By Andrew Starks, Product Marketing Manager, Broadcast & ProAV Products

A decade ago, broadcast and professional AV were separate worlds. Broadcasters lived in an SDI universe of routers, master control, and precise timing. Pro AV lived in HDMI and HDBaseT, focused on switchers, extenders, and plug-and-play simplicity. They had different customers, expectations, and even definitions of quality.

That separation is gone. The boundaries have faded, replaced by a common reality: we are all making television now. Hundreds of thousands of people are live-streaming every day. Corporations are building full production studios. Houses of worship, schools, and municipalities are running live events with multi-camera systems and distributed displays.

Even broadcasters rely on Pro AV devices inside their own live production environments. A display wall, a confidence monitor, or a remote collaboration system is often part of the same network that carries broadcast feeds.

Across the entire media landscape, including broadcast, Pro AV, live production, and content creation, everything is moving to IP.

SMPTE ST 2110 started this transformation in broadcast. It replaced SDI with IP-based flows that move video, audio, and data independently, but in perfect sync. It was a leap that gave engineers new freedom while keeping the precision they required.

Now, IPMX is extending that foundation to encompass both broadcast ST 2110 and Pro AV. The pull toward convergence is stronger than ever. IPMX includes everything that made ST 2110 powerful, and also adds the features that Pro AV needs: content protection with HDCP, secure transmission through PEP encryption, USB transport for control, and plug-and-play discovery and registration. It also defines simpler and less demanding options for deployment, such as relaxed PTP timing, or even running without PTP when precise synchronization is not required.

The benefits flow in both directions. Broadcast facilities can now implement house-wide and encryption using IPMX’s PEP. They can add interactive control surfaces and remote UIs that run natively on the same network using IPMX’s USB extension capability. Pro AV gains access to the reliability and precision that broadcast engineers have relied on for decades.

This shared foundation lowers cost, reduces duplication, and allows technology to move freely between markets. The result is a single, scalable IP media ecosystem that grows through collaboration rather than isolation.

Broadcast was built on precision and predictability. It values deterministic timing, redundancy, and frame-accurate switching.

Pro AV grew on accessibility and creativity. It emphasizes flexibility, affordability, and ease of integration.

Those perspectives are now blending. Broadcasters are adopting the flexibility of software-defined workflows. AV professionals are learning the value of timing and orchestration. Both are realizing that an open, IP-based foundation benefits everyone who works with live media.

Behind the scenes, vendors are already merging. The same chips, SDKs, and IP cores that power broadcast systems now power Pro AV devices. The same APIs manage both. The same development teams are building products for both markets.

Customers are driving this shift. Broadcasters are integrating Pro AV gear for internal communication and event production. Pro AV system integrators are designing production systems that use broadcast-level IP transport. Universities often have both a broadcast control room and a distributed AV network on the same campus. Houses of worship and sports venues use professional AV and broadcast technology interchangeably.

Trade shows are following the trend. NAB is inviting Pro AV manufacturers. InfoComm is courting broadcast technology providers. The smartest companies attend both, because their customers do.

The distinction between markets has become a distinction in workflow. The technology base is now the same.

Some Pro AV installations now surpass broadcast facilities in scale and image quality. Large venues, amusement parks, and art installations run multi-gig networks with 4K and HDR content.

At the same time, many broadcasters must deliver programs at lower cost and greater flexibility. They are streaming directly to the web, connecting remote guests, and mixing consumer or Pro AV sources into professional systems.

Capability no longer maps to cost. Each market borrows from the other to meet its goals.

The real divide is no longer between broadcast and Pro AV. It lies between creating and presenting.

Creation includes capturing, producing, switching, and contributing live content. Presentation includes distribution, display, and interaction. Every organization does some of both, and the balance dictates the requirements.

Modern manufacturers design products that operate across creation and presentation workflows. They support both IPMX and ST 2110, integrate NMOS control, and scale across network speeds from 1 to 100 GbE.

They build once and deploy everywhere.

Their systems can send and receive live video, audio, and data across any environment, from a control room to a conference room to a cloud instance. They enable collaboration between broadcast engineers, IT managers, and AV technicians without forcing anyone to change their tools.

This trend is accelerating across the industry. NAB and InfoComm are no longer separated by technology or audience. Both recognize that their exhibitors and attendees are part of one community. The same companies are producing live television, streaming corporate events, and powering interactive experiences.

At Macnica, we are helping manufacturers lead this convergence. Our IP transport and processing solutions are based entirely on open standards. They allow developers to create products that span broadcast, Pro AV, and emerging media markets without re-engineering the core.

We focus on helping customers build systems that support both creation and presentation. Whether the workflow lives on a local network or in the cloud, our technology enables consistent, interoperable results.

We are proving that open standards drive cross-market interoperability and create the foundation for lasting growth.

The boundary between broadcast and Pro AV has dissolved into a single ecosystem of creators and presenters. Everyone is producing video. Everyone is consuming it, and increasingly, everyone is doing both on the same infrastructure.

The companies that recognize this shift and design for interoperability across every workflow will lead the next decade of media technology.

One market. One network. A shared foundation for everyone who works with real-time media.