Every few years, you walk away from NAB knowing something has shifted. This was one of those years.
We came to Las Vegas with a lot to say — and the industry gave us every opportunity to say it. Across five sessions at the BEIT Conference, the NAB Sports Summit, the IP Showcase, the SBE ENNES Workshop, and a joint session with Cisco, our team was on stage every single day of the show. But some of the most valuable conversations happened at Booth N1328, where customers came with real questions about hybrid workflows, cloud transitions, and how to bring linear and digital operations closer together.
One theme came through louder than any other: customers don’t need a thousand products. They need the right ones — ones that work together, reduce friction, and grow with them.
A decade of ST 2110 — and what it took to get here
NAB 2026 took place as the industry marks 10 years since 2110 began reshaping broadcast infrastructure. At Imagine, we were there from day one. Our SVP John Mailhot has served as editor of the 2110 standard since 2013, a commitment recognized with the prestigious David Sarnoff Medal. We’ve shipped nearly 6,000 of our SDI/IP Selenio™ Network Processors, powering 180,000+ video streams and 3 million audio streams worldwide. Those aren’t just statistics — it’s a decade of trust.
The NABA panel I moderated during the show reflected how far the conversation has come. The industry isn’t debating IP anymore — the foundation is set. The conversation has expanded to encompass MXL and DMF and how these emerging approaches to software-defined production build on and work alongside 2110. As we said on stage, “DMF is a transition in how the industry operates” — not just a new spec, but a fundamentally different way of thinking about facilities, resources, and workflows.
Cloud and hybrid playout: still the defining question
Ten years ago, the broadcast industry asked whether live playout from the cloud was even possible. The answer turned out to be yes — and that answer has shaped everything since. The question the industry is asking now is more nuanced: not whether cloud works, but how you move fluidly between cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments without sacrificing capability, consistency, or control.
That question was everywhere at NAB. And it is one we have been building toward since 2016, when Imagine powered the first major network live broadcast to come from the cloud — a moment where nobody watching could tell where the signal was coming from. That is still the standard worth holding: not cloud as a backup, not cloud as a workaround, but cloud as an invisible, production-grade reality.
What we demonstrated with Aviator and XVR at NAB brought that vision to life on the show floor. One platform. One codebase. The same user interface, workflows, and capabilities whether you are running on an appliance, in a private data center, or in public cloud. For customers working through hybrid transitions, that consistency is not a feature — it is the architecture.
And for anyone mapping that journey, our Hybrid Playbook for Broadcast captures the lessons we have accumulated across nearly a decade of doing this at scale, and we are glad to share it.
Hybrid isn’t a compromise. It’s a strategy.
Learn how broadcasters use on-prem & cloud to improve efficiency, resilience & utilization across playout & production. Get the Playbook ➜
What we launched
The SNP-XS made its NAB debut — all the power of our flagship SNP in a compact form factor built for edge, mobile, and space-constrained environments. It supports both 2110 and 12G SDI, with full UHD and HDR capability, available today.
We also expanded our multiviewer portfolio with the addition of Prismon, giving operators more flexible options for any monitoring application from live production and playout to master control and OTT environments — SDI, 2110, on‑prem, in hybrid deployments, and in the cloud.
We introduced XVR to U.S. audiences for the first time — powerful playout engines designed to enable rapid, repeatable, and secure deployment in ingest, playout, and unified origination environments of any scale — especially in ST 2110 or cloud-hosted scenarios.
And we launched AI‑assisted scheduling capabilities for Landmark Rights & Scheduling, addressing a challenge we heard constantly: as broadcasters face increasing pressure to manage complex rights portfolios and respond to changing audience demands, they need smarter tools to help them operate more efficiently without sacrificing security or control.
The win that meant the most
IMS Productions and BeckTV were named winners of the NAB 2026 Project of the Year for Production — with Imagine technology at the core. Working under intense timelines, the team transformed five mobile production units into a fully IP-based environment, deploying 70 Selenio Network Processors to replace core routing, multiviewing, and processing infrastructure. The result is a unified, flexible platform built for high-performance live production — and designed to keep evolving. Thank you to IMS Productions and BeckTV for the collaboration and trust throughout.
Our partners
We also celebrated our annual Americas Channel Partner event with more than 80 partners from 20 companies across North America, LATAM, and APAC. Congratulations to this year’s award winners:
- Partner of the Year: VIDITEC
- Outstanding Partner: Diversified
- Partnership Performance: BeckTV and Alpha
- Project of the Year: J2C Enterprise
We’re grateful for our partners’ dedication every day. See you at IBC.
Award: NAB 2026 Project of the Year for Production
Delivered under intense timelines, the project transformed five mobile production units into a fully IP-based environment, with 70 Selenio Network Processors replacing core routing, multiviewing, and processing infrastructure.
This created a unified, flexible platform capable of supporting high-performance live production, while continuing to evolve as new format and workflow requirements emerged.
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