Editor’s Note: This article springs from Commercial Integrator’s AV-over-IP Deep Dive report, which includes insights from suppliers like BZBGEAR on where the market is going and how integrators can capitalize.
The question of whether AV signals belong on the network has largely been settled — they do. The harder work is putting AV-over-IP into practice: deciding where it fits, how to secure it and how to deploy it in ways that simplify installations rather than complicating them. BZBGEAR is building its portfolio around that next phase of AV-over-IP adoption.
BZBGEAR on AV-over-IP: Deployment Meets Reality
Modern buildings increasingly arrive with the network infrastructure required to support AV-over-IP, allowing integrators to take advantage of existing Ethernet rather than designing around dedicated video cabling. As BZBGEAR marketing manager Matt Richards explains, integrators can skip the scramble to spec a matrix, source HDMI and figure out how to run it through walls that were never built for it.
That practical perspective reflects how BZBGEAR views the market. The company began as a reseller before becoming a manufacturer in 2019. As a result, BZBGEAR gained firsthand insight into the deployment challenges that integrators face long before developing its own products. “We’ve already seen what people are wanting, what they’re asking for, and we could see a couple holes in the market,” Richards says.
Security Comes Standard
As AV systems become part of enterprise networks, cybersecurity becomes part of the conversation, as well. Every connected device represents another endpoint that must be managed and protected. This makes security an essential consideration rather than a feature reserved for specialized environments. Richards frames encrypted distribution plainly, saying that it’s “less of an afterthought [and] more of a requirement these days.”
How BZBGEAR Brings AV-over-IP Value That Lasts
BZBGEAR’s answer is XLink-ONE, its flagship AV-over-IP platform, designed to bring HDMI 2.1 capabilities to a standard 1GbE network while supporting 4K@120Hz, up to 8K@60Hz, and with less than one frame of end-to-end latency. The approach allows integrators to take advantage of existing network infrastructure and sidesteps the need for a wholesale move to 10GbE, while providing a feature set designed with long-term system evolution in mind.
As AV-over-IP continues to mature, the conversation is shifting from whether the technology works to how effectively it can be deployed, secured and maintained over time. That’s the future-proofing case that BZBGEAR wants integrators to weigh.
Watch the full interview with Matt Richards embedded below.
