More than ever, technology suppliers in 2026 are meeting media entities where they live and work, with a hybrid, flexible and often invisible ecosystem.
Audio infrastructure manufacturers and providers agree that while the “sound” still must be perfect, the exact location of the gear no longer matters.
“We are not moving towards a future where the physical location of the audio suite doesn’t matter anymore,” said Calrec Director of Product Management Henry Goodman. “We’re already there.”
WHO, HOW AND WHERE
While the “where” has shifted, the “who” remains the foundation of the broadcast. Humans are still largely mixing and shaping program output. “But how and where they do all this has changed beyond recognition,” Goodman said.
The show’s exhibit floor offers ample evidence for television, radio and streaming contexts.
Wheatstone is showcasing its VMX virtual mixing platform, which can serve as a single mixing backend for multiple consoles or surfaces, at its booth.
Marketing Director Dee McVicker said the cost benefits from virtualization are a focal point. “Not to mention removing the massive physical limitations of the studio as we know it,” she said.
For manufacturers, the challenge is ensuring that as consoles move from isolated desks to complex networks — whether on-site, on edge or in the cloud — the engineer’s experience remains intuitive.
Solid State Logic intends to decouple the “big console” experience from the giant desk. Berny Carpenter, SSL’s broadcast product manager, said that through the company’s Virtual Tempest Engine, the software can be deployed across public clouds or private data centers.
Does this flexibility mean that mixing can be performed truly anywhere? Wheatstone’s McVicker offered a nuanced take.
“We’re not taking away from the tactile feel of a fixed console, yet we’re not limiting you to that or where you might be mixing at the moment,” she said.
Goodman too said Calrec’s approach is to provide the “big console” experience in a portable package.
FIXED HARDWARE TO MOBILE APPS
In the West Hall, Lawo is preaching a philosophy of agility through its HOME Apps platform. The concept is a departure from the “one box for each task” style of broadcasting.
For a media outlet using a generic commercial off-the-shelf server, Lawo believes the platform is ideal for managing a succession of workflows, allowing a broadcaster to decide on Monday that it’s an audio mixer and on Tuesday that it’s a multiviewer by switching containerized microservices.
“Hardware infrastructure no longer dictates workflows: Workflows now define the agile processing stack,” said Wolfgang Huber, Lawo’s public relations manager.
According to Huber, that kind of agility is important in mobile production trucks, where every inch of rack space and watt of power counts.
Wheatstone’s VML, an HTML5-based virtual console, can be accessed through a web browser, offering mixing on a laptop, tablet, smartphone or desktop. “You have a lot of flexibility to set up remote broadcasts, temporary studios in a disaster situation or even add on a permanent production studio,” McVicker said.
BY YOUR SIDE
But how does an engineer harness all of the power available now, particularly from AI and automation?
At Telos Alliance, AI is framed as a “mixing assistant riding shotgun,” said Clark Novak, its marketing content manager.
“Hardware infrastructure no longer dictates workflows: Workflows now define the agile processing stack.”
Wolfgang Huber, Lawo
Telos’ flexAI platform utilizes the Jünger Audio Intelligent Companion, an AI-powered automixer.
Novak explained that flexAI pushes background noise down while keeping dialogue consistent, allowing the engineer to focus on the overall mix while the platform handles “small corrective moves.”
SSL offers a similar philosophy with its System T Dialogue Automix. Carpenter said that the system focuses on the active speaker across a large number of sources to reduce crosstalk.
“It allows the operator to focus on the output, rather than reacting to who is currently speaking,” Carpenter said.
Lawo, for its part, sticks to deterministic algorithms in its KICK sports mixing technology, for example, to avoid “AI hallucinations” in high-stakes environments.
But with the platform’s close-ball mixing, which is automated based on camera tracking data, Lawo’s Huber said the technology allows the audio engineer to focus on creative storytelling rather than manual gain-riding.
But a recurring theme is that disappearance of large surfaces. For instance, Telos Alliance’s Axia Altus and Studio Essentials lines allow mixing to be controlled entirely via a web browser.
“Virtual mixing isn’t about replacing the studio,” Novak said, “it’s about expanding it to other locations.”
Wheatstone’s McVicker called it a hardware-agnostic philosophy.
As NAB Show exhibitors will demonstrate, the movement to flexibility is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Most facilities are adopting a hybrid approach — keeping hardware where tactile control is needed, but moving the “heavy lifting” to the cloud.
As Calrec’s Goodman concluded, the tools must provide the operator with the ability to adapt to demanding environments.
Whether the processing happens in a basement rack or a distant data center, the mission remains the same: clear and compelling audio.
© 2026 NAB
