InfoComm 2026 is the largest professional AV trade show in North America, and for the first time the show has a dedicated Broadcast AV presence in North Hall. If you’re an enterprise AV decision maker evaluating production infrastructure, this is your opportunity to see what’s available, compare approaches, and have direct conversations with the companies building the platforms you’ll depend on.
But trade shows can be overwhelming. Hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of products, and a lot of marketing noise competing for your attention. Knowing what to evaluate, and what questions to ask, makes the difference between a productive visit and an exhausting one.
Here’s what to look for if you’re evaluating broadcast grade production solutions for an enterprise environment.
Ask About Scalability, Not Just Capability
Every vendor on the show floor will demonstrate impressive capabilities. Multi camera switching, real time graphics, streaming output: these are table stakes. The question that matters for an enterprise buyer isn’t what the system can do in a demo. It’s how the system behaves when your requirements change.
Can the platform handle a two-camera internal briefing and a twelve-camera global event using the same operator interface? Can it scale without requiring a different system architecture? Can your team learn one workflow and apply it across every production scenario they encounter?
If the answer involves a different product for a different scale, that’s a red flag. You’re buying complexity, not scalability.
Evaluate Operator Experience, Not Just Feature Sets
The people operating your production system are rarely full-time broadcast engineers. They’re AV technicians, communications specialists, IT adjacent team members, or in some cases volunteers and students. The operator experience needs to match the people who will use it.
At InfoComm, ask vendors to show you what day two looks like. Not the keynote demo, but the Tuesday morning briefing where one person needs to get a clean, professional feed out to four platforms in 15 minutes. That’s the workflow that matters.
Interrogate the Security Model
For any organisation handling sensitive content, whether that’s corporate earnings data, government communications, or student records, the security architecture of the production platform is non-negotiable. Ask vendors specifically: where does the production data sit? What leaves your network? What’s the authentication model? How does the platform integrate with your existing IT security framework?
If the answer is vague, or if the security model requires trusting a third-party cloud with your production data, that’s worth knowing before you invest.
Look for Integration, Not Isolation
A production platform doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It needs to work with your existing AV infrastructure, your network environment, your content management systems, and your distribution channels. The most capable production switcher in the world is a liability if it can’t interoperate with the systems, it sits alongside.
Ask about open standards. Ask about API integration. Ask how the platform handles mixed vendor environments, because every enterprise AV environment is a mixed vendor environment.
Demand a Business Case, Not Just a Technology Case
The best production technology in the world is irrelevant if you can’t build a business case for it. Ask vendors to articulate the operational savings, the risk reduction, the staffing efficiency, and the content value that their platform delivers. If the conversation stays in specifications and features without connecting to business outcomes, it’s not ready for an enterprise procurement process.
Where to Start at InfoComm
Grass Valley’s meeting room is in the North Hall Broadcast AV zone. We’ve structured our InfoComm presence around 15-minute conversations designed to help you evaluate whether broadcast grade production infrastructure fits your operational environment and budget.
No product demo reel. No hard sell. A conversation with someone who’s spent the last 60 years building production systems that hold up under pressure, and who understands that enterprise buyers need business cases, not brochures.
Walk ins are welcome. But with limited slots, booking ahead guarantees your time.
