Expanding the ecosystem: arkona at ISE 2026
Beer in Barcelona
In Germany, beer hall culture is very much a defined thing. You know the kind of place: long tables, steins, the reliable classics on tap. It’s where serious beer drinkers go, and the beers mean business. So imagine how odd it would be to pop over to Barcelona for a holiday, expecting to find a little tapas bar with Sangria in jugs – and what do you discover? A classic line-up of German beer at the bar - bottles of Augustiner, Paulener on tap, a happy mix of Helles, Pilsner and Hefeweissbier. A bar lady decked out in full Oktoberfest dress. And even odder – all your German drinking buddies sitting right there in the corner, stein in hand. Well, ISE is starting to feel a little like that. But replace beer with broadcast. Historically, IBC has always been the broadcast show. And ISE the ProAV show. Certainly, the two had similarities, but their ‘beers’, their ‘drinkers’ and their ‘drinking culture’ were always quite distinct. OK, we’ll drop the drinking metaphor now. What we’re getting at is that whilst ISE has not traditionally been a broadcast show, these days it increasingly reflects the direction the industry is heading. The boundaries between broadcast, ProAV, enterprise media and live production continue to blur, while the underlying technologies that support them are becoming remarkably similar. Indeed, we saw a significant number of our broadcast-industry-brethren making themselves comfortable at ISE: some with remarkably big stands and staff presence. That means that for arkona and manifold technologies, ISE 2026 was less about stepping outside our core market and more about meeting customers and partners where that convergence is already happening. Alongside our established presence at major broadcast exhibitions, ISE offered the opportunity to further explore sectors where our technology is already quietly at work. Esports environments, IT-driven media operations and houses of worship are all adopting the same IP-based, software-defined infrastructures that underpin modern broadcast. In particular, we had the opportunity to present two of our biggest case studies of the year, for one of the globe’s biggest eSports events and one of the planet’s biggest tech firms. Let’s just say, the show was a Riot and our technology partners manifold remain the Apple of our eye. What was clear was that regardless of industry, as these ‘alternative’ sectors scale and professionalise their AV operations, their requirements increasingly mirror those of traditional media organisations: flexibility, reliability, efficient resource use and the ability to evolve without wholesale replacement. Conversations in Barcelona confirmed that standards such as SMPTE ST 2110 are no longer confined to television facilities; they are steadily moving into a broader professional AV landscape, orientated around an IP-first infrastructure. In that sense, the EASY-IP concept - reducing complexity while allowing SDI and IP to coexist and evolve at the user’s own pace - resonated strongly with visitors navigating that transition.
The 2025 Partner of the Year award
One of the highlights of the show, however, was less about new opportunities and more about recognising the success of an existing partnership. During ISE, arkona and manifold presented the 2025 Partner of the Year award to Promexar, acknowledging their outstanding work in building the market in Mexico. The relationship with Promexar has developed steadily over several years. According to Promexar CEO Christian Fragoso, a key part of that success has been what he describes as ‘social engineering’ - the patient process of helping engineering teams become comfortable with IP and understand that ST 2110 represents an operational advantage rather than a risk. Flexibility too is a central value proposition: customers appreciate the ability to perform multiple functions within a single platform and adapt resources as operational needs evolve. From arkona’s perspective, the award also recognises the commitment behind the results. Building trust in a new technology approach requires sustained effort, close cooperation and strong local expertise. The engagement and focus demonstrated by the entire Promexar team have been instrumental in securing some of the largest orders we have seen in the region, supported by equally dedicated commissioning and implementation work from our engineering teams in Griesheim.
Booking the Booth for 2027
If there was a common thread running through ISE 2026, it was this: growth rarely comes from dramatic shifts, but from consistent ecosystem development. New markets, new applications and new partners all build on the same foundation - practical technology, clear value and collaboration that extends well beyond the point of sale. As the industry continues to converge, that ecosystem approach will only become more important. For arkona and manifold, ISE reinforced that the opportunity is not simply to enter new sectors, but to bring broadcast-proven thinking into environments that are now facing the same challenges of scale, flexibility and long-term infrastructure evolution. And with planning already underway for 2027, the work of building those connections is very much ongoing.
In Germany, beer hall culture is very much a defined thing. You know the kind of place: long tables, steins, the reliable classics on tap. It’s where serious beer drinkers go, and the beers mean business. So imagine how odd it would be to pop over to Barcelona for a holiday, expecting to find a little tapas bar with Sangria in jugs – and what do you discover? A classic line-up of German beer at the bar - bottles of Augustiner, Paulener on tap, a happy mix of Helles, Pilsner and Hefeweissbier. A bar lady decked out in full Oktoberfest dress. And even odder – all your German drinking buddies sitting right there in the corner, stein in hand. Well, ISE is starting to feel a little like that. But replace beer with broadcast. Historically, IBC has always been the broadcast show. And ISE the ProAV show. Certainly, the two had similarities, but their ‘beers’, their ‘drinkers’ and their ‘drinking culture’ were always quite distinct. OK, we’ll drop the drinking metaphor now. What we’re getting at is that whilst ISE has not traditionally been a broadcast show, these days it increasingly reflects the direction the industry is heading. The boundaries between broadcast, ProAV, enterprise media and live production continue to blur, while the underlying technologies that support them are becoming remarkably similar. Indeed, we saw a significant number of our broadcast-industry-brethren making themselves comfortable at ISE: some with remarkably big stands and staff presence. That means that for arkona and manifold technologies, ISE 2026 was less about stepping outside our core market and more about meeting customers and partners where that convergence is already happening. Alongside our established presence at major broadcast exhibitions, ISE offered the opportunity to further explore sectors where our technology is already quietly at work. Esports environments, IT-driven media operations and houses of worship are all adopting the same IP-based, software-defined infrastructures that underpin modern broadcast. In particular, we had the opportunity to present two of our biggest case studies of the year, for one of the globe’s biggest eSports events and one of the planet’s biggest tech firms. Let’s just say, the show was a Riot and our technology partners manifold remain the Apple of our eye. What was clear was that regardless of industry, as these ‘alternative’ sectors scale and professionalise their AV operations, their requirements increasingly mirror those of traditional media organisations: flexibility, reliability, efficient resource use and the ability to evolve without wholesale replacement. Conversations in Barcelona confirmed that standards such as SMPTE ST 2110 are no longer confined to television facilities; they are steadily moving into a broader professional AV landscape, orientated around an IP-first infrastructure. In that sense, the EASY-IP concept - reducing complexity while allowing SDI and IP to coexist and evolve at the user’s own pace - resonated strongly with visitors navigating that transition.
The 2025 Partner of the Year award
One of the highlights of the show, however, was less about new opportunities and more about recognising the success of an existing partnership. During ISE, arkona and manifold presented the 2025 Partner of the Year award to Promexar, acknowledging their outstanding work in building the market in Mexico. The relationship with Promexar has developed steadily over several years. According to Promexar CEO Christian Fragoso, a key part of that success has been what he describes as ‘social engineering’ - the patient process of helping engineering teams become comfortable with IP and understand that ST 2110 represents an operational advantage rather than a risk. Flexibility too is a central value proposition: customers appreciate the ability to perform multiple functions within a single platform and adapt resources as operational needs evolve. From arkona’s perspective, the award also recognises the commitment behind the results. Building trust in a new technology approach requires sustained effort, close cooperation and strong local expertise. The engagement and focus demonstrated by the entire Promexar team have been instrumental in securing some of the largest orders we have seen in the region, supported by equally dedicated commissioning and implementation work from our engineering teams in Griesheim.
Booking the Booth for 2027
If there was a common thread running through ISE 2026, it was this: growth rarely comes from dramatic shifts, but from consistent ecosystem development. New markets, new applications and new partners all build on the same foundation - practical technology, clear value and collaboration that extends well beyond the point of sale. As the industry continues to converge, that ecosystem approach will only become more important. For arkona and manifold, ISE reinforced that the opportunity is not simply to enter new sectors, but to bring broadcast-proven thinking into environments that are now facing the same challenges of scale, flexibility and long-term infrastructure evolution. And with planning already underway for 2027, the work of building those connections is very much ongoing.