Next-Generation Freeform Control Surfaces Lay the Foundation for AI-Enabled Media Operations
DENVER — At IBC2026 (Sept. 11–14, RAI Amsterdam, Stand #1.B73), Imagine Communications is showcasing the latest advances in its broad portfolio of industry-proven control tools that enable users to seamlessly manage, monitor, and orchestrate IP, cloud, and hybrid operations and build a practical path to AI-enabled workflows and future Dynamic Media Facilities (DMF).
New at IBC2026 is Magellan PanelFlex™, the next generation of operator-focused, freeform control surfaces for Imagine’s widely deployed Magellan™ Control System. Fully context-based, Magellan PanelFlex adapts controls to dynamic production environments, ensuring operators always have access to the tools they need, exactly when they need them. Magellan PanelFlex enables freeform naming of signals at every operating position, for every user, with no limits.
The Magellan Control System delivers IP/SDI routing control and real-time monitoring and an operator-centric work surface that makes the IP technology underneath feel and act just like a traditional SDI router. Magellan PanelFlex adds a full ecosystem of advanced capabilities, including Magellan PanelFlex-Canvas — a powerful panel design environment that allows engineering users to sculpt the exact flow of control and information for each operating position. The Magellan PanelFlex real-time engine drives these canvases to operators through HTML5 web panels, dynamic integration onto multiviewer surfaces, and through familiar physical panels.
“Our mission with Magellan PanelFlex is to put operators in full control and simplify the live event production process,” said Adeel Ahmed, senior product manager, Magellan Control System, at Imagine Communications. “From reassigning name sets to reconfiguring buttons on individual control surfaces, everything is just a click away — so the show goes faster and smoother.”
In keeping with Imagine’s commitment to open interfaces and protocols, Magellan PanelFlex-AI organizes and curates all key system information into an agentic-enabling Model Context Protocol (MCP) interface, allowing AI systems to quickly follow and act upon status and information from the live system.
New Capabilities Across the Control Portfolio
Imagine is introducing these MCP interfaces across its portfolio of workflow-optimized control technologies, which together form the software layer that connects operators to content and infrastructure and provides a practical foundation for the next generation of media operations.
For systems deployment and management, Imagine’s Aviator™ Orchestrator streamlines activities across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, creating a practical bridge to the DMF vision. Augmenting Imagine control capabilities, the software-defined Prismon™ multiviewer provides centralized monitoring, fast diagnostics, and unlimited scalability — helping operators maintain confidence in modern media workflows by enabling easy management of all displays from a single intuitive interface.
Underpinning the full portfolio, Imagine has extended Prometheus monitoring endpoints across its product suite, enabling users to integrate with IT-standard observability platforms such as Grafana. Imagine’s Professional Services team works directly with customers to build tailored dashboards for at-a-glance visibility across the entire facility.
“Our customers are managing increasingly complex facilities with shrinking operational teams, and our control portfolio is designed for exactly that challenge,” said John Mailhot, senior vice president, product management, at Imagine Communications. “We build to open interfaces and standard protocols, so we can provide customers with systemic monitoring and unified visibility leveraging available IT tools, rather than asking them to adopt something proprietary. At IBC, we’ll be demonstrating how those same open interfaces provide a foundation for AI-enabled workflows, making trusted systems smarter, faster, and easier to run.”
Imagine will demonstrate Magellan PanelFlex alongside its full control portfolio and AI-enabled technologies at its IBC2026 stand (1.B73).
