As ISE 2025 continues, one thing is becoming increasingly clear—digital signage isn’t just a vertical within Pro AV; it’s a preview of the entire industry’s future.

Day 1 was all about AI, and Day 2 focused on the growing overlap between broadcast and Pro AV. But today, my attention shifted to digital signage, or as I’m starting to think of it, experiential signage. The term digital signage feels redundant—at this point, all signage is digital, and the way we think about content delivery is evolving.

Digital Signage as the Future of Content Distribution

Companies like Navori lead the charge in AI-driven signage solutions, automatically generating creative content and optimizing networks for seamless display management. Meanwhile, SpinetiX is proving that media players are becoming more powerful than ever—offering four simultaneous 4K outputs from a single player, essentially creating an 8K signage solution with flexibility for multiple applications.

BrightSign, another major player in the space, continues to push the boundaries of what signage networks can do. But this shift isn’t just about signage; it’s a model for how Pro AV will distribute content moving forward.

Pro AV is Moving to the Network—Just Like Signage

Think about how digital signage works today: content is delivered and managed over a network, controlled remotely, and deployed seamlessly across multiple locations. That same concept is beginning to shape boardrooms, classrooms, and meeting spaces.

Companies like Extron, Crestron, and Kramer are already deep into AV-over-IP, but the challenge remains: real-time content transmission requires serious bandwidth. While digital signage can function smoothly with compressed content, live collaboration and interactive applications demand low latency, ultra-high bandwidth solutions—and we’re not quite at a point where 50-gig networks are standard.

Until then, AV-over-IP will continue evolving, with proprietary ecosystems dominating the space. IPMX may be the industry’s proposed open standard, but adoption is still slow among major manufacturers.

The Big Takeaway

Digital signage is giving us a glimpse into the future of Pro AV. The way **content is managed, distributed, and controlled in signage networks is likely how we’ll handle AV in corporate, education, and entertainment spaces before long. Cloud-based management, networked content delivery, and seamless scalability aren’t just trends in signage—they’re the blueprint for where Pro AV is going.

Tomorrow, I’ll dive into another key piece of this shift: the cloud. Stay tuned for my Day 4 recap.