The lines between AV and broadcast have been blurring for years. At NAB 2026, two members of the Midwich US team sat down with IKAN to talk about what that convergence looks like on the ground — and where the industry is headed next.

Chris Neto on Quality, AI, and the "Golden Hour"

Chris Neto, Head of Emerging Markets at Midwich US, joined James Tian live from the IKAN booth for one of the more candid conversations of the show. Chris was an early champion of Midwich's move into broadcast four years ago, a strategic bet that's paying off as enterprise customers increasingly demand production-grade cameras, lighting, microphones, and teleprompters for everything from boardrooms to hybrid work environments.

A standout moment is Chris's "Golden Hour" insight on the idea that younger generations, shaped by social media and smartphone photography, already intuitively understand the power of good lighting. The challenge now is bringing that sensibility into corporate AV. He also made a compelling case for why audio quality is the foundation of effective AI, whether for transcription, translation, or lip-sync localization. Garbage in, garbage out. And he shared a memorable story about how a missing piece of furniture contributed to an underused conference room, and how smarter data analytics could have flagged it before it became a problem.

 

Jeff Barnes on PoE Lighting, Dante AV-IP & Integrator Enablement

Jeff Barnes brings two decades of network-based post-production experience to Midwich's broadcast and M&E vertical, a team that's grown significantly since the company made a focused push into the space three years ago. His conversation covers a lot of ground: the democratization of broadcast-grade tools for smaller integrators, the rise of IP-based workflows, and why IKAN's PoE lighting stands out as genuinely category-defining technology.

Jeff also spoke to the education piece, including an AVIXA RU-credited course Midwich co-developed with IKAN to bring three-point lighting fundamentals to AV integrators. As Dante AV-IP gains traction for two-way video over existing audio networks, and Netgear AV rounds out the end-to-end IP ecosystem, the conversation underscored just how much opportunity exists for integrators who are ready to evolve.