NETGEAR: The network behind the next generation of IP production

Friday September 25, 2026 16:27

NETGEAR AV might not have been the most obvious technology on the IBC show floor, but it was certainly one of the most widely deployed. Across the show, NETGEAR switches could be found providing the underlying network fabric for a wide range of Video over IP demonstrations and solutions.

That reflects just how important the network has become as broadcast and Pro AV continue their transition towards IP. NETGEAR is already closely involved with established technologies including SMPTE ST 2110 and is also tightly connected with the emerging IPMX standard, which aims to bring open, interoperable IP media transport to a much broader range of professional AV applications.

One particularly interesting development at IBC was NETGEAR’s approach to MXL, or Media eXchange Layer. While MXL is fundamentally a software-defined approach to moving media between applications, NETGEAR is exploring how elements of that functionality can be handled within the switch fabric itself. Moving some of that work into the network could provide another way to manage the performance, timing, and scalability required by increasingly software-defined production environments.

As more video, audio, control, and processing move onto shared IP infrastructure, the network is no longer simply the plumbing connecting everything together. Increasingly, it is becoming an active part of how the entire production environment operates.