driving this topic, with sports broadcasting especially invested in making the experience on the screen as close to the actual thing as possible. To help drive immersive on the end user side – despite consumers more often than not tuning in via stereo devices – there are technologies like the AMBEO two-channel spatial audio for live renderer, which enables a much more immersive and captivating experience, even when on tablets or stereo TV sets. Remote production has also been on the list for a while. While it got massively boosted during the pandemic, especially in broadcasting, it has always had its place in the music industry and will see further growth going forward.
Entertainment productions are becoming more and more elaborate all the time, with exciting venues like Sphere contributing to a totally enveloping experience for the audience. Generally, wireless channel counts for such productions have been increasing massively, but now there’s bidirectional wideband wireless that helps simplify it all. It reduces the effort that has to be invested in frequency planning, in setup and rack cabling, in antenna distribution networks and so forth. You could say that manufacturers are striving to make workflows simpler for professionals, and help compensate for tech “deficiencies” on the viewers’ side as mentioned.
All these trends will continue this year, with workflows being further simplified and modelled on user requirements. On the wideband wireless side, we will see further hardware and software developments, as well as enhanced integration into broadcasting workflows. For immersive audio, enabling technology such as the AMBEO live renderer will be rolled out more widely, which will help solve the constant chicken-egg problem. And last but not least, the growing demand for remote production capabilities will be satisfied with new tools. Collaboration and user focus will be key.
A hot topic to look out for this year is DECT NR+, which does away with the old DECT and current “DECT evolution” and will finally enable professional, high-quality audio transmission – something that previous 5G tech has been promising all the time but was never able to deliver on a consistent, reliable basis. DECT NR+, whose feasibility was demoed by the German-Franco government-funded MERCI project, uses an all-new technical foundation to make the dream of self-managed, highly performant local area networks a reality – whether for professional audio transmission, parameter measuring, user-defined content reception, or industrial applications. As a member of MERCI, we are very excited to see this brand-new technology evolve, and finally become an established standard for local and mobile applications in a few years from now.
Virtual Production
Cesar Caceres, product lead at Brompton Technology
2025 marked a clear acceleration in demand for deeper, more immersive visual experiences. Expectations rose across entertainment, broadcast, and location-based installations. Audiences no longer accept flat visuals or predictable shows – they expect environments that surround them, react to them, and feel physically present. This shift is driving rapid growth in advanced LED deployments across touring, theatre, themed attractions, and permanent installations. At the same time, infrastructure maturity has become a defining trend.
The adoption of SMPTE 2110 as a backbone for high-performance systems has increased significantly. As networked video enters more mission-critical environments, full input redundancy, reliability, and uncompromised signal routing are no longer specialist concerns — they are baseline expectations. In parallel, as LED canvases expand into ultra-wide and ultra-tall formats, the need for a transport layer that is stable, scalable, and flexible has become central to system design. A third major trend is the push for operational efficiency. Production teams now expect systems that are faster to configure, easier to monitor, and more tightly integrated into the wider production pipeline — not just visually impressive, but operationally dependable.
These shifts are redefining production ambition. LED is now being deployed in ways that were rare even a few years ago. Virtual production and broadcast stages are becoming more specialised and technically mature. The demand for precise, repeatable camera results is driving closer collaboration between LED manufacturers, camera vendors, and software platforms. Broadcasters adopting LED workflows are achieving faster turnaround times and greater creative freedom. The ability to generate large-scale environments without physical sets allows productions to expand visual scope while maintaining tighter control of cost, logistics, and scheduling. Repeatability has become essential for maintaining consistency across long-running productions. In themed entertainment, the focus has moved decisively toward environments that feel alive, reactive, and narrative-driven, rather than static display surfaces.
In 2026, the line between engineering and creative expression will blur even further. Tools will become more powerful while also becoming easier to connect, configure, and scale.
SMPTE 2110 systems will move from being ambitious to foundational. As projects grow in scale and technical complexity, 2110 could become the default starting point for large setups. Its support for full redundancy, flexible distribution, and long-term scalability will directly shape how large LED canvases are designed. Ultra-wide and ultra-tall formats will no longer be edge cases but standard creative options. Camera-to-LED synchronisation will become even more critical as productions push into higher frame rates, advanced virtual lighting, and more photorealistic environments.
Experience-driven design will continue to accelerate. Productions will think less in terms of “screens” and more in terms of complete, responsive environments. This will expand LED adoption across cultural venues, museums, architecture, live entertainment, and public spaces. With creative ambitions rising, the industry will demand systems that are not only high-performance but adaptable – products that can shift between touring, broadcast, experiential, and architectural use cases without compromise.
Finally, audience expectations will continue to rise. As canvases become larger and closer to viewers, there will be even less tolerance for visual compromise. This will reinforce the importance of high-grade LED quality, precise processing, and rigorous system reliability.
Vladimir Koylazov, CTO, Chaos
Something that’s been fascinating for us, especially as an organisation headquartered in Europe, is watching productions move back to the UK and Europe. UK studios like Pinewood have always been strong, but we’re now seeing exciting growth across Central and Eastern Europe too. From where we sit, it’s a really exciting time to be in Europe. There’s world-class talent here, the infrastructure is maturing fast, and the costs make sense.
In terms of ideation, one thing that we noticed in 2025 was AI-generated concepts creeping into the planning phase. This shakes up the previs stage of productions, moving teams away from working to figure out what something could look like and shifting the conversation to how we get to the desired visual.
As exciting as the democratisation of instant visualisation through AI has been, it has created an expectation problem. When someone is able to generate a compelling image in minutes, they start to think that production can happen that quickly as well. Managing these expectations has been an ongoing conversation.
This year, I think we’ll start to see more intelligence embedded directly into virtual production tools and rendering engines, not as separate apps, but woven in. For virtual production, you’ll probably see a continuation of the optimisation of ICVFX workflows in real-time, like what we’ve seen in the introduction of products like Chaos Arena. The European facilities investing in this infrastructure now, both physical stages and the data side, will be setting themselves up for success in 2026.
Local deployment is going to become even more important in 2026. With cloud costs getting clearer and data sovereignty concerns, especially here in Europe with GDPR, studios want models running on their own infrastructure. It’s about IP protection, but also latency for real-time decisions on virtual production stages. The other thing is what we’re calling “step deletion” as a benchmark. Instead of asking “how fast can we render this?” the conversation is shifting to “how many pipeline stages can we eliminate?” The ability to go straight from concept to production-ready environments, cutting out the translation layers, is where we’ll see the real differentiation.
