Each year, Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) serves as a compass for the AV and systems integration industry. This year, the show in Barcelona delivered a clear signal: the conversation is moving beyond flashy technology and toward practical, scalable solutions that improve experiences in hybrid workplaces and enterprise environments.
If there’s one overarching insight from ISE 2026, it’s that the industry is converging around three strategic priorities: simplicity in the meeting room for participants, smart for IT managers, and security by design.
1. Simplicity in the meeting room: tackling meeting equity
The challenge of meeting equity – ensuring remote and in-room participants can contribute equally – remains one of the defining problems of hybrid work. At ISE 2026, AI was positioned not as a novelty, but as a tool actively working to address this imbalance.
AI-powered cameras and audio systems are increasingly being used to improve how participants are seen and heard – in both directions. The objective is not only that remote attendees can follow the conversation, but that they are clearly visible and audible to those in the room, and vice versa.
Vendors including Shure, Neat, Logitech, and Huddly demonstrated intelligent multi-camera setups, with features like automated framing, speaker tracking, and audio zoning designed to reduce participation gaps. These systems dynamically adapt to the room, helping meetings feel more balanced – even if full equity remains an ongoing ambition rather than a solved problem.
Importantly, this focus extended beyond small rooms.
Larger boardrooms and multi-camera environments received dedicated attention. In these complex spaces, AI assists in configuring additional cameras, optimizing angles, and aligning audio zones automatically. This reduces manual setup while improving consistency across the room, helping organizations scale hybrid experiences without increasing operational friction.
The vendors’ ambition to make technology effectively invisible was remarkable. The most compelling demonstrations were not about control panels or feature depth, but about removing user effort. When the system adjusts framing automatically, when microphones isolate voices without intervention, and when meetings start without technical distractions, participants can focus entirely on collaboration. The highest level of innovation increasingly lies in technology that simply works – and fades into the background.
2. Smart and scalable for IT managers
While end-user experience is critical, ISE 2026 equally emphasized the need to simplify life for IT teams.
AI is advancing how IT and AV teams operate collaboration environments. Platforms such as NetSpeek’s Lena, an AI orchestration solution purpose‑built for multi‑vendor AV and unified communications ecosystems, are helping teams proactively detect and resolve issues, automate routine support tasks, and maintain system performance at scale. By unifying control across disparate devices and software, AI‑driven workflows can identify misconfigurations, run health checks, and even remediate problems in real time, reducing manual troubleshooting and enabling IT professionals to focus on higher‑value work.
In parallel, the demand for seamless integration across ecosystems continues to grow. Enterprises rarely operate within a single platform environment, and IT teams require solutions that integrate cleanly into existing infrastructures without complex bridging or manual reconfiguration. The emphasis at ISE was not on interoperability as a feature, but on integration as a prerequisite for scalability. Systems must deploy consistently across rooms, geographies, and use cases – without increasing administrative burden.
However, flexibility alone is insufficient without governance. Underlying device platforms and certification models are becoming increasingly important to ensure lifecycle management, update control, and long-term support.
3. Cybersecurity is now front and center
As AV systems become increasingly connected and integrated into critical infrastructure, cybersecurity has moved from a technical concern to a business-critical priority.
ISE 2026’s inaugural Cyber Security Summit highlighted this shift, emphasizing that collaboration technologies are no longer isolated systems – they are connected, data-driven environments that can be targeted by ransomware, data breaches, and other cyber threats.
What’s changing is not just the threat level, but the expectation.
Cybersecurity is increasingly a prerequisite for doing business. Regulations are raising the bar across Europe and beyond:
- The Network and Information Security Directive 2 (NIS2) strengthens security and risk management obligations for operators of critical infrastructure and essential services.
- The Cyber Resilience Act introduces mandatory cybersecurity requirements for digital products – covering both hardware and software – throughout their lifecycle.
- The RED Delegated Act sets specific cybersecurity conditions for devices equipped with radio interfaces, reinforcing protection for connected products.
For manufacturers, integrators, and enterprise buyers, compliance is tied directly to public procurement eligibility, operational continuity, and long-term trust.
This shift moves cybersecurity beyond protection alone.
It becomes a competitive differentiator – a way to demonstrate resilience, governance maturity, and readiness for increasingly regulated environments.
Conclusion
ISE 2026 demonstrated that the AV and collaboration industry is entering a more mature, outcome-focused era. The focus is no longer on flashy specs, but on solutions that are:
- simple for participants, ensuring equitable meetings
- smart for IT teams
- secure by design, built to be compliant, resilient, and enterprise ready
