InfoComm EDGE Collective will demonstrate an approach to connected environments that puts end users at the centre of the design process, bringing together regional organisations, systems integrator Leisung and technology partners including Q-SYS.

The event will take place on 3 November 2026 at Address Sky View in Dubai, showcasing the results of a collaboration in which end users helped define operational requirements and evaluate solutions before they were implemented.

AVIXA chief executive David Labuskes says the initiative was developed around organisational needs rather than technology specifications: “Rather than beginning with technology specifications, the event concept was developed with a different question: What do organisations need their environments to achieve, and how can technology help them perform when it matters most?”

“The result is a fully integrated, immersive experience that demonstrates not only what pro AV can make possible, but how a different approach to collaboration can deliver more intelligent, responsive and resilient environments.”

An End User Council comprising senior industry leaders from across the region helped establish the design brief and identify the operational challenges the activation needed to address.

Council member Mohammad Majid says involving end users early in the design process was essential to ensuring environments met practical operational requirements.

“Everyone designs for the executive walking in at ten in the morning. Almost nobody designs for the technician who must get behind it at seven,” he says.

“Access, labelling, serviceability, whether a component can be swapped without flying in a specialist, those decisions get made in the last 5% of a design and then govern the next ten years of the asset’s life.”

Technology partners, including Q-SYS, subsequently contributed specialist expertise to optimise the environment’s performance. Q-SYS is contributing integrated audio, video and control expertise across the activation, demonstrating how connected technologies can help teams interpret information, develop a shared understanding and make decisions.

The activation will bring together three interconnected environments within a live municipality setting: Command and Control, Operational Collaboration and Engagement and Learning.

Visitors will experience the environments through connected scenarios rather than as separate technology demonstrations. These will explore how a municipality responds to emerging situations, shares information with the relevant people, coordinates teams across different environments and maintains operations when systems come under pressure.

The event aims to demonstrate how integrated technology can support decision-making and operational outcomes while allowing the complexity of the underlying systems to remain largely invisible to users.