ISE 2025 First and Lasting Impressions

As I gladly pointed out last year at the end of my First Impressions article from Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2024, this year's show returned to Barcelona, Spain, nine days after NAMM Show 2025. Which was the first good thing about it. 

This allowed me some time to fly from California to Europe and head to Barcelona for this mammoth of a trade show without (much) jet lag. Truth be told, I am still going through the massive amounts of material that I collected at the amazing CES 2025 show, and I hardly had time to explore many of the interesting presentations and discussions we had at NAMM 2025. I wrote notes about both events, here and here.
  My first mistake for ISE 2025 was that I almost completely overlooked the presence of professional audio manufacturers that exhibited at NAMM 2025, foolishly thinking that I would have a whole week to focus on what they were announcing at ISE 2025. And that brings me to the two first lessons to retain about Integrated Systems Europe: 

1. ISE is not considered by professional audio manufacturers as a show to "launch" major new products, since the focus there is completely on solutions selling, not press coverage.

2. Even though there is some discussion among less attentive industry people about "ISE replacing the need to be at NAMM" or how "ISE killed Prolight+Sound," the reality is that the "installation" focus of the Barcelona event is now so massive that there is no margin to also try to showcase and sell live performance technologies (that have their dedicated audience at NAMM and Prolight - and other shows).

I said that in my 2024 coverage and the 2025 edition confirmed what I suspected. As the show expands with more market segments, many more companies exhibiting, and many more attendees with different profiles, there is less margin for audio manufacturers to be able to showcase their complete product portfolio. So, next time, remember: ISE is about systems integration, but that means audio for meeting rooms, restaurants, conference centers, and fixed installs in auditoriums. Bringing touring stuff and stage technology makes no sense, since those products have no chance in this environment. 

Also, as the ISE 2025 visitor profile served to show, even though there were some new areas focused on content production, successful exhibitors are focusing on presentation and closed-circuit stuff. ISE will not challenge IBC or NAB shows any time soon (other than eroding companies’ budgets for investing in trade shows, obviously).
  People Everywhere
For those who attended ISE 2025, there's no denying that attendance was very strong, the highest ever.

And that was even more impressive considering how ISE is now taking up all the available (and large) halls of the Fira de Barcelona complex. Not all areas of all halls were used, but the space available represents less than 10% of the available area. I know because I attend Mobile World Congress (MWC) in the same exhibition complex - just 3 weeks apart - and I can see the differences. Mobile World takes every single available corner of the Fira (even though that decreased temporarily after the pandemic) and welcomes 20% more attendees.

How much larger can it get? I can easily predict from conversations with the organizers, exhibitors, and many visiting professionals, that ISE will expand in 2026 to basically fill the available halls. Integrated Systems Events (the promoter) already announced that hall 8.1 will be a second space strongly focused on audio, creating a synergy with the demonstration rooms that already exist in hall 8.0 and the "pro audio" hall 7. The nearby lighting hall (6) was also successful and looked like an LDI show or the lighting halls of Prolight+Sound. As far as I could see from a distance and was told by colleagues, since I had no time to even enter that hall.
 
And that brings me to the third and fourth lessons for ISE.

3. ISE is now so large and diversified in the scope of technologies and exhibitors that no one can do the whole show. It doesn't make sense. 

4. Don't try to visit all the halls. Plan your route in advance and don't schedule meetings blindly, or you will end up finding yourself walking from hall 7 to hall 1 multiple times per day. And that used to take around 15 minutes (taking the walkway overpass), but it is now starting to take much longer at certain moments.

Since audioXpress focuses on technologies and not finished products, this forced us to visit companies spread throughout all the halls. But even knowing where a company is located, doesn't mean that planning is easy. Everyone is surrounded by occasional visitors to the booth, and we all know how those could lead to an important project or sale. Many impromptu visits to a booth will need to be returned another or multiple times. And if you are focused on B2B activities, you should consider planning activities the day before the show starts. After the crowds start flowing to ISE, you will be fighting for undivided attention even from people who scheduled meetings with you.

And that takes me to my personal perspective as a press person. I didn't pay attention to some cool products shown at NAMM because I thought I would see those at ISE. Then, in Barcelona, I couldn't even get close enough to take a photo (and some weren't even there because of the reasons mentioned previously). And although in 2024 I managed to complete my to-do list on the last day of the show when the booths were less crowded (or empty), this year I was desperately trying to complete my visit schedule that had been bumped from previous days or trying to find things I learned about at the show.
  Many technology companies that usually walked the show in previous years, this year had a booth in some remote location, while some even tried to have exclusive demo rooms in nearby hotels. I truly don't recommend either of those approaches. If you deal with audio technologies, try to stay in the audio halls (it really doesn't matter much where, since you are not fighting for visitors’ attention, and you might just have a small booth with a private meeting area). If you are an audio company that serves both the streaming conference market (halls 1, 2, 5) and the pro audio segment (halls 7 and 8), it is better not to have a booth.

This also serves to highlight the need for the audio industry to get together around its existing associations to create joint initiatives for technology suppliers. If those companies attend these mammoth trade shows supported by a trade organization and share a common and easily identified area, it benefits everyone. A positive example I would highlight is the Audio & Loudspeaker Technologies International (ALTI) initiative at the Munich High End international audio show, and its dedicated ALTI Pavilion, co-located with the International Parts+Supply (IPS) exhibition area. This is perfectly possible for ISE and would be highly beneficial (send me an email if you would like to join such an initiative).
  Everyone Looked Happy
In general, satisfaction with this trade show (which I repeat should be renamed Integrated Systems Expo, since it has long surpassed its "Europe" scale to become truly a global trade show) was extremely high. Extremely important for the success of ISE is the visitors’ profile, which is evolving from the distributors and system integrators that have helped propel its formula in the first space, to larger engineering, IT, and design services firms that increasingly want to integrate more disciplines, in more application segments. 

But since ISE moved to Barcelona, I have witnessed how a large number of visitors are now also customers and even users. From a restaurant owner or hotel manager that wants to see technologies, to someone who is planning to build a residential entertainment room or home cinema and wants to see what's available and talk directly to the exhibitors. This, in turn, is now an incentive for distributors and system integrators (at least those in Spain and across Europe) to also have a booth and meet those visitors.

Given the types of products and technologies that are now dominant at ISE, that is not surprising and in fact it is a positive thing for the installation and systems integration sector. The trade-off is that ISE risks becoming a large technology supermarket, with no room for the mandatory industry activities, such as promoting product launches, distribution chains, and strategic meetings. At least from what we've seen this year, everyone was focusing on promoting solutions, solutions, solutions. And the customers were lining up for that.

This overwhelmingly busy environment, with business looking good, was the reason why, in general, everyone looked happy. If anything, there was just a feeling of frustration because it was impossible to see everything and everyone. For anyone in audio, with an interest in visiting the demo rooms and attending those sessions, the frustration was even bigger. It would take me four days and many hours waiting to visit all the demo rooms, because each presentation lasts between 30 to 45 minutes, and when you exit, the one you want to attend next already started, meaning you have one hour of waiting. Attending those sessions (even the ones for press, where I didn't have to wait in line) felt like I had gone to the movies and skipped work.
  Background of Innovation
With fewer opportunities for product launches, there was also less room for noticing that innovation was still taking place. It was just harder to notice for those with other priorities. For me, it was the reason why I had the craziest schedule ever at this trade show. Also, it was the reason why I had to even skip events I wanted to attend, and even visit companies I had noted in my plan - and didn't even have the chance to locate. Apologies to those I didn't see, those who I just passed by, and those I only found were there after it was over (if you happened to be in hall 1, that was the case, because I completely missed that one).

Where was the innovation then? Well, first and foremost in the same domain I addressed last year, signal connectivity, networking, and control. In most cases, ISE is truly the show where technologies from other application segments - consumer or professional - go to thrive even after their expiry date. DisplayPort is still alive among projector and screen companies. And when companies talk about "USB-C" (everyone did at ISE 2025), they are talking about USB3. 

Among these "AV" companies, no one seems to know what USB4 is, even though the technology has been around for over five years. In general, companies are now discovering USB Power Delivery, but no one seems to need more than 10Gbps, unlike what happens in content creation where everyone is already promoting USB4, Thunderbolt 5, and 80Gbps and 120Gbps interfaces. Not surprising since ISE is the supreme HDMI show, and compression (more video than audio, of course) is in general seen as a fact of life.
  From hall 2 (as I said, I missed hall 1) to hall 5, ISE 2025 was a show of established technologies, where the biggest thing was the proliferation of USB-C "extensions" (unlike NAB or CES; they don't call it "hubs" at ISE) for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). After many years of trying to sell extremely complicated and IT-managed solutions for meeting rooms and conferencing applications, in 2025, everyone seems to accept that the best way is for people to bring their own devices. No more need to export your Keynote from the Mac and have the "IT guy" convert it to PowerPoint that will show in the wrong aspect ratio on a Windows PC. Simply plug your Mac, iPad, or iPhone into the available USB-C cable, and the "AV system" will take it from there. Companies offer professional docking black boxes, with control, monitoring, and room automation, all based on the "AV-over-IP" infrastructure.

AV-over-IP means not only the need to accept devices and signals via USB-C (or HDMI), but mostly the need to create complete interoperability between signal formats, protocols, platforms, and technologies. Dante and NDI devices need to be interoperable and work together in one way or another, and that was the "innovation" and priorities at this show. Discussions about published "standards," open specifications, and interoperability industry initiatives (such as IPMX) have kind of moved to the background at ISE, as exhibitors are making serious efforts to simplify life for everyone and sell "solutions."
  As the dominant industry player and networking platform, Audinate had its largest booth ever at ISE 2025 and promoted a pre-show event to unveil its strategic roadmap and upcoming developments for Dante. With more than 150 manufacturers showcasing Dante products at ISE 2025, out of a universe of over 600 manufacturers who embraced the technology, it is easy to understand why Audinate leveraged this opportunity to project what it sees as the future of its Dante AV-over-IP solution.

Audinate has had several key strategic announcements since the beginning of the year, which include improvements on its Dante Director cloud-based SaaS tool to collect and retain telemetry information, including networking latency, and its introduction of Dante Media Encryption (AES-256) into Dante-enabled products, safeguarding media from interception or unauthorized access. While we were all recovering from CES and preparing for NAMM, Audinate announced the launch of Dante Virtual Soundcard Pro (DVS Pro), a software solution that now allows a "virtual machine" to handle up to 128×128 channels at 96kHz and seamlessly connect Dante-enabled devices in a synchronized audio workflow. This transforms any PC or Mac into a powerful Dante-enabled device, simply by utilizing the computer’s standard wired network connection, without the need for additional hardware.

At ISE 2025, Aidan Williams, the co-founder and CEO of Audinate, clearly laid out the vision to evolve Dante into a complete platform, expanding its available APIs to also address control applications and pave the way for software developers to create Dante-enabled tools akin to DAW plugins. The vision is to create  an expansion from audio and video signals with management tools, also into a complete, interoperable control platform. And in a similar way as Audinate did with AES67 audio-over-Ethernet support, it doesn't discard the possibility to also embrace the AES70 device control standard.
 
Open Control
And that brings me to audioXpress' direct involvement in a Product Development Meet-up at ISE 2025, promoted by the OCA Alliance and the Audio Product Development Alliance. It is clear from the participation in this initiative in a booth that was too small for the interest generated, that there is a genuine interest in pushing forward the applications for the AES70 open standard for control and monitoring of networked audio and video devices. 

Based on the Open Control Architecture (OCA) specification targeted for professional applications, AES70 works alongside any media transport protocol such as AES67, Dante, Ravenna, Milan, and others, delivering a complete media network platform for digital audio systems of any size. The latest update to the AES70-2024 device control standard, featuring new classes, enhanced methods, and an updated specification for the OCP.1 protocol, was demonstrated at ISE 2025, with a wider range of products on display. Those included a very interesting AES67/AES70 Network Amplifier created by Welliver Technologies, the AES70 GPIO Development kit from Profusion/Resolute Audio, a Swift implementation of AES70 by Lukktone, and of course the AES70py Library for the Python programming language offered by DeusO GmbH, to further promote an IT convergence with network audio devices.
  And as I reported on the website during the show, there was Elytone, which returned to ISE 2025 in Barcelona with an exciting demonstration of AES70 remote device controls over an AES67 network. Enabled by its Elytone Networked Audio Processor 1 (NAP1) platform, the Taiwan-based company also demonstrated multichannel networked systems over Dante and AES67, now with AES70 (OCA) controls, and enhanced A2B Audio Bus bridging (including automatic plug and play). And the company has exciting developments in the works, which it expects to unveil and bring to market in 2025. 

Elytone was just one of the many companies that attended the OCA Alliance/APDA Product Development Meet-up at ISE 2025. All the companies I talked to confirmed that there is legitimate demand for more applications that are tied together by control interoperability, and AES70 offers a set of features that already goes above and beyond those requirements. For the residential and custom integration segment, where AES67 has been widely embraced since it does not require the full Dante platform and toolset, mating AES67 and AES70 enables exciting possibilities, including for integration with the traditional control solutions from Crestron, Control4, Savant, RTI, Elan, and others.
  Obviously, there are other significant technologies that seemed to stand out from ISE 2025. Speaker manufacturers didn't show exactly anything to be excited for at the show; the priority at ISE was more to show a complete range of RAL colors and new flexible and efficient "solutions" in pendants, ceilings, columns, and thin and almost invisible arrays. The very noticeable trend was the general embracing of Power-over-Ethernet and solutions based on PoE+ and PoE++. Those were mostly still on the electronics, with multiple new PoE installation amplifiers being revealed - the ultra-compact Powersoft Nota being the most significant. In general, most multichannel amplifiers announced at ISE 2025 all had networking, DSP - some with integrated mixing features - and support for PoE. I expect that we will see a lot more PoE speakers in 2026. For now, Genelec is clearly still in the lead in that domain.

One of my technology focuses for ISE 2025 was obviously Auracast, and I made sure to repeatedly visit Williams AV, Opus, Bettear, and of course Listen Technologies/Ampetronics, which had the first commercially available Auracast system for commercial deployments. I will soon expand on the importance of what these companies are promoting for Auracast deployments and the impact these solutions will create over the public address product segment, in a separate article.
  I will conclude with two major stories that coincided with ISE 2025, and which will have major repercussions across the audio industry. The first was the announcement that a large audio company now based in Asia was closing its last remaining product development operations in Europe and laying off its last Danish, German, and Swedish employees. Fortunately, those employees are mostly embedded software and DSP engineers, who shouldn't have any problems quickly finding more rewarding work in the industry. At the Barcelona trade show, that company still had a booth in two of the halls, where some of the employees received the news.

The second was the announcement that Holoplot, the Berlin, Germany-based company recently acquired by Sphere Entertainment, was ceasing all its commercial activities to refocus exclusively on "technology development for Sphere venues." This was a sad epilogue for a company that managed to shake the professional audio industry to its foundations, and that in my opinion was still less than halfway from realizing the full potential of its vision. 

With former CEO Roman Sick already removed from its helm, Sphere discarded a significant number of the Holoplot employees. I have no doubt that many of these professionals will now transfer that experience broadly to several other audio companies. Holoplot inspired everyone, and it's only normal that multiple manufacturers will want to fill that void with its own developments (probably with contributions from many ex-Holoplot people). From ISE 2025, we will remember the long lines of visitors to the Holoplot demo room— many still unaware that it was the last such opportunity.

ISE 2026 takes place from February 3-6, again at Fira de Barcelona, Gran Via. NAMM 2026 in Anaheim, CA, takes place in January 22–24, 2026, allowing plenty of time for audio manufacturers to be at both trade shows. aX


This article was originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, (#503), February 13, 2025.