Insider Report AV August 2026

Curated Enterprise AV News and Insights from August 2026

Welcome to the Insider Report AV Edition. 

Your TalkingPointz paid subscription is improved. We are posting more content behind the paywall, and we are considering breaking the monthly Insider Report newsletter into smaller newsletters. Paid ‘All Access’ subscribers will find our opinions more often. All paid subscribers will continue to receive The Insider Reports. Briefs, reports, and videos will require an All Access subscription. 

Welcome to the Insider Report AV Edition – launched as a standalone report in July 2026.

Your TalkingPointz paid subscription is always improving. We intend to post more content behind the paywall, and we are considering breaking the monthly Insider Report newsletter into smaller newsletters. Paid All Access subscribers will find our true thoughts about the InfoComm keynotes and a new briefing on Infobip. All paid subscribers will continue to receive the Insider Reports. Briefs, reports, and videos will require an All Access subscription. 

Featured

When Experience Becomes Disposable: Something deeply troubling is happening across the AV and collaboration industry. Professionals whom many of us have known, respected, and admired for decades are being dismissed in corporate workforce reductions as though their experience were merely another removable expense. In just the past few weeks, one friend who managed collaboration technology for Disney for nearly 30 years and another who managed meeting services for Citi for almost 28 years were let go. These were not marginal employees. They were accomplished industry leaders with extraordinary operational expertise, institutional knowledge, and professional credibility. Add that to all the RIFs we already know about, and the picture becomes even sadder.

Companies will describe these decisions as strategic realignments, organizational simplification, efficiency initiatives, or reinvestments in AI. The terminology does not make the consequences any less brutal. Our industry is losing precisely the people who understand how complex environments actually operate, why past decisions were made, where the risks are hidden, and how new technologies can be deployed responsibly. Ironically, they are also the professionals best qualified to prevent executives from mistaking the immature technology that always seems to be popping up for workable solutions.

It is genuinely sad to watch, and it is not healthy for the AV industry. Loyalty cannot remain something companies demand from employees while offering nothing comparable in return – especially for staff members often exposed to senior management meetings and discussions. When respected professionals conclude that decades of commitment provide no protection, others notice. The best people become less willing to invest their ideas, energy, and reputations in organizations that may discard them whenever a spreadsheet suggests a short-term financial advantage.

This trend cannot continue without lasting consequences for employers, customers, and the industry itself. I have much more to say about the broader corporate behavior behind it in my recent opinion piece, but the immediate point is simple: We are kicking aside some of the finest people our profession has produced, and everyone both in AV and not in AV should be concerned about where that leads.

AV’s Story of the Month

Residential Volleyball: The first serve came from Emerald in 2022, when the owner of CEDIA Expo, Commercial Integrator magazine, and the Kitchen and Bath show (KBIS) announced its new Commercial Integrator Expo. Beginning in 2023, the new commercial AV event would run alongside the residentially focused CEDIA Expo. Emerald publicly rejected comparisons with ISE, but the objective seemed obvious: create a smaller ISE-type but America-based event combining commercial and residential integration under one roof. In practical terms, Emerald was using its residential show to move into territory traditionally occupied by AVIXA and InfoComm. In my opinion, they were also trying to take advantage of the negative sentiment building toward AVIXA’s leadership, with a recent seven-figure salary uncovered for the nonprofit AVIXA’s executive director, among other questionable issues.

Commercial Integrator Expo arrived with considerable promise but at an unfortunate moment. Trade-show participation had not fully recovered from the pandemic, exhibitors were becoming more skeptical about the value of expensive show-floor investments, and downtown Denver, which the event chose as a base, was disrupted by seemingly endless construction (read more about that here). The event never developed the identity, attendance, or industry gravity needed to become a genuine American counterpart to ISE. Nevertheless, Emerald continued openly promoting CEDIA Expo and Commercial Integrator Expo together – most recently under the abbreviated CEDIA Expo/CIX name – through the spring of 2026.

This year, however, AVIXA returned the volley. On May 20, it announced RESIDE, a new residential integration event that will debut alongside InfoComm in Orlando in June 2027. My interpretation is that RESIDE represents a parting shot from AVIXA’s outgoing leadership: Emerald stepped onto AVIXA’s commercial court, so AVIXA responded by stepping onto Emerald’s residential court. It is exactly that type of spiteful behavior from AVIXA’s leadership that led to the idea of creating CIX in the first place. Regardless of the motivation – be it competition or revenge – after that announcement, Emerald began stripping Commercial Integrator Expo and CIX from its active show promotion, reverting to the CEDIA Expo (only) name and behaving as though the commercial event had never existed. Emerald’s immediate decision to bury the CIX identity suggests that it understood the message. The industry may describe this as convergence, but it looks much more like spiteful residential volleyball. 

With Apollo Global Management having just completed its acquisitions of Emerald and Questex – creating one of North America’s largest business-to-business events and media companies – and AVIXA beginning the search for and transition to a new executive director, this should be an opportunity to put retaliatory behavior aside and start playing nicely in the same sandbox. That would require both Emerald and AVIXA to abandon their respective competing crossover shows. For AVIXA, however, it must also mean selecting new leadership willing to dismantle the greedy, insular culture that made the idea of a new commercial integrator show in the United States seem not merely reasonable, but like a much-needed breath of fresh air. 

Meeting and AV NewsBriefs

FORTÉ and GPA Go Their Separate Ways: FORTÉ and GPA will end their relationship on December 31, saying their future strategies are now best pursued independently while promising continuity for existing global customers and projects. GPA, originally founded in 2008 as the Global Presence Alliance, brought leading regional AV and collaboration integrators together so multinational customers could receive more consistent design, deployment and support around the world. FORTÉ has increasingly been building its own international footprint through acquisitions in Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, raising questions about what happens to its GPA ownership stake, who fills GPA’s enormous U.S. gap, and whether more FORTÉ acquisitions are coming. This looks less like a partnership that failed and more like FORTÉ deciding it has become large enough to control more of its own global destiny. We’ll have more on this story as the details come out over the next few months.

Microsoft Places Update: Microsoft Places is continuing to mature with recent improvements to workplace check-in and room recommendations, rather than another wholesale product relaunch. Peripheral-based check-in can now better associate an employee who connects shortly before a reservation with the correct desk or office, while upcoming recommendation changes will use more Exchange, policy, and Places directory data to select rooms more intelligently. Microsoft has also recently clarified the Teams Shared Space licensing mechanics, with one $8 license enabling four bookable desks or BYOD rooms through one paid entitlement and three additional no-cost single-space licenses. The licensing remains unnecessarily awkward, but the practical automation is beginning to make Places look like a genuinely useful hybrid-work coordination layer instead of merely another reservation system. 

Can You Hear Me Now: Microsoft Teams is rolling out a pre-meeting audio test that lets users confirm their selected microphone and speakers before joining a call. Users can record a short sample and play it back to hear what other participants will hear, bringing Teams closer to the pre-join experience already offered by Zoom and Google Meet. The feature is now reaching most users, with government environments expected to complete their rollout during August. This is a welcome improvement, but it is remarkable that such a fundamental meeting feature took Microsoft this long to deliver. 

Microsoft Adds an AI Off Switch: Microsoft Teams is adding an in-meeting control that lets licensed organizers and presenters disable Copilot, Facilitator, and Intelligent Recap after users pushed back against the expanding presence of AI in meetings. The change acknowledges that people do not necessarily want every conversation watched, recorded, summarized, or interpreted simply because the technology is available. Resistance to imposed AI has been steadily growing, yet much of the technology industry continues to dismiss it as fear, ignorance, or temporary discomfort rather than a legitimate demand for control. Microsoft deserves credit for listening this time, but companies that continue forcing AI into established products risk destroying customer trust faster than their algorithms can create value. 

Microsoft Kills Teams Live Chat Just Months After Expanding It: Microsoft is retiring Teams Live Chat, recently renamed Customer Connect, with new deployments already blocked and existing website chat widgets scheduled to stop relaying conversations into Teams on October 5. The timing is particularly striking because Microsoft only rebranded and expanded the service this spring, adding broader language support and appointment booking before deciding to eliminate it just months later. Customers now need to remove the widget and move to alternatives such as Copilot Studio or Dynamics 365, making this yet another example of Microsoft rapidly reshaping Teams around its newer AI strategy. Continually launching, renaming, expanding, and then abruptly retiring features may make strategic sense inside Microsoft, but it increasingly asks customers to absorb the cost and disruption of Microsoft’s changing priorities.

Real Zoom Update Closes Security Hole: Zoom released updates addressing CVE-2026-53412, a critical Windows vulnerability rated 9.8 out of 10 that could allow an unauthenticated network attacker to take over an affected Zoom account. The flaw affected Zoom Workplace for Windows before version 7.0.0, several branches of the Zoom VDI Client, and the Windows Meeting SDK before version 7.0.0. Zoom discovered the vulnerability internally and reported no evidence that it had been exploited, meaning it was serious but not technically a zero-day attack. Organizations should treat collaboration clients as enterprise infrastructure and deploy critical updates immediately rather than relying on individual users to notice and install them. 

Fake Zoom Update Opens One: A campaign dubbed SMOKE#SCREEN is using fraudulent Zoom and Adobe update notices, document-review requests, and other business-themed messages to trick users into installing ConnectWise ScreenConnect. ScreenConnect is a legitimate remote monitoring tool, but the attackers configure it to provide persistent control of compromised Windows and macOS systems while using trusted services such as Dropbox and Cloudflare to make detection more difficult. The campaign has evolved to evade analysis and, in some versions, disable security protections before installing the remote-access agent. The irony is painful: Users must install genuine updates to remain secure, while simultaneously learning that an unexpected request to update may itself be the attack. 

Zoom’s Not-So-Subtle Dig at AudioCodes: When customers using AudioCodes phones on Zoom Phone load the current pushed-out update, they get a reminder that the AudioCodes phones for Zoom have not yet moved to Android 15. After the update, the phone comes back with a big “UN-certified” banner across the top. It still works just fine, so the label is likely intended to put pressure on AudioCodes to update its firmware. AudioCodes would like to sell more of its devices into Zoom Phone clients but needs Zoom’s help to do so. It seems these two firms could use a nice meal together instead of panicking their existing customers into thinking something is actually wrong with devices that worked fine before the last Zoom update.

Google Meet Meets UI Improvements: Google is redesigning the Meet homepage to provide a centralized view of upcoming meetings, agendas, and related materials, including recordings, transcripts, and notes. After each meeting, generated files will also be organized automatically in a dedicated Google Meet folder in the host’s Drive, making them easier to locate and manage. The improvements recognize that the meeting experience now extends well beyond joining the call and increasingly depends on preparing beforehand and finding information afterward. This is not revolutionary technology, but it addresses the everyday usability problems that often matter more than another collection of AI features. 

More to Challenge the Business Traveler: Microsoft is warning that a Russian state-sponsored group has been compromising hotel and other hospitality Wi-Fi systems to attack travelers. The campaign, called CaptiveCrunch, can redirect users through malicious captive portals, steal Microsoft 365 credentials and session tokens, and present fake browser or Windows updates that install surveillance malware. The malware can capture files, keystrokes, microphone audio, webcam video, and other sensitive information from an infected PC. The practical conclusion is unavoidable: Business travelers should treat hotel Wi-Fi as hostile and use a VPN or even cellular connection whenever possible. 

ClickShare Hub New BYOD Firmware: Barco’s newest release – available now – adds wireless BYOD support for Microsoft Teams Rooms, letting users run Zoom, Webex, or other meetings from their laptops while still using the room’s display, camera, microphone, and speakers. The release also adds a ClickShare Hub Core bundle with Logitech MeetUp 2, plus a USB-C-over-CAT kit that can extend connectivity up to 40 meters for more complex room installations. Barco also earned France’s ANSSI CSPN cybersecurity certification for the ClickShare CX-50 2nd generation, which it says is a first for a wireless conferencing system. The BYOD capability is the most significant piece here: Dedicated Teams Rooms increasingly need to accommodate whatever meeting platform walks through the door, and making that escape hatch simple is exactly the right direction. 

A Bose by Any Other Name: Bose Professional has acquired Fulcrum Acoustic, its first acquisition since Transom Capital Group bought the professional installation and conferencing business from Bose Corporation in 2023. Fulcrum will retain its brand, team, Massachusetts manufacturing operations, products, support organization, and existing channels while adding its performance loudspeakers, immersive-audio systems, and DSP expertise to the larger company. Transom acquired the operating business, not permanent ownership of the Bose name, and its temporary use of the Bose Professional identity will end when the company becomes 802 LABS in February 2027. This appears to be a strategically sensible expansion, but the company now has to ensure that Fulcrum’s respected name and engineering credibility help carry customers through the potentially difficult loss of the far more recognizable Bose brand. 

ADI Goes It Alone: ADI Global Distribution completed its separation from Resideo on August 4 and began trading independently on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ADIG. The move gives one of the AV, security, access-control, and data-communications markets’ largest distributors direct control over its capital, acquisition strategy, and investment priorities. Vendors and integrators should watch whether independence leads ADI to expand into new categories, pursue additional acquisitions, or change how it supports competing suppliers. This may look like a financial restructuring, but it could ultimately reshape a significant portion of the AV distribution channel. 

Upcoming Events

Below are the public events on our radar.

• CEDIA Expo – The residential AV integration show – Denver, CO – September 3-4
• WebexOne - Cisco’s annual collaboration-focused showcase – Austin, TX – October 5-8
• Zoomtopia – Zoom’s annual showcase – Los Angeles, CA – October 19-20
• NAB New York – The smaller, US East Coast broadcast show – NY, NY – November 21-22
• LDI – The annual staging and lighting show – Las Vegas, NV – December 2-8
• CES 2027 – The king of technology shows – Las Vegas, NV – January 5-8, 2027
• ISE 2027 – The combo commercial and residential AV show – Barcelona, Spain – February 2-6

Upcoming Research

Within the next 30 days:

• A TP report on the AV/UC management space – is there a single pane of glass that does everything?

Within the next 90 days:

• Updating the TP research note on workspace reservations – accounting for all the recent changes to Microsoft Places.

Key Product Status

This is intended to be an update regarding a partial list of Collaboration devices and/or firmware that have been in the news. It is by no means a complete or comprehensive list. 

But Wait, There’s More

UC Weekly News – Mondays beginning at 10 am (with the latest episode always on-demand here):

Any Questions?

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About

The TalkingPointz paid Insider subscriptions now include three monthly reports: The Insider Report published the first week of every month, the Insider AV Report (this one), and the Insider CX Report. The AV and CX content has expanded so much that we pulled them out of the monthly Insider into standalone newsletters. These reports are geared toward industry insiders, though some enterprises subscribe, too. Core subscribers are vendors, providers, consultants, and (financial and industry) analysts. TalkingPointz offers enterprise vendor, channel, consultant, and personal subscriptions. Insider Lite is a free Substack newsletter.