Editor’s Note: NETGEAR announced the announced NETGEAR Align — NETGEAR’s first AV platform — earlier this morning. The following interview dives deeper into the news.
In this exclusive interview with Pramod Badjate, president and general manager, NETGEAR Enterprise, we dive into the company’s InfoComm 2026 show highlights.
During the conversation, he discusses the NETGEAR Align Controller, as well as the company’s ongoing shift from providing hardware to delivering a true platform.
Read on to discover why NETGEAR is turning heads at the show at Booth #N7011.
Commercial Integrator: The NETGEAR Align Controller was one of NETGEAR’s headline announcements at InfoComm this year. What problem does it solve, and why is now the right time to bring it to market?
Pramod Badjate: AV-over-IP deployments have grown significantly in scale and complexity, but the infrastructure supporting them has largely stayed the same: separate hardware for timing, network services, and management, none of it designed to work together. Integrators have been piecing together solutions from multiple vendors and dealing with the consequences: clock drift, latency issues, and management platforms that don’t communicate. At the same time, client expectations have shifted. They want ongoing performance assurance, remote support, and guaranteed uptime.
The NETGEAR Align Controller addresses both of those realities. It consolidates what previously required separate devices into a single purpose-built platform: precision timing, core network services, and AV management – all running natively in one rack unit, powered over PoE++. And for the first time, it gives integrators secure remote access to NETGEAR Engage. That has been the single most-requested feature since Engage launched. The timing is right because the market is ready for it. Integrators are being asked to do more with less, and they need infrastructure built for the way AV operations work today.
Commercial Integrator: Remote access to Engage is clearly a big part of the NETGEAR Align Controller story. What does it change for integrators day-to-day?
Pramod Badjate: Remote Engage access changes the economics of how integrators support their clients. Right now, when something goes wrong on an AV network, the default response is to send someone on-site. That costs time, money, and is not always the fastest path to a resolution. The Align Controller provides integrators with secure remote access for up to 5 concurrent users, so a team can monitor system health, push configuration changes, and troubleshoot issues from anywhere.
Most problems get diagnosed and resolved before they become real downtime. That changes what a service contract looks like. It makes support faster, more scalable, and more profitable, which is good for integrators and better for clients who depend on their AV infrastructure to run reliably.
It also fits into a broader shift we are seeing in the industry, where the value integrators deliver increasingly comes from ongoing managed services rather than the install itself. Remote Engage access is the capability that makes that model practical.
Commercial Integrator: You have talked about NETGEAR moving from providing hardware to delivering a platform. What does that mean in concrete terms, and how does the Align Controller fit into that vision?
Pramod Badjate: For the past decade, NETGEAR has been the switching infrastructure that AV-over-IP runs on. We are proud of that position, but we have always seen it as a foundation, not a destination.
The Align Controller is where we start to build on that foundation in a meaningful way. It runs NETGEAR Engage, including the NETGEAR AV OS. I think it’s important to be clear about what that means. The AV OS is not a management interface layered on top of standard networking software. It is a set of purpose-built capabilities integrated directly into the software to enable reliable, plug-and-play AV deployments. These capabilities include IGMP Plus, which we developed specifically to address how AV traffic behaves on a network. The platform is also designed to expand over time, enabling new functionality as requirements evolve, making it a foundation that evolves with the installation rather than a single-purpose appliance with a fixed shelf life.
The other piece that matters here is our partner ecosystem. We work with over 600 manufacturing partners, and that doesn’t mean we just created profiles in our software. Anyone can do or claim that. We have the test infrastructure behind it: real systems tested against the AV ecosystem to ensure everything works together before an integrator touches it on-site. That validation is what makes the platform credible.
Commercial Integrator: What else has NETGEAR shown at InfoComm, and how does it connect to the same strategic thread?
Pramod Badjate: Beyond the Align Controller, we are showcasing new WiFi 7 access points and switches built specifically for broadcast and high-throughput AV. Those products reflect the same philosophy: the demands of this market are constantly evolving, and staying ahead requires focus. Video continues to scale, from 4K toward 8K and beyond, and that drives greater demand for network throughput and efficiency. Broadcast represents the higher end of that spectrum, and it is a segment where we have seen real traction.
The common thread across everything we are showing is the philosophy of enterprise-grade performance without enterprise-level complexity. Our customers, whether they are deploying a conference room, a broadcast studio, or a large-scale experience center, should not have to pay for features they do not need or assemble solutions from vendors not built for this market. We have spent ten years earning credibility in AV, and what we are announcing at InfoComm is what the next chapter looks like.
Commercial Integrator: Looking further ahead, where do you see AV network infrastructure in three to five years, and what role does NETGEAR intend to play?
Pramod Badjate: I expect the management layer to change fundamentally. AI will reshape how networks are configured, monitored, and supported – moving from dashboards and manual intervention toward systems that are largely self-healing and can push fixes before a client notices an issue. For integrators, that means the value they deliver will increasingly come from the quality of the infrastructure they specify and the service models they build around it, rather than time spent on-site troubleshooting.
NETGEAR’s role in that future is to be the foundation that makes it all possible: reliable hardware, integrated data, and open interfaces that let these systems talk to each other. We also expect AV and IT to continue converging in how networks are managed day-to-day. We are positioned to bridge that gap because we have deep credibility on both sides. The Align Controller is just the beginning of that story.
