NETGEAR®, Inc. has announced NETGEAR Align, NETGEAR’s first AV platform. It offers a hardware foundation designed to consolidate AV infrastructure services, host applications such as the network management platform NETGEAR Engage, and serve as the open layer on which future AV tools can run.
After years as the manufacturer of a preferred switching infrastructure on which AV-over-IP runs, NETGEAR is now building the layer above it, turning AV infrastructure into an open, cloud-managed application platform.
NETGEAR Align makes the AV edge intelligent and programmable: plug-and-play to deploy, manageable from anywhere, and open to third-party apps running securely alongside NETGEAR’s own. It is also the answer to the most requested feature since Engage launched, making it securely accessible from anywhere.
“The Align Controller marks a turning point in how we think about AV infrastructure”, explained Pramod Badjate, President and GM of NETGEAR Enterprise. “NETGEAR has spent the last decade earning its place as the switching foundation for AV-over-IP. Now we are building on that foundation to become a platform. One where integrators can manage deployments remotely, run third-party applications alongside our own, and bring AV and IT management together on a secure platform rather than keeping them in separate silos. Align is the first step in that direction, and the roadmap goes much further.”
As AV networks continue to grow in scale and complexity, integrators are increasingly expected to go above and beyond simple deployment. Customers want ongoing performance assurance, remote support, and guaranteed uptime across environments that are becoming ever more business-critical. Until now, meeting those expectations required assembling solutions from separate components, such as clocking hardware, network service appliances, and management platforms, that were never designed to work together. The result was often unpredictable latency, clock drift, and service conflicts that were hard to trace and even harder to fix.
The Align Controller changes that.
Rather than assembling a patchwork of separate components, integrators get a single purpose-built appliance that handles precision timing, core network services, and AV management in one compact, rack-ready unit. It can plug straight into a switch using PoE++ with no dedicated power circuit required, and it’s ready to run from the moment it’s connected. There is also a backup power supply included if needed.
Most significantly, the Align Controller makes remote AV network management with Engage a reality. It enables secure, remote access for up to five concurrent users, allowing integrators to monitor system health, troubleshoot issues, and support clients without being on-site.
For the first time, the full power of Engage, NETGEAR’s AV network management platform for designing, configuring, and managing deployments, is accessible from anywhere.
“AV integrators have been asking us for a way to access Engage remotely since the day it launched,” said Laurent Masia, Sr. Director Managed Switches & Pro AV at NETGEAR. “The Align Controller delivers that, and it does so as part of a platform that handles all the network services and timing infrastructure an AV-over-IP deployment needs. Instead of assembling separate components and hoping they work together, integrators now have a single purpose-built appliance that handles all of it and gives them the remote reach to build managed service offerings their clients are already asking for.”
The platform is designed to support additional features in the future, making it a foundation that evolves with the installation rather than a single-purpose appliance with a fixed shelf life.
The NETGEAR Align Controller (GB406) will start shipping in August 2026. It will be on live demo at InfoComm Asia Booth A01 in Halls 3 – 4 (July 15–17, Bangkok) and InfoComm India, Booth H27 in Pavilion 1-3 (September 16–18, Mumbai).
